Apple pulls Confederate flag from App Store

Apple is purging its App Store of mobile games featuring the Confederate flag, a new report says.

The technology giant is discontinuing apps that feature the controversial symbol, according to the New York Daily News. 

It said on Thursday that multiple strategy games, such as “Civil War: 1862,” “Civil War: 1863,” “Civil War: 1864” and “Civil War: Gettysburg” are thus no longer available in the popular marketplace.

{mosads}Those titles were targeted, despite featuring the historical emblem in context of the Civil War, it added.

Andrew Mulholland, creator of the “Civil War” franchise, told Kotaku on Thursday afternoon he is shocked by the move.

“It seems disappointing that they would remove it as they weren’t being used in an offensive way, being that they were historical war games and hence it was the flag used at the time,” he said of the Confederate flag’s appearance in his games.

“At the moment we’re working on the games to replace the flags that are deemed offensive,” he added. 

Mulholland said the franchise is replacing the banner used in the game with the Confederate flag used in 1861 and 1862. The Confederate battle flag that some find offensive, he said, was not introduced until late 1862. 

The New York Daily News also said a “Dukes of Hazzard” game remains untouched in Apple’s App Store.

That app features the title characters’ car — an automobile called the General Lee — with the Confederate flag on its roof.

Warner Bros. announced on Tuesday that it is no longer sanctioning merchandise for the popular 1980s TV series that sports the controversial symbol.

Multiple corporations have stopped displaying the Confederate flag on their products amid national outcry over the emblem following last week’s mass shooting in Charleston, S.C.

Dylann Storm Roof, the alleged gunman, had the Confederate flag printed on his car’s license plate.

Nine people died during the attack on Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church last on June 17. Roof is accused of uttering racial epithets before opening fire on congregants at a Bible study that evening.