Apple censors Pride watch face in Russia

Apple is manually blocking users in Russia from selecting a ‘Pride’ face for their Apple Watch.

The company released a rainbow-themed Pride watch face for smartphone users in May 2018 to complement its Pride Edition watch strap.

However, soon after the launch of the background option, fans began to complain that it was not shown as an option for all users.

It has today been revealed that the company appears to have hard coded the restriction, meaning any user who sets their device’s region to Russia will automatically have the option disabled – even if they have not actually travelled to Russia.

iOS developer Guilherme Rambo confirmed: “The Apple Watch pride face is hardcoded to not show up if the paired iPhone is using the Russian locale.”

The Verge demonstrated the issue, showing the option disappearing from the Watch menu when a user’s region is changed to Russia.

Apple’s pride Watch face simply disappears in Russia https://t.co/Pn1c8o9c8y pic.twitter.com/1wRDbFVqIt

— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) August 31, 2018

Russia maintains a law banning the “promotion of non-traditional sexual relations to minors,” though human rights watchdogs say that in reality the law has been exploited by authorities to clamp down on LGBT+ rights organising and censor any mention of LGBT+ issues.