Mussolini iPhone app is best-seller in Italy

[FarCenter]

Richard Owen in Rome

Jewish groups and Holocaust survivors have protested to Apple over Italy's current best-selling iPhone application: a collection of the speeches of Benito Mussolini, the Fascist dictator.

Demand for "iMussolini", subtitled "The man who changed the history of our country", has risen to the point where it is being downloaded 1,000 times a day according to Luigi Marino, 25, its creator.

It is more popular than a video game based on the film Avatar and an X-ray machine app which "allows you to see your friends naked".

The app, which costs 79 Euro cents, contains audio, video and text of 100 speeches dating to 1914. Mr Marino said today that it had been downloaded 6,000 times since it was launched earlier this month, shortly before Italy marked Holocaust Remembrance Day and just days after Pope Benedict XVI paid a visit to the Rome synagogue.

Mussolini, who came to power in 1922, introduced anti-Semìtic race laws in 1938 and allied himself with Nazi Germany during the Second World War.

Alessandra Mussolini, the dictator's granddaughter, who is a far-right politician, said: "Whether you like it or not, my grandfather's speeches are part of history."

<SNIP>http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article7010252.ece

[Libertas1776]

1. I'd like to give

that fucking Ms. Mussolini the wannabe fascist the back of my hand...then the front, then the back again. Your grandfather was scum and so are you and so is anyone who downloads this filth. And shame on Apple, as well.

[dkf]

3. You think the communist manifesto should be banned as well?

Could have sworn I was forced to read it in college.

[malaise]

5. Great question n/t

[Libertas1776]

8. Do you think this app

is being downloaded 1000 times a day by college students for its scholarly attributes? I doubt it. More like European skinheads and fascist wannabes who are card carrying members of Ms. Mussolini's fascist party.

[MadHound]

10. Actually I would probably use it,

But then again I'm working on my history thesis, which includes certain aspects of fascism. It would be a great learning tool and save me from having to hunt through libraries or on the net. After all, it's not like I haven't read a ton of fascist material already.

However I think that this should be kept if for no other reason than free speech. Besides, what are you going to do, ban every work of fascism out there? How about we start with Henry Ford's work here in the US. After all, he was a huge inspiration to a young Hitler:shrug:

[HysteryDiagnosis]

24. Have you seen the Wiki index???

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mussolin

Contents


* 1 Early life
o 1.1 Political journalist and soldier
o 1.2 Political journalist and Socialist
o 1.3 Break with Socialists
o 1.4 Service in World War I
* 2 Creation of Fascism
* 3 March on Rome and early years in power
o 3.1 Acerbo Law
o 3.2 Squadristi violence
* 4 Building a dictatorship
o 4.1 Assassination attempts
o 4.2 Police state
o 4.3 Economic policy
o 4.4 Government
o 4.5 Role of education and youth organizations
o 4.6 Foreign policy
o 4.7 Conquest of Ethiopia
o 4.8 Spanish Civil War
* 5 Axis power
o 5.1 Rome-Berlin relations
o 5.2 Munich Conference, war looming
o 5.3 War declared
o 5.4 Dismissed and arrested
o 5.5 Italian Social Republic
* 6 Personal life
o 6.1 Religious beliefs
o 6.2 Racial views
* 7 Death
o 7.1 Mussolini's body
* 8 Legacy
* 9 In popular culture
* 10 See also
* 11 References
* 12 Bibliography
o 12.1 Writings of Mussolini
* 13 External links

[dkf]

13. I'm saying I would be interested in downloading it if it was in English just to see what it's about.

Censorship is a funny thing. We decry the Chinese for doing it and the Iranians. We attack Sarah palin for wanting some two mommies type book removed from wasilla libraries.

The Japanese wiped out a lot of their misdeeds from their own history books. We have holocaust deniers.

Censorship is funny that way

[Libertas1776]

14. There is a growing nostalgia

and revisionism rampant in Italy of the supposed good old days under Mussolini. Evidently all the Italians who would have been there cheering on the crowd that tore Mussolini to pieces have all passed on. If you want to read up on the speeches of Mussolini or Hitler, you should have to purchase a book or sit down in a library, or just freaking go online. The only people who would go these lengths are persons interested in scholarly research and not boning up on their antisemitism and fascist ideals.

