Tim Cook Defends Removal of Hong Kong Mapping App From App Store in Leaked Memo

[GtrDude]

Timmey has often shown that he is an angry leftist socialist and in some cases even a full pro-communist man.

And of course he is surprised that these very same people won't buy his products.

Kind of ironic this news would break on the very same day the capitalist system moves Apple to new highs on the stock market an the company and Tim have never been more valuable.

 

[FrankieTDouglas]

So Apple only bends the knee at China's request.

 

[dmaxdmax]

Tim Cook May be the face of Apple but he is not Apple, Inc. It is easy to imagine a discussion:

TC: China is demanding that we remove an app but we won’t.
Board of Directors: Why?
TC: It’s wrong.
BoD:It will hurt us in Chinese retail and manufacturing.
TC: I don’t care
BoD: Print your resume.

I invite anyone to produce a direct quote that supports the notion that TC is a socialist or communist.

 

[5105973]

Just as Google slowly abolished "Do No Evil" when they decided to do whatever it takes to make money off its users, Apple too should just drop the facade of being a progressive company. That facade is really just there to sell products. If Tim Cook really believed in human rights and progressive ideals, he'd have done what is right, no matter the financial cost. I'd have respected that.

All of his moralizings are just hot air. He can do it when it is convenient and costs him nothing. He should have just said the truth, "We are pulling the app out because our shareholders would be quite displeased if China cracked down on us".

This! Exactly this! I think we all know the difficult position Apple is in. It is perhaps self made, but just as I have by my own choice been lured in and entrapped by the Apple ecosystem and will not leave it abruptly as my kids’ school has their entire curriculum based on the ecosystem, so has Apple by choice been lured in and now entrapped by the benefits of basing most of their critical manufacturing infrastructure in China.

I understand they can’t afford to incur the wrath of China. I understand they can’t relocate their operations immediately over this issue no matter how important it may be to Tim Cook privately as a person who claims to hold humanitarian values and looks up to famous civil rights activists.

All I expected was for TC to man up and say “We had to pull the app for business reasons” or something to that effect. The man outright lied to whitewash this decision. Apple’s employees don’t need this disingenuous whitewash. They know what’s at stake. It’s their livelihoods on the line. This is absolutely patronizing. I wonder if that’s why someone leaked it.

If the Board of Directors demanded a whitewash, well I would have hoped a man of principle with the resources to live out the rest of his life in absolute comfort and security would have told them to get bent. Let them fire one of the most successful profit expanding CEO’s in the business.

 

[LordVic]

I can summarize Tim Cook's entire persona and every speech regarding Apple decisions in 3 words

"I like money"

 

[GadgetBen]

Shut it Josh Hawley. Apple has done the right thing having considered all of the facts.

 

[NY Guitarist]

I'm not buying Apple's position on this at all.

There are many examples of information sharing apps, for example, people use Waze to report and/or get information about traffic, police activity etc.

This reeks of Apple being pressured by an authoritarian regime and Apple caved because of the market.

 

[Heineken]

This! Exactly this! I think we all know the difficult position Apple is in. It is perhaps self made, but just as I have by my own choice been lured in and entrapped by the Apple ecosystem and will not leave it abruptly as my kids’ school has their entire curriculum based on the ecosystem, so has Apple by choice been lured in and now entrapped by the benefits of basing most of their critical manufacturing infrastructure in China.

I understand they can’t afford to incur the wrath of China. I understand they can’t relocate their operations immediately over this issue no matter how important it may be to Tim Cook privately as a person who claims to hold humanitarian values and looks up to famous civil rights activists.

All I expected was for TC to man up and say “We had to pull the app for business reasons” or something to that effect. The man outright lied to whitewash this decision. Apple’s employees don’t need this disingenuous whitewash. They know what’s at stake. It’s their livelihoods on the line. This is absolutely patronizing. I wonder if that’s why someone leaked it.

If the Board of Directors demanded a whitewash, well I would have hoped a man of principle with the resources to live out the rest of his life in absolute comfort and security would have told them to get bent. Let them fire one of the most successful profit expanding CEO’s in the business.

Exactly, either you have standards or you don’t. There is no difficult situation here. Doing the right thing pays off in the long run.

 

[5105973]

Shut it Josh Hawley. Apple has done the right thing having considered all of the facts.

They did the right thing to keep operations running and save Apple’s jobs and stock value for the investors. Tim Cook as CEO and a person who sells an image of a humanitarian did the wrong thing trying to whitewash the reason he made the call he did.

Let the real reason stand so we can all wake up and pull our heads out of our butts and our manufacturing out of China and extricate all the tentacles they have infiltrating the rest of free society. (Take a look at what’s being suppressed about their meddling in the affairs of Australia and their influence on our entertainment industry).

 

[stevie grant]

Timmey has often shown that he is an angry leftist socialist and in some cases even a full pro-communist man.

You don't know what words mean, do you?

 

[LordVic]

Timmey has often shown that he is an angry leftist socialist and in some cases even a full pro-communist man.

And of course he is surprised that these very same people won't buy his products.

