A glitch on the voice-to-text feature on Apple iPhones is causing the name “Trump” to appear when a user says the word “racist.”
The issue has sparked outrage, and Apple has acknowledged it and said it is working to fix the problem.
Newsweek reached out to Apple via email for comment.
Why It Matters
The incident comes after a slew of well-publicized tech issues following the inauguration of Trump, and at a time of political tension in the U.S.
In January, Meta was accused of boosting the profiles of Trump and Vice President JD Vance, TikTok was accused of blocking anti-Trump content and Google was criticized after former President Joe Biden temporarily disappeared from its list of U.S. presidents.
What to Know
The glitch was identified in a now viral video on TikTok, which had 2.6 million views at the time of publication. Since this video was posted, many iPhone users have reported the bug, and shared videos on social media of the glitch occurring on their phones.
@user9586420191789 My dad sent me this video this morning. He told me his friend noticed that when he used speech to text and said “racist,” it briefly changed to “Trump” before changing back. Seems like subliminal messaging to me. I don’t have an iPhone and my phone doesn’t do it. #iphone #Trump #apple #elonmusk #fyp @Anna Matson @Aquarius_Waive @athena @David Gokhshtein @Doxielvr @Hello America @Jason Pargin, author @Jeffery Mead @Jeff Mead @Joe “Pags” Pagliarulo @J.D. Vance @Link Lauren @Tulsi Gabbard @user80861822781 ♬ original sound – Jess White2260
The issue happens when users activate the voice-to-text feature on their iPhones, which allows people to dictate their messages using their voice. The name “Trump” appears briefly when a user says the word “racist,” before quickly correcting to what was actually said.
Apple acknowledged the issue and said it is rolling out a fix. The iPhone manufacturer has said that speech recognition models may initially display words with phonetic overlap until further analysis identifies the correct word.
The issue has led to the tech giant being accused of political bias by MAGA, conservative commentators and supporters of the president.
What People Are Saying
Malachi Maxey, a podcaster, on X: “Whoever at Apple is responsible for this should lose their job. The voice-to-text feature is displaying “Trump” whenever I say “racist.”
Alex Jones, radio show host, on X: “EXTREME BREAKING NEWS! I just caught apple carrying out a vicious subliminal attack on president Trump. When you voice note the word racist on APPLE text the word Trump pops up and then disappears. Try it yourself folks, this attack is NEXT LEVEL EVIL. We are surrounded by deep state deception, only the truth will bring us victory.”
Errol Webber, film producer, on X: “When you say the word “racist” to iPhone’s Siri, the speech-to-text feature periodically changes what you said to “Trump.” @Apple, you got some ‘splainin’ to do.”
A spokesperson for Apple in a statement issued on Tuesday: “We are aware of an issue with the speech recognition model that powers Dictation and we are rolling out a fix today.”
What’s Next
Apple has said that it is aware of the issue and will fix it.
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