My name is Ian Thompson. I am a 15 year old app developer from South Carolina. A couple years ago, when I was 13, I decided to take my love for computes to a whole new level and do something that I've always wanted to do; make an app.

I downloaded Xcode (the application we use to make iOS apps) onto my computer, fired up the good ol' YouTube, and started creating my first app. Let me tell you: it was horrible. The big trend was to play Flappy Bird. With this in mind, I followed a tutorial on how to make a Flappy Bird clone. It was like the real game if you don't mind the terrible graphics, and the odd animations, or if you squint real hard and tilt your head at a 90 degree angle. But I was happy.

Since then, I have released two apps on the App Store. OrangeBlock and Click Quick! If you were to download them, you would be pretty disgusted by how awful the graphics are, but as I said, I am a programmer, not a designer.

Back in June of 2016, I thought of a great idea for an app. In this hypothetical app, you would play as Hillary Clinton's secretary. Your job was to decide wether or not to delete emails based on wether or not they were government related or personal. A couple of weeks later, this hypothetical app turned into a real app. Compared to my other apps, it was far better. In August, after touching up somethings and adding some features, I submitted my app, called Hillary's Emails, to the App Store.

Every app submitted to the iOS or MacOS App Store must be reviewed by the App Review Team. This can take anywhere from 1 day to 1 week. For me, it took three days. However, the fun stops there. Hillary's Emails was rejected because "[my] app contains references to controversial current events," which was in violation of App Store Review Guidelines: Safety 1.1.1 rule. Fair enough. I'll be honest, I didn't even read through the guidelines to see if my app would even be accepted so I probably should of done that.

I then went back to read the guidelines and found out that Safety 1.1.1 clearly states that political figures are exempt from "mean spirited content." Then, I was angry. Apple just rejected my app, gave me a reason why and showed me the guidelines, even though the guidelines clearly state my app does not have to conform to it! Crazy right?

I immediately wrote up my five paragraph appeal, and sent it to Apple on a Friday night. The following Monday, Apple called me and told me there was nothing they could do until I remove all references to Hillary Clinton. Whatever, right?

Here is my problem. Apple accepts anti-Trump apps, apps where you can cause harm to Mr. Tump by punching him or having a bird defecate on him, but a simple text based anti-Hillary app is not allowed. It is a huge double standard.

Please keep in mind that Apple is a private company, and they can do what they want. If they want to show their bias and allow anti-Trump and not anti-Hillary, its fine. (Legally yes, morally no.) My problem is that they are holing me to a double standard. They are picking and choosing which apps they want to enforce their guidelines on and which ones they don't. When companies start doing this, especially when they are as big as Apple, it can get scary really quickly.

The purpose of this petition is to get Apple to enforce their own rules and to treat all developers fairly. We work hard to create these apps. Arguably, we are the backbone of how Apple is so big.