Apple hiring spree for iPhone News curators sparks censorship fears

Apple is hiring editorial staff to oversee and curate content for its soon-to-be-released News app. They will also work with publications to promote breaking stories, new job listings reveal. 

The News app was revealed last week as part of Apple's announcement of iOS 9, the latest operating system for iPhones and iPads. They are both expected to be released in September.

Few details on how the app will work were available at the time, with Apple only saying that publishers would submit feeds from which the app would pull articles. This is similar to how the popular FlipBoard iOS app currently operates.

Editors will be responsible for gathering “the best” news stories and will be expected to ensure "that important breaking news stories are surfaced quickly, and enterprise journalism is rewarded with high visibility".

Talk of "rewarding" certain stories and human rather than software curation will reinvigourate concerns expressed by many observers last week about Apple's suitability as a news distributor. 

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter.