Apple News Bans Top Pro-Life News Source, Citing ‘Intolerance’
Mary Margaret Olohan /
Apple News has banned one of the nation’s top pro-life news sources from the platform, saying that the organization displayed “intolerance” toward a specific group.
The Apple News platform, a free news app, banned LifeSite News Wednesday, just two weeks after accepting the pro-life outlet onto the platform. It said the LifeSite News channel did not comply with Apple guidelines and its content showed intolerance “towards a specific group.”
Apple did not provide further reasons when LifeSite News pressed, Editor-in-Chief John-Henry Westen told The Daily Caller News Foundation. Westen said he does not yet know why LifeSite News was kicked off the platform.
“We are a pro-life and pro-family website, so perhaps they think we show intolerance to women because we protect the right to life of the unborn,” Westen said.
“Or maybe because we are pro-family and we believe that marriage is between one man and one woman.”
Apples News sent this message to the news organization:
Apple accepted LifeSite News onto the platform July 14, only a few weeks before telling it the account had been disabled, Westen said.
LifeSite News had continuously applied to publish on Apple News since November 2018, going back and forth with Apple for several months.
The editor-in-chief said there is growing evidence “tech juggernauts” are purposefully censoring mainstream conservative viewpoints.
“Apple’s decision—made unilaterally, and without opportunity to appeal—is frightening,” Westen said, according to LifeSite News.
“It goes without saying that LifeSite would never promote intolerance or hatred against any group,” he said.
“However, in our current divisive political climate, even mild expressions of common conservative viewpoints are often written off as de facto hatred and intolerance. We certainly hope that this is not what Apple is doing.”
Westen added that LifeSite is urging readers to tell Apple that this kind of censorship is unacceptable. The news site has created a petition, which has garnered over 26,000 signatures, demanding that “Apple reinstate LifeSite’s Apple News channel immediately.”
“If anybody is ‘showing intolerance’ here, it is Apple that is showing intolerance towards the millions of people who rely on LifeSite for our news reporting, and who support our pro-life and pro-family values,” Westen told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
Apple did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Daily Caller News Foundation.
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