The Simon Wiesenthal Center is calling on Apple to remove a Spanish-language thesaurus app that uses offensive antisemitic stereotypes in some of its results.
The app, called “iSinónimos,” is free through Apple’s iTunes and after downloading, it first appears to be a standard Spanish thesaurus. Type in the word judío (Jew) and the synonyms that iSinónimos provide include: avaro (miser); roñoso (mangy); cicatero (tightwad) tacaño (stingy), among others. Similarly, in results from any of these words, one of the first synonyms is judío (Jew).
“Unfortunately, Apple did not respond to initial complaints from the community protesting iSinónimos’ online bigotry. The most successful company in the 21st Century should not allow its iTunes store to serve as a digital bridge to hateful and dangerous anti-Jewish stereotypes dating back to Medieval times,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. “We urge Apple to immediately delete iSinónimos’ app,” he added.
According to Apple’s guidelines, applications “containing references or commentary about a religious, cultural or ethnic group that are defamatory, offensive, [and] mean-spirited… will be rejected.” Last year, after Wiesenthal Center protests, Apple removed the violent anti-Israel “Third Intifada” app citing the same guidelines.
