Are Apple’s policies hostile to free speech, conservatives, and religious viewpoints? Thanks to the SEC, the company’s shareholders will finally be able to vote on and discuss these issues.

From WORLD. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is backing shareholders who are protesting anti-religious and anti-conservative bias in Apple’s app store.

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The American Family Association (AFA) submitted a resolution for Apple shareholders to vote on at their 2024 annual meeting in the spring. The resolution calls for more accountability and transparency from Apple, said Jeremy Tedesco, senior counsel and senior vice president of corporate engagement at Alliance Defending Freedom. According to Tedesco, Apple attempted to bar AFA’s resolution from the ballot, but last week’s SEC ruling ensures a vote will occur.

“If Apple is committed to free speech, and if they are the gatekeepers to what has essentially become today’s public square, we need them to have policies in place that protect the free flow of information,” Tedesco said. “That’s not what they have. … They have policies in place that allow for rampant viewpoint discrimination.”

Apple’s terms of service say that the tech company “will reject apps for any content or behavior that we believe is over the line. What line, you ask? Well, as a Supreme Court justice once said, ‘I’ll know it when it see it.’ And we think that you will also know it when you cross it.” …

“That’s actually their policy language. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s probably the most inconsistent with free speech from a policy perspective [that] I’ve seen from a social media and tech company,” Tedesco said. …

The App Store guidelines provide a breakdown of types of objectionable content. But some phrases, like “inflammatory religious commentary” or “harmful concepts which capitalize or seek to profit on recent or current events,” leave considerable room for interpretation. …

In 2010, Apple removed the Manhattan Declaration app, which promoted traditional marriage and pro-life views, for “being offensive to large groups of people.” Then in 2019, Apple banned a pro-life news organization, LifeSite News, for displaying “intolerance towards a specific group.”

Additionally, Apple removed popular Bible and Quran apps from its Chinese app store at the request of country officials in 2021. …

Big tech has controlled what can and can’t be said for far too long now. Share your prayers for free speech in the comments below.

(Excerpt from WORLD. Photo Credit: Trac Vu on Unsplash)