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Apple threatened to move Will Smith movie out of Louisiana for app store bill

Apple reportedly threatened to pull the plug on production of the film “Emancipation,” the historical drama in which Will Smith plays “Whipped Peter.”

An employee of the Cupertino, Calif.-based tech colossus reportedly told Tanner Magee, a senior lawmaker in the Louisiana House of Representatives, that if he went ahead with the app store bill, Apple would pull the plug on production of the film “Emancipation,” the historical drama in which Smith plays “Whipped Peter” — the ex-slave whose scarred back was infamously photographed in 1863. Smith played the role of “Whipped Peter,” a slave whose photographed scars helped inspire the emancipation movement.“We always operate with the highest standards of integrity, and allegations that we have not in this instance are false,” the Apple spokesman told the newspaper. Earlier this year, Kim Carver, a freshman state legislator, told the Journal that Apple lobbyists deluged him with “panicked” text messages when they learned that he would include the age verification provision in a proposed bill geared toward safeguarding children from the pitfalls of social media and tech.

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