Tech
Apple has a secret list of banned autocomplete phrases including ‘dictator Trump’ and ‘covid is a hoax’
Reading in data-saving mode. Read full article from The Verge website.
Published 11/6/2026 9:10:28 AM
Apple has a secret list of banned autocomplete phrases including ‘dictator Trump’ and ‘covid is a hoax’
iOS’s keyboard won’t suggest or swipe-type a lengthy list of insults and political phrases.
iOS’s keyboard won’t suggest or swipe-type a lengthy list of insults and political phrases.
A researcher found over 100,000 words and phrases in “every major language” that are blocked from autocomplete and swipe-type in iOS, Reuters reports. The researcher, Derik Kauffman, says you can still type the words on the blocklist one letter at a time. But they won’t pop up as predictive text suggestions and iOS’s keyboard may automatically alter them when swipe-typing, like changing “left wing conspiracy” to “left wrong conspiracy.”
Kauffman posted the full list online, including the individual lists for different languages.
Most of the words and phrases on the list are offensive, slurs, or related to topics like sex and drugs. But it also contains political phrases like “illegal immigrant,” “dictator Trump,” “sleepy Joe,” “covid was a hoax,” and “left wing conspiracy” as well as some less controversial phrases like “Santa isn’t real” and “iMessage isn’t working.” Kauffman found some discrepancies on the list, too, where one phrase is blocked while its counterpart isn’t, such as blocking “bad girl” but not “bad boy.”
According to Reuters, Kauffman used OpenAI’s Codex and Anthropic’s Claude Code to help find the list “deep in the bowels” of iOS. On his website, Kauffman says the phrase list was stored as a hash table, which he was able to convert back to text. Another researcher told Reuters they were able to independently obtain the same list. Apple told Reuters that its keyboard is designed to avoid potentially inappropriate or offensive suggestions, but iPhone users can still type in what they want, or override predictive text suggestions. “Apple did not immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment.
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The EU Commission says TikTok’s ‘rabbit hole’ effect can pose harm to users.
The EU Commission says TikTok’s ‘rabbit hole’ effect can pose harm to users.
The European Commission claims TikTok broke its online platform rules by offering a recommendation algorithm that creates a “rabbit hole effect” on users. In an announcement on Friday, the regulators allege TikTok’s algorithm can harm users with “endless and repeated exposure” to content related to sadness, isolation, or body image.
The findings come months after the EU Commission declared that TikTok’s design is too “addictive.” While TikTok has implemented controls to mitigate the algorithm’s “rabbit hole effect,” the Commission says its preliminary findings suggest that they’re not effective. TikTok must now change the design of its For You feed, or else face fines of up to 6 percent of its global annual turnover. The platform is also facing pressure in the US, with lawmakers and a wave of lawsuits raising concerns about child safety.
Since enacting the Digital Services Act in 2023 — a set of rules that hold tech companies legally accountable for their impact on users— the EU Commission has targeted several companies for allegedly violating the regulations, including X, Meta, Temu, and AliExpress. As reported by Politico, this is the first time the Commission has cited a recommendation algorithm as the reason for a breach.
“Every time a user scrolls or likes a video on TikTok, the algorithm serves more of the same leading users down rabbit holes they cannot easily escape from,” Henna Virkkunen, the EU Commission’s executive vice president of tech sovereignty, security, and democracy, says in the press release. “Today’s preliminary findings show again that TikTok needs to step up its efforts to protect users’ well-being, including those of minors.”
