Apple blocks certain words and numbers in iPhone inscription

Apple does not give residents of China, Taiwan and Hong Kong all the freedom to choose a personal iPhone inscription.

If you buy a new iPhone through Apple, you can provide the device with a personal touch. Only through the American tech company itself you get the option to provide the iPhone with an inscription. But did you know that there are rules in some countries for such an inscription?

In China, Hong Kong and Taiwan there are strict rules about what can and cannot be engraved in your iPhone. For example, CitizenLab discovered that there are strict political restrictions. In any case, it is not possible to use offensive, racist language as an inscription. This is not only the case in China, but applies to Apple anyway. However, in the case of China, political restrictions also come into play. Those restrictions also apply to Hong Kong and Taiwan.

There is no official list of restrictions. According to CitizenLab, however, there are at least 1,045 banned words or numbers in China. By comparison, there are 170 prohibited combinations in the United States. Chinese words banned as iPhone inscription translate to “human rights”, “politics” and “democracy”. Numbers are also sometimes out of the question. For example, 8964, a reference to the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing in the late 1980s.

In principle, these are requests from the authorities. Apple doesn’t have to abide by this. However, from a business perspective, Apple respects local requests.