From ‘Dictator Trump’ to ‘bad boy’: Inside Apple’s secret list of 100,000 words your iPhone won't autofill

Apple maintains an undisclosed multilingual list of tens of thousands of words and phrases that its iPhone keyboard avoids suggesting through predictive text, autocorrect and swipe-typing features, according to a Reuters report citing an independent researcher.

The list, described as a digital 'grey list', reportedly contains nearly 100,000 words and their variations, although it does not prevent users from manually typing them in messages, emails or other applications.

The discovery has raised questions about how Apple decides which words should appear in keyboard suggestions and how the technology balances preventing offensive language with accurately predicting what users intend to type.

According to researcher Derik Kauffman, who discovered the list, most flagged expressions are vulgar or offensive or relate to drugs, sex and violence. However, the list also includes politically sensitive phrases and expressions concerning political leaders, immigration and territorial disputes.

Apple has not publicly disclosed the existence or contents of the list.

Political phrases and expressions flagged by Apple

Among the English-language expressions reportedly excluded from predictive text suggestions are 'dictator Trump', 'sleepy Joe', 'right wing conspiracy', 'Tibetan independence' and 'United Ireland'.

The list also contains expressions in several other languages, with different words flagged depending on the language being used.

In Hindi, for instance, the iPhone keyboard reportedly does not allow users to swipe-type 'Modi braggart' or 'Rahul is Pappu'. These expressions are derogatory references to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, respectively.

Other examples cited by Kauffman include the French phrase 'immigration too high', which French-language users reportedly cannot swipe-type, and 'occupied territories', which is flagged in Hebrew.

"Every major language has some version of this," Kauffman said.

Apple told Reuters that users have always been able to type specific words and phrases manually and override predictive text suggestions. The company said its keyboard is designed to avoid suggesting language that could be inappropriate or offensive.

"It's a very light-touch form of censorship," Kauffman said. "But at the scale that Apple is operating, it only takes a light touch to have a big impact."

Researcher finds inconsistencies in Apple's word filtering

Kauffman said he understood Apple's intention to prevent users from accidentally sending obscene messages or inflammatory expressions. However, he questioned the consistency with which the company applies its filtering system.

For example, the researcher found that users could swipe-type 'read smut', but the keyboard restricted the phrase 'read gay smut'.

Similarly, 'bad boy' and 'white man' reportedly created difficulties during swipe-typing, while 'bad girl' and 'black man' worked without similar problems.

These differences have raised questions about the criteria Apple uses to determine which expressions should be excluded from its keyboard suggestions.

How was Apple's secret word list discovered?

Kauffman said he stumbled upon the list in September after noticing unusual interruptions while using the iPhone's swipe-typing feature.

Swipe-typing allows users to enter words by moving their fingers continuously across the keyboard rather than tapping individual letters.

He noticed that the feature struggled with certain combinations, including 'bad boy' and 'white man', prompting him to investigate the reason.

The researcher subsequently used OpenAI's Codex and Anthropic's Claude Code to examine the operating system and identify the source of the problem.

His investigation eventually uncovered a collection of restricted expressions embedded deep within Apple's operating system.

Kauffman estimated that the list contained approximately 100,000 words and phrases, including their various permutations, although the figure excludes Chinese characters.

Reuters tests Apple's iPhone keyboard

Reuters independently tested a small selection of the expressions identified by Kauffman and found that they were difficult to enter using swipe-typing or were not offered through autocomplete.

For example, attempts to swipe-type 'United Ireland' frequently produced 'United Iceland', while 'Tibetan independence' resulted in 'Tibetan independences'.

Similarly, 'white man' was sometimes converted into 'white mean', and 'sleepy Joe' produced 'Sleepy hope'.

The phrase 'dictator Trump' could be entered through swipe-typing, but the keyboard did not suggest it through autocomplete. Instead, it offered 'dictator trumps'.

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