This is not about censorship. This app makes it a convenience to hear these speeches. Worse yet, it streamlines it and commercializes it. Some young impressionable fool can download it with ease along with his newest ring tone and top of the charts single. Someone is making a profit off this app which is being downloaded en mass, unlike a book on these topics which are usually have minimal publishing. That is the worst thing of all, someone is making a profit and reigniting an interest in the words of Mussolini, not for a scholarly debate but for a political movement.

[apocalypsehow]

20. Whenever I see anyone, Left, Right, or Center, state "this is not about censorship," I know that's

precisely what it is about.

It's precisely what the Fundy Right-wingers who want to yank "explicit" books out of our local library are constantly peddling: "it's not about censorship...it's about THE CHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLDRENNNNNNNN!!!!"

Your post above is differs in the target, but not in the same itch to suppress and censor content you do not approve of.

[dkf]

22. Isn't it better to know what is going on though?

You want to keep it underground where we don't know about it?

[Flaneur]

18. Poster didn't say anything about banning the app.

[apocalypsehow]

19. Are you the poster's press secretary? The "posters" subsequent replies implied exactly that. n/t.

[dkf]

2. I have to admit I don't know much about Mussolini

I'd be curious to hear from all these bad guys. And all our good guys.

Fascinating.

[aquart]

4. Read a book.

[dkf]

6. I only read my iPhone nowadays. I'm hooked.

I'm typing on it right now. Can't wait to get my ipad

[sasquatch]

7. Damn, Italy is as fucked up as I once thought

[Stevenmarc]

9. Well at least he can make the iPhone run on time

[MadHound]

12. Actually that wasn't Mussolini that made the trains run on time

It was all those Hollerith machines from IBM.

They are also the reason the victims in concentration camps had those numbered tattoos, to best take advantage of the information revolution. If it hadn't been for IBM, the Holocaust wouldn't have claimed anywhere close to the number of victims it did, and Germany wouldn't have been such a formidable opponent.

[Call Me Wesley]

11. iFail.

As much as I despise the buffoon wannabe Mussolini, I have to say if the text and speeches start at 1914, they'd be more in tune with socialist speeches. Nevertheless, I hope there's a a nifty graphic at the end of each speech which shows him hanging upside down.

Antisemitism wasn't more prominent in Italy than it was during these years in any other European country. After his failure as military leader, Mussolini had to adapt to Hitler. Some Italian generals didn't adapt with him; in fact, used their power to protect Jewish citizens. More than Nazi-Germany could come up with. Mussolini was overthrown by his own people; Hitler wasn't.

Mussolini's a joke. A very bad one, indeed, but a joke.

Sigra. Alessandra is, unfortunately, a still living joke. Many speeches are part of the history, and her naked boobs will be forgotten at one point.

Yes, shame on Apple for allowing this.

[Initech]

15. Seriously. They allow this but rejected the South Park and Nine Inch Nails apps

For.......... survey says......... "offensive content". :eyes: :crazy:

[Call Me Wesley]

17. Yep. Telling, ain't it?

On the other hand, I like to have them out in the open rather than going underground-basement. But iMussolini? Next one's iHitler, with videos of him playing with dogs? Please ... iGoeebels comes to mind, too, an app for marketing (turn your lame-ass text into a mind-blasting Goebble's speech!)

[dkf]

21. That is the one thing I hate about Apple and which gives me pause in

my purchase of an ipad. I do NOT like the dictating of what mediums or what material I want to use. I'm thinking of getting an Archos instead. I'll see.

[Initech]

23. I just bought a new laptop, got no need for an iPad.

Especially when they admit that it performs the exact same functions as the iPhone.

[dkf]

25. Instant on. And my netbook is HOT.

I'm reading my Iphone in bed even when my computer is next to me. Heck I'm even watching TV on it.

[Lint Head]

16. This would make a iPhone nice background.

[harun]

26. Doesn't surprise me. I've thought Italy would go back to Fascism for some time.

This just goes to show where peoples hearts are there.