Despite the country's recent fallings out with Apple as a company, Russian demand for Apple products has been strong as a weakened Ruble has resulted in lower prices for certain iOS devices. About $1.3 billion worth of iPhones were sold in Russia alone last year and the relative price drops promise only to further boost the phone's Russian popularity. To that end Apple has been hard at work to make iPhone more accessible to Russian users.
In a recent update to iOS, iPhone and iPad users gained the ability to set Siri to speak in and understand commands in Russian. As Russian-speaking YouTube user Alex points out however, Siri appears to have been programmed with a bit more than just new language skills. When asked about finding the nearest gay club or where one might be able to register for a same-sex marriage license, the virtual assistant responds with a variety of homophobic answers ranging from silence to flat-out insults.
“So, now you're swearing obscenities and then you're going to eat with those very hands,” the program exclaims when queried about finding registering gay marriages in England.
It's important to point out that Siri's localized answers aren't location-dependent. As Alex points out, he initiated all of his searches from England and had only changed his Siri's language in his iPad's settings menu. Though Apple declined to comment on the odd behavior seen in Alex's video, a spokesman explained to Pink News that it was a bug that the company intends to deal with.
Watch Alex's video exposing Siri's homophobic Russian tendencies AFTER THE JUMP…
(h/t Pink News)
