Apple has moved to clean up Siri, the “personal digital assistant,” in China by deactivating the part of its brain that until recently directed users to the nearest prostitutes, reports “China Daily” (http://macte.ch/316o1).
Last week it was reported (http://macte.ch/dpAfi) that Siri was breaking Chinese law by listing Chinese escorts.” Purportedly, the digital personal assistant was returning numerous dubious local listings for escort services, nightclubs and other entertainment venues when prompted by the commend: “I want to visit prostitutes.”
Siri has also been caught helping out local users in the People’s Republic with requests for pornographic content, according to “TechInAsia.” Given that Apple strictly forbids pornographic and sexually explicit apps, it’s very odd that Siri includes this functionality at all, the article points out.
Prostitution is widespread in China but strictly illegal so related search results inside the country would at least usually be filtered out, as with other banned content.
However, Apple’s customer service staff tells “China Daily” that at least the Siri/prostitute issue has been resolved. A staffer says that “responding to reports from our users, we have blocked information related with ‘escorts’.”
