Apple on Friday allowed a number of games that had been removed from the iOS App Store for their usage of the Confederate battle flag to return to the store. The flag is considered by many to be a polarizing symbol of racism in the United States.
Game-Labs, whose app Ultimate General: Gettysburg was pulled from the App Store on Thursday, announced it reached an understanding with Apple last night and would consequently restart sales of the American Civil War battle simulator.
“Ultimate General is back. Unchanged,” wrote the developers in a blog post update on Friday. “After several late night phone calls with Apple yesterday and today the game has returned to Appstore the way it was… in 1863.”
In the years following the South’s defeat in the War between the states, the Confederate battle flag stood as a symbol for many as a commemoration of the South’s fallen soldiers. Unfortunately, in the 1940s the flag was used as a call to arms against federal civil rights initiatives.
Apple has stated that it removed only apps that used the Confederate flag in “offensive and mean-spirited” ways, and that those apps depicting the flag for “educational or historical” value remained unaffected.
The racially motivated killing of nine people at a South Carolina church last week has led to a widespread campaign to remove the Confederate flag from government buildings and other public spaces. Some retailers, including Walmart, eBay, and Amazon, have announced they will remove merchandise that carries the Confederate battle flag from their stores and websites.
