Apple has blocked some searches with the word ‘Asian’, and now it’s being fixed

According to a new report from Mashable. The problem appears when you are using a device that has the “Limit adult websites” content restriction enabled. But it’s not just about blocking adult websites; it blocks almost all searches related to asian culture including “asian market”, “asian culture” and even “stop asian hate”.

The edge was able to confirm that the above searches were blocked on devices running current versions of Apple software (iPadOS 14.4.1 and macOS 11.2.3) with content restrictions enabled. Searches are blocked on Safari and Chrome on iOS devices, but Chrome was able to perform them on macOS. Devices with no content restrictions enabled can search and receive results.

The good news is that the problem should be resolved soon. Searches work on devices running iOS 14.5 beta, Mashable reports. Still, it’s ridiculous that it took so long to fix: there is problem reports from February 2020, and that shouldn’t have been a problem in the first place. Of course, creating a filter for adult content is extremely difficult, but blocking out almost entirely a word used to describe 60% of the world’s population is obviously incorrect.

In current, non-beta software, the filter behaves in a very strange way. “Asian restaurants” are blocked on macOS but not on iOS, while “Asian dishes” are blocked on both. And while the problem has been around for some time, it’s particularly embarrassing for Apple at this time, when anti-Asian sentiment and violence are on the rise. It’s good to see that this should be fixed in future versions of iOS, but it shouldn’t have taken that long.