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> Either Apple and Amazon are lying or Bloomberg is wrong Apple and Amazon are compelled to lie. It's a classified investigation and likely only cleared employ
by jnbiche 8y ago
> Either Apple and Amazon are lying or Bloomberg is wrong
Apple and Amazon are compelled to lie. It's a classified investigation and likely only cleared employees are aware of it, and they have to deny its existence or stand to lose their clearance (worth $$$).
- okket 8y agoHow can companies be forced to issue such press statements? They may be forced to give incomplete answers when asked, but these statements go far beyond answering questions.
- jnbiche 8y agoThe people issuing press statements are almost certainly out of the loop. And of course, no one with knowledge of the situation is going to step forward, given they have a strong incentive to stay silent. I mean, think of your own company's PR team. If you've worked for a large company, you've likely had interaction with a PR team that was pretty ignorant about the inner workings of the company. Now, add to that the fact that this is a classified investigation being run by FBI counterintelligence, and interfacing only with cleared employees (none of whom work for the PR team).
- Illniyar 8y agoYou are a PR guy. A respected and big news agency puts out an article saying your company is involved in some secret stuff - stuff that you wouldn't know about. Do you release a press release denying everything without asking the guys who are supposed to know about it? Would those guys say to you it's all fabricated and urge you to deny it or will they evade answering it (or even more likely they'll go up the chain)? This is a CEO level incident.
- jnbiche 8y ago> This is a CEO level incident. And as the article describes, the CEOs were summoned to DC, briefed, and at that point almost certainly asked to keep the investigation under wraps.
- okket 8y agoIssuing such press statements is the opposite of "keeping the investigation under wraps".
- snowwrestler 8y agoRight, PR folks may not understand how all the stuff works in their company, but they sure as shit know which topics require senior approvals. That is basic self-preservation for them.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- sschueller 8y agoWhen did the US turn into a dictatorial state? I thought the US was free country.
- seppin 8y agoTheir denials are very, very specific. Meaning those words can be true, and a blanket denial would be false.
- axoltl 8y agoPlease note that the US government cannot compel speech and - by extension - cannot compel anyone to lie.
- wnoise 8y agoOf course it can. The methods it can do so legally are limited, and it has no "free floating" power to do so, but that doesn't mean much.