Revealed: The 'grey list' of words and phrases your iPhone refuses to autocomplete for you - including 'male chauvinist pig', 'Trump dictator', and 'I'm gay'

Your iPhone has a 'grey list' of words and phrases that Apple refuses to autocomplete or swipe–type for you, a researcher has revealed.Although the words on this list aren't outright banned and can still be typed manually, they won't be suggested to users in autocomplete in most cases.Derik Kauffman, the researcher who found this list, estimates that there are about 100,000 entries.The vast majority of the phrases are related to sex, drugs and violence, but the list also restricts dozens of political expressions.If you try to type 'Trump dictator' or 'sleepy Joe' – a jibe against former president Joe Biden – your iPhone will refuse to autocomplete the sentence.Other banned terms refer to international disputes, with phrases such as 'Kashmir issue', 'Tibetan independence', 'United Ireland', and even 'illegal immigrant' all facing restrictions.Mr Kauffman told Reuters: 'It's a very light–touch form of censorship. But at the scale that Apple is operating, it only takes a light touch to have a big impact.' Your iPhone has a 'grey list' of words and phrases that Apple refuses to autocomplete or swipe–type for you, a researcher has revealed. Pictured: Words and phrases that have been altered by Apple's autocomplete Some of the words and phrases on Apple's 'grey list' Political phrases sleepy JoeTibetan independenceTrayvon MartinKashmir disputeUnited IrelandTaiwan is countryTamil homelandMuslim extremistdictator Trumpillegal immigrantmake America great againhomosexuality is a sinsupport gaysNazis were goodInsultsBible thumpermale chauvinist pigson of a b****trailer trashtree huggerSex referencesbooty callcunning linguistsend nudessixty ninewatching pornF*** his sisterf*** his wifef*** meDrug referencesa lot of weed score some weed roach clip puff puff pass rolled MDMA meth headmeth lab blew some coke Mr Kauffman discovered the list in September after noticing that swipe–typing – gliding the finger over the keyboard rather than pressing letters individually – stuttered over certain words.The researcher noticed that his iPhone would stumble over phrases like 'bad boy' or 'white man', but not over 'bad girl' and 'black man'.Curious, Mr Kauffman used a combination of AI tools to search through Apple's code, eventually finding a compendium of restricted words 'deep in the bowels' of the iPhone operating system.The list may have been intended to prevent people from accidentally typing rude or inflammatory phrases, but there are some unusual inconsistencies.For example, Mr Kauffman found that Apple won't autocomplete the phrase 'read gay smut' but will allow the phrase 'read smut'.Similarly, Apple will not allow users to swipe–type the phrases 'questioning my sexuality', 'I'm gay', or 'support gays'.However, English is not the only language with a 'grey list' of restricted words.'Every major language has some version of this,' says Mr Kauffman.In Hindi, iPhone users are restricted from typing the phrases 'Modi braggart' or 'Rahul is Pappu', criticism of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his opponent, Rahul Gandhi.Similarly, French speakers could not swipe–type the phrases 'immigration too high' or 'termination of pregnancy'.French speakers were also restricted in typing 'Kristallnacht', the German name for the state–backed anti–Jewish pogrom across Austria and Nazi Germany in 1938.Meanwhile, Mr Kauffman noted that Hebrew speakers were not able to swipe–type the phrase 'occupied territories'. Although the words on this list aren't outright banned and can still be typed manually, they won't be suggested to users in autocomplete in most casesMatt Suiche, from the AI cyber–security ⁠company Tolmo, claims that he was able to independently recreate the same grey list from Apple's software.Cross–referenced against Mr Kauffman's discovery, this examination of Apple's internal data yielded a near–perfect match.Mr Suiche said this was a look at how 'human communication has been potentially influenced and filtered for years inside messaging apps.The Daily Mail has contacted Apple for comment.This is not the first time that Apple's autocorrect features have caused controversy.Last year, social media users were surprised to find that the iPhone's speech–to–text system would type out the word 'Trump' when users said 'racist'.While Apple claimed that the error arose from an issue in the speech recognition model, many experts suggested that it was likely the result of a deliberate change.A former Apple employee, who worked on the Siri AI assistant, even told the New York Times that the incident 'smells like a serious prank'.