An example of the Jerusalem flag bug in iMessage for iOS.
Apple’s second iOS 17.5 developer beta has fixed a bug that showed the Palestinian flag in the predictive text system when users typed in “Jerusalem.”
At the same time, searching for Jerusalem in emoji search came up with the same result. However, the problem only existed for some users using specific languages, such as British English.
At the time, Apple confirmed it was aware of a bug in predictive emoji, and that it would be fixed in the next update.
The existence of the bug, most likely due to Apple’s analysis of texts from millions by its machine learning systems, led to social outcry and claims of antisemitism, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine.
