Copyright lawyer and Creative Commons co-founder Lawrence Lessig has accused Apple of censoring forum posts in which iPhone users experiencing wifi problems after upgrading to iOS 7 were advised to seek replacement under warranty.

I noted LouLou71’s comment had been deleted. So I reposted it — noting I had thought his comment [that Apple had deleted his earlier post] was a bit paranoid, but anyway, his information was certainly valid. Imagine if we had the same warranty rights in America that Europeans have in Europe! But then, to my utter(ly naive) astonishment, Apple removed my comment …

LouLou71 is the username of a British iPhone owner who had posted the following:

Before I have another post removed I urge all those affected with wifi issues to exercise your rights as I have done as published on apples vet own website. http://www.apple.com/uk/legal/statutory-warranty/ There are far too many of us affected for this to be a coincidence or consumer caused problem, I had a 16gb white 4s purchased in July 2013 and wifi was completely greyed out no matter what fixes I was advised to try. I have been successful in my claim and am now in receipt of a brand new iPhone 5, this was provided to me by the phone shop I signed my O2 contract with last year. Good luck and persevere

Lessig reposted it, and says his post was also removed by Apple, and that the company emailed him to say it had done so “because these posts are not allowed on our forums.”

Lessig was Aaron Swartz’s lawyer, the Reddit partner arrested on fraud charges after making available academic journals downloaded from the JSTOR digital library. Although Swartz had legitimate access to the library, it was alleged that he broke the law in making them freely available online. Swartz committed suicide two days after a plea deal request was denied.

We have asked Apple for a comment and will update if we get a response.

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