‘Dictator Trump’: Apple blocks 100,000 words and phrases from iPhone keyboards

The hidden restrictions affect suggestions and swipe-typing on iPhone keyboards in several languages. However, users can still manually type these words and phrases in messages and emails.

Apple maintains hidden list of restricted words

Independent researcher Derik Kauffman discovered that Apple has an undisclosed list of words and phrases that its iOS keyboard generally avoids suggesting. The list reportedly contains tens of thousands of entries, including offensive language, political expressions and terms related to drugs, sex and violence.

The list does not prevent users from writing whatever they want on their devices. Instead, it stops certain words from appearing through autocomplete and swipe-typing, a feature that allows users to write by moving their fingers across the keyboard.

The discovery has raised questions about how Apple decides which words should be suggested to users. Since hundreds of millions of people use iPhones worldwide, these choices could influence how people communicate.

Among the restricted English phrases are “dictator Trump” and “sleepy Joe”. Other examples include “right wing conspiracy”, “Tibetan independence” and “United Ireland”.

Apple did not directly confirm the size or exact contents of the list when contacted by email. However, the company said its keyboard was designed to avoid suggesting words that could be inappropriate or offensive.

Political phrases restricted in different languages

Kauffman found that the restrictions also cover political and controversial expressions in languages other than English. Different languages have their own lists of words and phrases that the keyboard avoids suggesting.

In Hindi, users reportedly cannot swipe-type “Modi braggart” or “Rahul is Pappu”. These expressions target Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his main political opponent, Rahul Gandhi.

In French, the phrase “immigration too high” is reportedly restricted from swipe-typing. Hebrew users also face restrictions on the phrase “occupied territories”.

“Every major language has some version of this,” Kauffman said. His findings suggest that Apple's filtering system operates across several major languages rather than being limited to English.

Kauffman said he understood why Apple wanted to prevent users from accidentally sending offensive messages or inflammatory political statements. However, he questioned why some similar expressions were allowed while others were blocked.

For example, he found that users could swipe-type “read smut” but not “read gay smut”. He described the system as a form of limited censorship that could have a wider effect because of Apple's huge user base.

“It’s a very light-touch form of censorship,” Kauffman said. “But at the scale that Apple is operating, it only takes a light touch to have a big impact.”

Researcher discovers hidden list inside iOS

Kauffman said he first noticed the issue in September when his iPhone keyboard repeatedly struggled with certain phrases during swipe-typing. Expressions such as “bad boy” and “white man” caused problems, while “bad girl” and “black man” worked normally.

This unusual behaviour made him investigate how Apple's predictive text system worked. He used OpenAI's Codex and Anthropic's Claude Code to examine the issue and eventually found a large collection of restricted words inside Apple's operating system.

Kauffman said the list was stored deep within the iOS software. He estimated that it contained around 100,000 words and phrases, including different variations, although Chinese characters were not included in that estimate.

The researcher explained that the total number could vary depending on how individual words and their different forms were counted. However, even his conservative estimate showed that the list was much larger than a small collection of offensive terms.

Tests reveal problems with everyday phrases

Reuters tested some of the phrases identified by Kauffman on an iPhone and found that they were difficult to enter through swipe-typing or were not suggested by autocomplete. These tests provided further support for his findings.

For example, attempting to swipe-type “United Ireland” often produced “United Iceland” instead. Similarly, “Tibetan independence” sometimes appeared as “Tibetan independences”.

The phrase “white man” also produced an unexpected result, with the keyboard suggesting “white mean”. However, phrases such as “red man” and “blue man” could be entered without difficulty.

These examples show how predictive text restrictions can affect ordinary typing beyond simply blocking offensive language. They may also create confusion when users try to write political, cultural or social expressions.

Apple said users could always type specific words and phrases manually or ignore the keyboard's suggestions. However, the company did not explain why particular political expressions were included in the hidden list.

Apple's discovery has raised an important question about the limits of technology companies in controlling digital communication. Preventing offensive suggestions may protect users, but blocking political and social expressions can also create concerns about censorship.

The biggest issue is the lack of transparency about how these words are selected. Apple may need to explain its rules more clearly so users can understand why certain expressions are restricted while similar ones are allowed.

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