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It just occurred to me while trying to locate an old podcast on Uyghurs that iTunes doesn't allow to filter your podcasts based on that word, but allows to filter podcasts for other words such as China. Is it related to some dictionary-based criteria, or is there censorship involved? (In case it might matter, I'm based in the European Union.)

Edit, to clarify: This is about searching within subscribed podcasts, rather than in the store. No podcasts show up at all when you type 'uy', whereas, per the screenshots below, the search continues to work when you type things like 'foo'. My gut reaction is that it's related to how the search functionality works rather than censorship proper, e.g. filter based on title but not body text, but also throw in body results maybe, like when there's a match in there too when a title happens to match? I'd basically be curious if there's something else at play if anyone has insights on this, or for that matter on what the precise algorithm is.

Screenshots of what happens when I type "uyghur", "china", and "foo" in the search box of iTune on my MBA:

Uyghur search

China search

foo search

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  • What makes you assume that search is based on the description? Does the podcast you are looking for show up in searches for „Muslim“ or „ethnic minority“ (words which also only appear within the description)? – nohillside♦ Apr 23 '19 at 20:09
  • In this case no podcasts show up at all when you type 'uy', whereas, per the screenshot, the search continues to work when you type things like 'foo'. My gut reaction is that it's related to how the search functionality works rather than censorship proper, e.g. filter based on title but not body text, but also throw in body results when there's a match in there too when a title happens to match, maybe? But I'd be curious if there's something else at play if anyone has insights on this, or for that matter about the precise mechanism. – Denis de Bernardy Apr 23 '19 at 20:35
  • When I search for Uyghur (or Uighur) iTunes finds quite a few podcasts in the store. Downloaded one of the podcasts and iTunes finds it when I type "uy" in the search box. So maybe something in your setup stopping it working? Are there unplayed episodes? – James Random Apr 23 '19 at 21:15
  • @JamesRandom: I'm wasn't trying to look it up in the store, but rather trying to filter podcasts containing uyghur in my own library. – Denis de Bernardy Apr 24 '19 at 3:11
  • @DenisdeBernardy That is why I tried downloading one of the podcasts. iTunes found it in my Library when I started typing "uy..." – James Random Apr 26 '19 at 19:24

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