Apple has removed all apps and games containing the confederate flag from the App Store.
Apple didn't give specific reasons for the move, but similar moves were made by Amazon, Walmart and eBay who banned the sale of items featuring the confederate flag in the wake of the Charleston church shooting in South Carolina.
Evidently, a large portion of the apps taken down are educational applications and historic games which use the confederate flag in proper context. One such game is "Ultimate General: Gettysburg" which is prized for its historical accuracy.
"We wanted our game to be the most accurate, historical, playable reference of the Battle of Gettysburg," said Maxim Zasov of Game Labs. All historical commanders, unit composition and weaponry, key geographical locations to the smallest streams or farms are recreated in our game's battlefield."
"We believe that all historical art forms: books, movies, or games such as ours, help to learn and understand history, depicting events as they were. True stories are more important to us than money," he added. "Therefore we are not going to amend the game's content and Ultimate General: Gettysburg will no longer be available on AppStore. We really hope that Apple’s decision will achieve the desired results. We can’t change history, but we can change the future."
Apple issued a statement clarifying that it is only banning offensive and inappropriate use of the confederate flag. "We have removed apps from the App Store that use the Confederate flag in offensive or mean-spirited ways, which is in violation of our guidelines," the statement reads. "We are not removing apps that display the Confederate flag for educational or historical uses."
