There are zero companies going to war with China. It is simply outside the sphere of their influence. I know you haven’t used the word war but the general and unwarranted disappointment with Apple for doing business with the people of China is deeply rooted in an unrealistic understanding of geopolitics. I think it would be great for Apple to openly denounce the PRC and defy them utterly but I also think it would be great if they would gift each citizen of the world a brand new iphone.
Apple is trying to disentangle itself from China slowly, as are all the smart companies with labour investments in the country. Is Apppe supposed to be the only company willing to take a massive hit to their business by defying China? Almost all of their manufacturing is being held hostage in the country.
I hate the PRC, extremely counter cultural, hate wealth disparity, all that but I can’t fault Apple for playing ball here.
I would rather Apple cease being a moral arbiter entirely. I don’t need a computer company in California telling me what I’m allowed to do, say, think, or read. That is the business of governments and individuals.
Apple is not a moral arbiter of anything lol you remain free to do, say, think, read whatever you want, even beyond the Apple ecosystem. Whatever you can’t do within theirs, however, is well within their right to constrain because businesses also have the right to design their platforms the way they want to. Anything else beyond their willful design is within the territory of government intervention, and strong proponents of free-market capitalism who want Apple to do something else should really rethink their philosophy on how the state and the economy should be designed.
>Apple is not a moral arbiter of anything lol you remain free to do, say, think, read whatever you want, even beyond the Apple ecosystem.
Do you really though? There are a handful of major competitors and they're all acting in coercion with similar ideology. So, no you're really not free to say or read what you want without shunning big tech entirely and hoping you find some other platform they haven't stomped out yet.
Maybe you missed the "I would rather" part, offering an alternative.
The question is not Apple's right to control speech on their platform. It is their hypocrisy in wanting to control speech in free countries and at the same time cozying up and doing the bidding of authoritarian states. You cannot have it both ways with out looking the fool. Impose ethical standards in all cases or none.
But you can have it both ways. If I can reasonably control what happens on my platform in country A, I will. If I cannot do so in country B, then I won’t.
Another country could be fully authoritarian. If I can’t do X in China but I can do it within the legal framework in the US, how is that hypocrisy?
Apple is trying to disentangle itself from China slowly, as are all the smart companies with labour investments in the country. Is Apppe supposed to be the only company willing to take a massive hit to their business by defying China? Almost all of their manufacturing is being held hostage in the country.
I hate the PRC, extremely counter cultural, hate wealth disparity, all that but I can’t fault Apple for playing ball here.