Apple CEO Tim Cook has sent an email to employees with a lengthier explanation for why the company chose to remove HKmap.live from the App Store yesterday. Similar to Apple’s statement last night, Cook claims that the app — a crowdsourced mapping tool that’s become useful amid the ongoing protests in Hong Kong — was being misused in ways that could threaten public safety.
Tim Cook’s email is riddled with nonsense, so I’ll let people more knowledgeable than me debunk this weak excuse of an explanation as to why Apple is bending over backwards to please a brutal communist genocidal dictatorship. The claims made by Cook simply don’t hold up, he again refuses to cite which Hong Kong laws are being broken, and countless of Apple’s own services are being used for the same purposes as HKmap.live. Will iMessage be removed next? AirDrop?
Tim Cook is a coward.
Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think we needed five or six separate articles on osnews about the same topic when an update would have sufficed. Hey, you know I’m all for pointing out corporate abuses, haha. But IMHO apple just gets way too much coverage on osnews every month and it’s gotten redundant. I appreciate the other articles though 🙂
I totally agree…
What’s happening here is… one of the few (fewer?) times where scorn for Apple is absolutely warranted.
In a typical operating system news coverage world… that might warrant maybe as many as two articles… but in the Thom governed version of it… where positive news is rarely covered and negative Apple news is sought after… actual warranted-Apple-negativity results in six articles.
On the contrary, I think this is very relevant compared to some other articles which are fine IMO. Basically we may be moving to where big majority of users buy a phone with an OS that can be decided by someone what how it can be used for absolutely. Even though there are other ways for ship apps to the phones using browsers, what Apple have done is that there are other reasons I will be using (completely subjective as Apple would say, not security or whatever computer science related), to stop you from using your operating system. I do not think I am OK with such a control.
Some Hongkong protesters are raising American flags, in a supposedly China territory, is this a sign that Beijing is brutal, than say, Europe’s intervention in Libya and elsewhere wreaking havoc and humanitarian crisis Thom?
(We also do not like China’s South China Sea bloated claims and reclamation as our country is also a claimant in the region).
I really do not like tech news turned into a western political BS.
Indeed. Beijing isn’t filled with saints, but the US/EU doesn’t have a great track record of peacefully co-existing with countries who look out for their own interests, or aren’t “pro-western” in newspeak.
This isn’t pro-China as much as it’s a realistic take on the foreign policy of Western countries.
It looks like Thom stuck in the Cold War mindset. On one side there are evil communists, and on the other side there is a progressive, liberal, democratic land of opportunities. Just to inform you that PR China is as communistic as the U.S. (or choose your favourite Western country) is democratic. FYI China has 400+ billionaires…
What you ultimately said was, “and on the other side there is a communist, socialist, democratic land of opportunities.” all of which is contradictory.
What you meant to say was, “and on the other side there is a constitutional republic land of opportunities.
Ah, the old “We’re not a democracy, we’re a constitutional republic” trope. In other words, your understanding of civics and politics doesn’t extend beyond bumper sticker slogans.
The US is a liberal democracy in the classical sense.
The concept of liberalism is much bigger than modern US GOP vs DNC political sides.
No a democracy is where a majority gets to determine policy and otherwise oppress a minority. The united states is a constitutional republic that elects its representatives and a very small percentage of its local laws by a democracy. I’ve heard some people call it a representative democracy however that’s simply what a constitutional republic is.
The United States is 100% a representative democracy.
That is not accurate at all.
A Republic simply means the government, especially the head of state, is selected from the general population through some process – power is not inherited from the previous head of state. A Constitution is just a document that describes how the government should be formed and how it should operate. Representative (r otherwise) democracy is not a requirement.
For example:
The United States is a democracy, and it is also a constitutional republic.
The United Kingdom is a democracy, but it is not a republic.
China is a constitutional republic, but it is not a democracy.
North Korea is neither a democracy nor a republic.
This shows the danger of Apple controlling app distribution. 3rd party stores are needed to stop abuses like this.
