News spread like wildfire yesterday about Apple banning the sale of Saga #12 due to it containing graphic imagery of gay sex, even if the images were relatively small. Now, it turns out that ComiXology is lifting the blame form Apple and putting it on itself instead. Today, ComiXology CEO David Steinberger posted the following announcement on the company’s blog:
To our customers –
In the last 24 hours there has been a lot of chatter about Apple banning Saga #12 from our Comics App on the Apple App Store due to depictions of gay sex. This is simply not true, and we’d like to clarify.
As a partner of Apple, we have an obligation to respect its policies for apps and the books offered in apps. Based on our understanding of those policies, we believed that Saga #12 could not be made available in our app, and so we did not release it today.
We did not interpret the content in question as involving any particular sexual orientation, and frankly that would have been a completely irrelevant consideration under any circumstance.
Given this, it should be clear that Apple did not reject Saga #12.
After hearing from Apple this morning, we can say that our interpretation of its policies was mistaken. You’ll be glad to know that Saga #12 will be available on our App Store app soon.
We apologize to Saga creator Brian K. Vaughan and Image Comics for any confusion this may have caused.
All the best,
David Steinberger
CEO and co-founder
comiXology
The confusing part being that after delivering 12 issues of a comic which has featured far raunchier, potentially offensive, material and all under the mature reader tag, one can not help but wonder, what about this issue would give anyone, Apple or ComiXology, pause enough to consider censoring it?
Perhaps Apple was less than thrilled about the negative rumors circulating about its alleged censorship and “after hearing from Apple this morning,” ComiXology was inspired to make it right. Whether taking the blame was an act of contrition or human shielding, ComiXology comes off looking less than awesome.
Steinberger’s lame excuse and assumption of blame, intentionally or not, makes ComiXology a magnet for all the negativity accumulated in the last 24hours. Basic principle of internet physics: Outrage over censorship can’t be created or destroyed; it can only be transferred from one target to the next.
However, on the other side of the argument, the depictions of the sexual acts are extremely graphic, whether they’re of a homosexual or heterosexual nature. The decision from Apple and/or ComiXology is likely based more on the extreme nature of the acts rather than the sexual orientation. Judge for yourself though by checking out the images below that spawned this decision and the ensuing controversy. You should obviously be aware that there are explicit sexual images, small as they may be, in the pictures.
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