Apple iOS Keyboard Blocks 100,000+ Phrases From Autocomplete

What is on the list

Most entries are offensive terms, slurs, or words tied to topics such as sex and drugs. The list also includes political phrases, among them "illegal immigrant," "dictator Trump," "sleepy Joe," "covid was a hoax" and "left wing conspiracy." Some harmless lines appear too, such as "Santa isn't real" and "iMessage isn't working."

Kauffman also found inconsistencies. "Bad girl" is blocked, for instance, while "bad boy" is not.

How it was found

According to Kauffman, he used OpenAI's Codex and Anthropic's Claude Code to help locate the list deep inside iOS. It was stored as a hash table, which he converted back into readable text. A second researcher told Reuters they independently obtained the same list.

Apple told Reuters that the keyboard is designed to avoid potentially inappropriate or offensive suggestions, and that iPhone users can still type whatever they want or override predictive text suggestions.

The findings raise questions about how much control a platform holder exerts over everyday writing tools, especially where political language is involved. Apple has not explained why specific political phrases or seemingly neutral lines were included, and the inconsistencies in the list suggest it was not applied evenly.