Overview
- Independent researcher Derik Kauffman published the list this week after reverse‑engineering a hashed table inside iOS and posting the findings on Swipeblocked and GitHub.
- Reuters ran swipe‑typing and autocomplete tests that matched Kauffman’s samples, and engineer Matt Suiche reported a near‑perfect match against Apple data.
- The catalog runs to roughly 100,000 entries across major languages and covers mainly vulgar and sexual terms but also political phrases such as “dictator Trump,” “sleepy Joe,” “Tibetan independence,” and “United Ireland.”
- Apple said the list is not a ban because users can always type words manually or override suggestions, but the company has not published the list, explained its criteria, or added user controls.
- Researchers and civil‑liberties advocates point to inconsistent filtering — for example ‘read smut’ can be swiped but ‘read gay smut’ cannot — and say the practice can subtly shape speech and should be transparent and customizable.