How was Apple involved in the Israeli-Palestinian war?

One emoji was enough to get Apple involved in the Israeli-Palestinian war. The Cupertino company came under fire after it emerged that iPhone users searching for an emoji for the city of Jerusalem were seeing the Palestinian flag as a result.

Apple was quick to clarify that this change was not intentional and was made after a recent software update. He also confirmed that the problem will be resolved in a future software update, without specifying when.

Israeli TV presenter Rachel Riley accused Apple of anti-Semitism, stressing that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. Also note that no other search in Capital returns the country's flag.

my dear @apple @AppleSupport @tim_cook

I just upgraded my software to iOS 17.4.1, and now, when I type the capital of Israel 🇮🇱, Jerusalem, I'm presented with a Palestinian flag emoji. 🇵🇸 This did not happen on my phone right before this update.

Below is… pic.twitter.com/Cw9TDmE6VD

– Rachel Riley MBE 💙 (@RachelRileyRR) April 9, 2024

According to Apple, the issue arose from a feature called “predictive emoji,” where iPhones can suggest emojis over words typed in Messages and other apps.

Jerusalem is considered one of the most hot-button issues between Israelis and Palestinians. Israel considers all of Jerusalem its capital, while the Palestinians consider the eastern part of it the capital of their future state.

This is not the first time the technology giant has been involved in this conflict. Last year, Meta was forced to apologize after a programming error added the term “terrorist” to the bios of some Instagram users who said they were Palestinian. Meta fixed the problem that”Temporarily causing inappropriate Arabic translations“.