Thanks… I had to go to the bottom of the comments to read a relevant and meaningful response to this post. This is just another reason why Apple’s walled garden is a no go for me and should be for anyone else.
It amazes me all the people who not only think should dictate to Thom how to run HIS blog and yet keep coming back here to spam the comment section.
MJ,
As the person who started this observation about the same topic coming over over and over again for the n-th time, I don’t find your comment is fair to me. Do you really think I spam the comments section? Do you think I was dictating anything to Thom? He may not listen to me, and that’s his prerogative, but I still think he at least ought to have the benefit of feedback. While osnews is essentially Thom’s blog and he is the editor, I don’t think even Thom would claim he’s above criticism.
Obviously I agree with you and Noremacam on the walled garden issues! 🙂
This shows people put too much faith in corporations and the fragility of the tech ecosystem in general.
You and I are just sacks of money to corporations. Nothing more, nothing less. They have as much sympathy for us as, say, an Anaconda.
What we really need is wide availability and support for something like the Fairphone with Postmarket OS. Of course, that just moves the problem to telecos and datacenters, who aren’t immune to state pressure, since we need lines and servers to make the phones useful.
One doesn’t have to go that far to just install their apps of choice. One can side load APKs (or install 3rd-party stores) to just about any Android phone.
This thing is much more nuanced then many people would like to believe. It’s not good US/EU vs bad China. It’s China dealing with an internal matter and other players trying to figure out how to spin this in their favor to get a much more subservient regime in power. Apple is just caught in the middle of all of this.
Seriously, I wouldn’t believe anyone in this room. On the one side we have China, and on the other, we have a bunch of war profiteers, colonialists, and capitalists who would love to install a puppet in Beijing. The western world does not have a great track record for reporting on China and most of the coverage is negative, so let’s pump the breaks before we end up with another Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, or any of the western sponsored coups in South America.
Tim Cook is correct in that this app cuts both ways, and they would be remiss in leaving it in the store. It costs us nothing to criticize Apple because we get to go to sleep knowing that we did “something” by expressing outrage on Twitter and took the moral high ground, which has no consequences for us. Thoughts and prayers 5 minutes everyday in the morning will change the world, right?
As technologists, we do need to think about the consequences of our actions and the technology we create. Nothing is really black and white. It’s shades of grey. Are we helping people? Are we hurting people? Is it too ambiguous to tell? How can this be abused? We have choices.
Tiananmen’s massacre was also, an internal issue, just saying.
Seriously, I can’t believe how some people are trying to equate China and the western democracies. In our countries we can say almost whatever we want about our leaders without grave consequences and we can depose them if we want. We can even send our political parties to hell and some of them which had a lot of power in the past and even governed a country disappeared.
Ah, I remember when China was correctly depicted as a totalitarian regime in the media. Now they are too afraid of offending them.
Thanks for the article Thom, I completely support your approach to this topic.
We aren’t running out of words on the subject, and China hasn’t changed yet, so keep the articles coming.
On the subject of Tim Cook, he was hired because he is a coward. He was never a tech visionary, he was a corporate steward that steered the ship on the safest course, and got credit for way more than he was capable of doing, simply by making money with the organization that Steve Jobs built.
Some of the glowing praise of Tim Cook, has been so absurd in recent years. On the other hand, it was OK to falsely praise someone, when harmless, I just think, hey human beings support and uplift each other. But at this moment, Tim needs to be the subject of criticism, because he is doing the wrong thing, and his value system isn’t guiding him.
It’s f* obvious that if your production is in another country you are beholden to their wishes. Start making stuff at home and regain control. I’m not American (US), but this applies to all countries and all manufacturers.
As for Tim Cook, he’s a poor apology for Steve Jobs. Steve for all his faults was straight (no pun intended).
dhaen,
That’s the most homophobic post I’ve read on osnews. Maybe it was an accident, and maybe you don’t know that tim cook is gay, but I strongly suggest posting a followup and rewording.
Doesn’t free speech just suck
Steve Jobs was never a defender of freedom.
