3 ms·

I'd honestly believe such pressure came from US domestic intelligence or law enforcement agencies just as easily as from China.

• adventured 5y ago
  It wouldn't specifically be from domestic intelligence, it would be from a powerful member of Congress with a relationship to Apple (specifically the board/management), acting as a go-between that would try to politically lay out the situation for them. Hey Apple, we can either turn up the anti-trust heat by a lot, or we can turn it down, which is it going to be? Except it would be couched in intellectually dishonest language meant to preserve a veneer that the US Government isn't a violent, quasi-psychotic bully ready to bash your face in if you don't do what they're asking. The interactions with intelligence about the new program would begin after they acquiesce to going along. It's too easy. There's an extraordinary amount of wilful naivety in the US about the nature of the government and its frequent power abuses (what it's willing to do), despite the rather comically massive demonstration of said abuses spanning the entire post WW2 era. Every time it happens the wilfully naive crowd feigns surprise.