Apple has recently pulled two albums of neo-Nazi sentiment from its German installation of iTunes after being informed by technology publication Computerbild of the offensive content.
Two albums from the German neo-Nazi band, Landser, had recently been discovered on the German iTunes store. The group had been banned by a federal court in 2005 for brazenly racist songs with titles the likes of “Polacken Tango” (Polack Tango) and “Zigeunerpack” (Gypsy Vermin). Despite their mysterious iTunes appearance, the content had been taken down by Apple a mere two hours after being notified of the issue. When questioned about the mishap, an Apple spokesperson stated, “This has never happened on iTunes before,” he said. “I don’t know how it made it into the store. We do not tolerate this kind of content.”
Computerbild maintains that this may be just one of many instances of radical content that is becoming more prevalent online. Social networking giant, Myspace, along with Last.fm, a UK based internet radio and music community, have faced recent bouts with objectionable content matter and publicly state there avid attempts to remove it.
Jugendschutz, a German youth protection agency, is working to combat openly racist content, yet has reported hundreds of instances racial intolerance and propaganda. A Jugendschutz spokesperson revealed to German site, The Local, that “the right-wing extremist scene has long identified with and used music to exercise their influence on young people,” the organization said in a statement. “The internet helps bring right-wing music with racist messages to the world.”
While one can commend Apple for their diligence in the matter, you have to wonder how these two albums were able to make it through the door in the first place. As we have been made painfully aware, Apple has posed a near threat to applications developers by instituting a seemingly mysterious method of approval to be accepted into the App Store. Yet somehow a band notorious for their distasteful (to say the least) content was able to slip through the cracks. At the same time, Apple does explicitly convey their stance on objectionable material, as the third point of the iTunes store Terms of Service states:
You understand that by using the Service, you may encounter content that may be deemed offensive, indecent, or objectionable, which content may or may not be identified as having explicit language. Nevertheless, you agree to use the Service at your sole risk and that Apple shall have no liability to you for content that may be found to be offensive, indecent, or objectionable. Content types (including genres, sub-genres and Podcast categories and sub-categories and the like) and descriptions are provided for convenience, and you acknowledge and agree that Apple does not guarantee their accuracy.
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