So this: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EGvxGPuXUAAer1w?format=jpg&name=large
(Though I don’t think a tech blog should be political)
Apple had two options: leave their customers in China without an app store or comply with local laws however unjust they are. Thom being an angry entitled idiot with money to spare thinks making other peoples monetary investment useless is the right thing to do, he want to steal from other people to feel better.
.: Thom is ignorant and a thief wannabe.
Don’t drink and post.
Speaking from experience?
Megol,
I didn’t want to repeat the same points across all these duplicate articles, but I still feel it’s necessary to point out that the “two options” conclusion is incorrect because apple was not forced to have a walled garden in the first place, those restrictions were engineered and imposed by apple on owners for apple. They’ve voluntarily built IOS to be able to censor applications on an owner’s own device for their own greedy purposes.
Apple has a moral option: sell & promote computing devices where the owners rather than apple hold the keys to their own devices. It would minimize apple’s own role in actively enforcing censorship mechanisms on devices.
I agree but that is a separate issue. Expecting Apple to not follow local laws is ludicrous and would be equally ludicrous if that was in Russia, Vietnam, Japan, the EU, or the USA.
Complain about Chinese oppression and complain about Apples walled garden but don’t whine about something that falls out naturally from this, is that so hard to understand? Apple could open up for other app stores or make sideloading easier than it currently is (fat chance) but THEY WOULD STILL NEED TO COMPLY WITH LOCAL LAWS FOR THE SERVICES THEY PROVIDE.
BTW people can still use the web version of the app from Safari.
Megol,
It’s not a separate issue, china’s app censorship piggybacks directly on apple’s walled garden. They are one and the same. Whether apple is using it’s IOS mechanisms to block unapproved/competing apps, or china is using the mechanisms to block censored apps, it’s the same thing. There’s simply no denying apple’s responsibility for censorship in IOS. They built the restrictions by themselves and forced them on every IOS owner around the world even when not required to by law.
I never said anything that contradicts that though. Apple was not forced to implement app censorship mechanisms on IOS devices, it was asked to remove apps from its store. If I am mistaken about this, then please provide a source. There’s a big difference between those two. If apple was willing to fight for owner rights, did not build censorship mechanisms into IOS anywhere in the world, and then china came along and forced apple to add them, then this story would be quite different and apple would be fighting on the side of users. Then AND ONLY THEN does the “two option” ultimatum actually become true: follow the law or leave the country. However until then, I don’t want to hear anybody saying apple doesn’t have a choice. They DO have a choice, and they’ve chosen to keep owner restrictions over freedom from 3rd party control.
China deserves the blame for censorship in apple’s store, but apple and apple alone deserves blame for the censorship taking place on end user devices. Apple might wish to benefit by conflating those in public, but unless/until apple starts fighting for owner freedoms by giving owners the keys to their own devices, apple is the guilty party regarding app censorship on end user devices. This is not my opinion, it’s an objective fact and I really wish people against app censorship would stop defending apple by suggesting they didn’t have a choice when they clearly did.
Not for people in china though…
https://www.comparitech.com/privacy-security-tools/blockedinchina/
It’s useless, I’ve said my piece and stand by it. It would be nice if you other could own up to what you mean but don’t explicitly write: that in order to not hurt your feelings Apple shouldn’t have a presence in China.
Megol,
What are you talking about? I never said that, nor do I think that. Have I really been that unclear? I’m only holding apple accountable for it’s own actions. If you don’t have a problem with censorship happening on end user devices, I would disagree but at least I understand that opinion. However if you do have a problem with censorship happening on end user devices, then it’s illogical not to place blame on apple for its role in voluntarily building censorship into IOS. It’s naive to think governments wouldn’t eventually take advantage of it.
“…a brutal communist genocidal dictatorship.”
Where did you get that from? China is a brutal, genocidal dictatorship, but is not and has never been a communist country. Do you know what communism is?
Is that supposed to be a joke? Yes, nowadays is a very regulated capitalist economy but until Den Xiaoping´s rule in 1978 it was a planned economy with disastrous consequences.