Apple removes games that glorify the Philippine drug war from its App Store

[midian182]

Apple has removed a number of games from the App Store that saw players take on the role of Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte or police chief Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa as they kill criminals. A regional drug users’ advocacy group said the titles glamorized the government’s war on drugs, which has seen nearly 12,000 killings, at least 2555 of which have been attributed to the Philippine National Police.

The Asian Network of People who Use Drugs (ANPUD) sent Apple CEO Tim Cook an open letter last month asking for an apology for hosting insensitive content and the removal of games including "Duterte knows Kung Fu: Pinoy Crime Fighter," which “normalize mass murders.”

ANPUD said the games "actively promoted the war on people who use drugs in the Philippines. Some of these games had been downloaded by over a million iPhone users. These games had to be removed immediately." 131 other organizations lent their support to the cause by signing the letter.

"We did not receive a direct response from Mr Cook or Apple," the group said in a statement. "However, most of the apps no longer appear."

Ronald dela Rosa, who is a playable character in some of the games, told the Philippine Star that their removal was not a good idea and that the country's operation to tackle drug users was not about killing or the use of violence.

"They made the wrong interpretation. Tokhang [the name of the operation] is not about shooting people," he told reporters, adding that it actually involved knocking on the doors of suspects’ homes and urging them to stop their illegal activities.

Although the games have been removed from Apple’s store, they still appear on the Google Play store.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/72088-apple-removes-several-games-app-store-glorify-philippine.html

 

[Ean Mogg]

Judge, Jury and Executioner but he don't get his hands dirty when I was young they were called Death Squads led by Psycho's ....nothing changes .. bring back Marcos ,,, if anyone is doing wrong they should be arrested not shot in handcuffs ..

 

[skipmichael]

Over 50,000 drug overdose deaths in the USA. What's it going to take 50 million deaths before you wake up. In the Philipines, thousands of drug dealers killing thousands of innocent people required a drastic stance. Durterte took it and the drugees and drug dealers whine.

 

[Kenrick]

Whoever *****s siding up with the criminals should be the first to go. I once listened to Duterte's speech and I know some people and workmates that once live there and they whole-fully support the current president. He said in his speech that drugs is killing the new generation and he will eliminate these drug users, distributors, and manufacturers. Now thats a badass leader and not a p*ussy leaders we currently have around the world getting involve in senseless drama. Some people say he is the only man who can change that country and majority of people living there agree with his policies. They don't care about what and how the media portray the crackdown against these criminals.