Creative commons founder Lawrence "Larry" Lessig has accused Apple of deleting messages from its user forums that criticise an apparent Wi-Fi disabling software bug in iOS 7.
Writing on his blog, Lessig described his "astonishment" in witnessing the deletion of a message that another user had posted discussing a number of Apple devices that were apparently afflicted by a mysterious bug that "greys out" access to Wi-Fi after upgrading to iOS 7.0.3
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In the message, the user urged affected users to "exercise your rights" and act on Apple's statutory warranty agreements to demand a new handset.
After the message had been removed, Lessig reposted it, having taken a copy earlier, but soon found his own post removed, followed by a message from Apple itself accusing him of posting "a poll or petition".
"We understand the desire to share experiences in your topic, 'Re: wifi greyed out after update to iOS7 ,' but because these posts are not allowed on our forums, we have removed it," said the message.
"These forums are intended for technical questions that can be answered by the community. We want everyone to be able to contribute to our forums and have their issues addressed. We feel that we have a very strong community and that it is an excellent resource for users to get assistance. I encourage you to continue using the Apple Support Communities while abiding by our terms of use."
In his blog, Lessig strongly disagrees with the above notion, stating that, "What's striking about the comments on the Apple community site is the frustration - frustration because of Apple's apparent policy not to respond to comments. Unlike really helpful companies which try to reward people who spend time making community boards the best source for technical support by engaging with posts, and at least acknowledging the problems, Apple's policy seems to be a 'never comment' policy."
This, says Lessig, "leads its users - and again, people who are volunteering their time to help lower Apple's customer support cost - to express increasing exasperation at the unanswered problems."
Do you use Apple's user forums, and have you experienced similar problems with the company's willingness to communicate? Let us know in the comments section below.
