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> I thought Apple was supposed to be the great government-resistant pro-user-rights stronghold. Only when they are sure that the government really can't punish

> I thought Apple was supposed to be the great government-resistant pro-user-rights stronghold. Only when they are sure that the government really can't punish them for it, and it gets them good PR. When dealing with a government that will ban the sales of the iPhone in that country, they roll over and make sure they do whatever they need to do to have friendly relations with them.

MBCook 8y ago
And the country is big enough. Maybe they’d stand their ground against Liechtenstein but China is WAY too important. They also said they’d do what the US government required. They didn’t like the idea of the gov being able to unlock any phone and lobbied against it but said they’d follow the law if it exists.
- kodablah 8y ago
  So for consistency, surely we can read the blog post against similar issues like requiring icloud data locality? Otherwise, we need to be very clear where you're even allowed to publicly disagree or not.
  - MBCook 8y ago
    This seems like a sort of standard country customization/localization thing that just happened to have a bug in it. However because it’s China and Taiwan it’s a “thing“ because there’s a very heavy political angle. My original comment was meant to point out that Apple isn’t hypocritical here as many people want to claim. They said they’d do the exact same kind of things here if required by US law.
    - kodablah 8y ago
      > They said they’d do the exact same kind of things here if required by US law. Well that's not true. You specifically said "lobbied against" in your post. "Exact same things" would mean exactly the same reticence. That's where the hypocrisy lies.
      - MBCook 8y ago
        Because it’s not US law yet. In the past they’ve talked to the Chinese government about why they think possible policy X is a problem too. But once it’s a law they lose the choice.
lostlogin 8y ago
Possibly also related - the phones are made there too.
bigiain 8y ago
Not just ban the sale of iPhones in China - they could potentially stop the manufacture of all iPhones (and every other bit of Apple hardware). > they need to do to have friendly relations with them Yep. That sure do...

MBCook 8y ago

And the country is big enough. Maybe they’d stand their ground against Liechtenstein but China is WAY too important. They also said they’d do what the US government required. They didn’t like the idea of the gov being able to unlock any phone and lobbied against it but said they’d follow the law if it exists.

kodablah 8y ago
So for consistency, surely we can read the blog post against similar issues like requiring icloud data locality? Otherwise, we need to be very clear where you're even allowed to publicly disagree or not.
- MBCook 8y ago
  This seems like a sort of standard country customization/localization thing that just happened to have a bug in it. However because it’s China and Taiwan it’s a “thing“ because there’s a very heavy political angle. My original comment was meant to point out that Apple isn’t hypocritical here as many people want to claim. They said they’d do the exact same kind of things here if required by US law.
  - kodablah 8y ago
    > They said they’d do the exact same kind of things here if required by US law. Well that's not true. You specifically said "lobbied against" in your post. "Exact same things" would mean exactly the same reticence. That's where the hypocrisy lies.
    - MBCook 8y ago
      Because it’s not US law yet. In the past they’ve talked to the Chinese government about why they think possible policy X is a problem too. But once it’s a law they lose the choice.

lostlogin 8y ago

Possibly also related - the phones are made there too.

bigiain 8y ago

Not just ban the sale of iPhones in China - they could potentially stop the manufacture of all iPhones (and every other bit of Apple hardware). > they need to do to have friendly relations with them Yep. That sure do...