So here we are, I guess. Again. I have to admit that, over the past few years, I’d been hoping that I could file Make America Kittens Again under “weird stuff that happened in the past”, but given current events I’ve received a number of emails asking for an updated version – and in particular, one for Safari.
And so, here we go: Make America Kittens Again for Safari on OSX and iOS. One purchase* across both platforms.
A few things to note, though.
Wait why is it not working?
First, let’s check. Please visit this test page. You should see two kittens, then a trumpet. If you do, please see “It’s working, but not well enough?” below.
If not:
After installing the app you need to grant it permissions on all web pages. Without this, the extension cannot do anything.
On Mac: Safari -> Settings -> Websites -> scroll down to Extensions, and then “For other websites: Allow”.
On iOS: Settings -> Apps -> Safari -> Extensions -> Make America Kittens Again:
It’s working, but not well enough?
I hear you, but I’m afraid what’s possible is limited. MAKA works by scanning every image on the page, looking for those that have some kind of text** linking them to one of the blocked words. The key limitations are:
- It only scans once. So if the page then updates images on the fly after it has fully loaded, new images won’t be checked (example: do a Google image search, then scroll to load more)
- It can’t scan the image contents itself – only the text elements. So if an image isn’t labeled in some way, MAKA won’t know what it is (example: any website with poor alt-text usage).
Those two limitations are unlikely to change.
I am actively updating the plugin, though, to make it as effective as possible . The latest version adds blocking for Vance, and limits false-positives.
* Why a purchase? It costs me around £100/year to publish this Mac/Safari version, so I’m trying to recoup that cost. MAKA for Chrome remains free, and the code remains public.
** Technical types: it checks the alt, the src, and the parenttag of each image. There’s also some specific code for a few news sites where lazy loading was causing failed replacements.