Kind of ironic this news would break on the very same day the capitalist system moves Apple to new highs on the stock market an the company and Tim have never been more valuable.

I'm pretty sure you don't understand a word you just used in your entire diatribe.

I am also pretty sure that not only don't you understand what you are saying, you don't actually understand what the topic is even talking about.

 

[danakin]

I wouldn’t call Gruber Apple’s biggest cheerleader, that would be Daniel Eran Dilger. Gruber will speak out when he thinks Apple is in the wrong.

I suppose but typically, Gruber the sycophantic apologist, won't criticize the Cupertonians unless there's evidence of them (or a related party) killing children with a baby seal while driving an a non-zero emissions vehicle.

He's far from dumb; he's actually a smart guy. He's just a world class butt-kisser.

 

[rgbrock1]

As for what's next, I suspect we will be in for lots of fun if Apple continues to try to appease the Indian government, especially under Modi.

India is not a brutal centralised tyranny like China but it isn't really a free country either and the politicians there are often very good at whipping up mobs. We got a brief taste a few years back when a government minister used twitter to threaten Amazon to stop selling products featuring the Indian flag in Canada with the threat that she would personally stop anyone who works for amazon ever getting an Indian visa. Amazon backed down.

A lot of ideas around the rule of law that might get disputed, argued, debated in the west are considered a joke to many people in India. In the 2002 Gujurat Pogrom thousands were injured and over one thousand were killed - a shocking series of attacks, largely on Muslims. Now Modi's role has been hard to work out - at the time he was blamed for inciting it, various reports - often dismissed as whitewashes - since blamed others. He certainly didn't stop it. The US government rightly banned him from the US, the British government and many European ones did the same.

Fast forward and he is Prime Minister of a government with some quite sectarian people in it. And suddenly western nations have to back down, just as they also - just like Tim Cook, let us not forget - all forget their morals when it comes to China. Well, you won't be surprised to learn that Timmy also met Modi as part of a sucking up operation to get doors open in India. So far Modi has actually taken Timmy for a bit of a ride securing more and more from Apple without really giving anything up in return, Timmy expects promises to be kept later but we shall see.

Either way it wouldn't surprise me in the least if "what's next" in Tim's fall from grace will be you'll find him equally ready to bow down to sectarian religious fundamentalists in India just as much as he is willing to bow down to murderous tyrants in China.

Well written and spot on. it also makes one wonder if Steve Jobs, if he were alive today, would have likewise bowed down to the tyrants of China? Just sayin'.

 

[kaneda]

Making products help government to oppress the world.

 

[Count Blah]

like he said. lose-lose

I was replying more to the ‘whiners will whine’ part of the post. That poster after like saying anything not in lockstep agreement with Tim, is whining.

 

[Heineken]

Making products help government to oppress the world.

Yeah...

 

[siddavis]

Of course MR people know exactly how this app was used and can’t fathom some people using it maliciously.

Americans really need to keep their noses out of other countries. The hypocrisy is getting old.You can’t simultaneously want American ideals to spread to places not American and shut the door to those seeking refuge. Instead of being angry about this, contact your party and tell them you want the number of allowed immigrants from China to be increased.

Nonsense. You can't simultaneously want a country (by definition its borders and citizens) and have an open border policy. This is especially true when those immigrants don't/won't embrace Americanism. It is not hypocrisy.

Example: I can want a poor person to rise up and have a better life. It doesn't make me a hypocrite if I don't just give that person all of my possessions.

 

[siddavis]

Uh huh and allowing the Jews to immigrate would solve the killings. Look I get where you’re coming from but sticking American ideals in peoples face isn’t the right option.

American ideals are human ideals.
If I had to guess, you would be one of those who bashes this country where possible because it is not perfect. No country is, but it is the most perfect.
They are freakin Communists for F's sake!

 

[lostngone]

So confused.

The U.S. government said Apple supports Terrorism when it won’t help them decrypt a iPhone yet the same government bad mouths Apple when they pull an App from their store???

So when exactly should Apple be concerned about people’s Rights and when shouldn’t they be???

 

[aevan]

I'm left of center and even think he is one so your haphazard labeling of people based on the terminology is fairly badly off the mark.

In your opinion. I disagree.

Also, "SJW" is something the right (mostly alt-right) use as a derogatory blanket term for anyone on the left, far or not. But that's besides the point. I don't see how Cook's public views are "far left". He may or may not be be dishonest about them - that I can't say, I don't know him personally - but what of his publicly stated views are "far left", exactly? Human rights? Equality of genders, races and sexual orientations? What is so extreme to be labeled "far"?

 

[imom]

Cook is a disgusting excuse for a human being, as usual.

 

[aevan]

Gruber may be a stupid hypocrite,

Gruber is neither stupid nor a hypocrite. You just seem to disagree with him, so perhaps that is confusing you.
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Timmey has often shown that he is an angry leftist socialist and in some cases even a full pro-communist man.

The CEO of the biggest capitalist corporation is pro-communist?

Alright. You forgot to add he's also an alien reptile.

 

[lostngone]

Alright. You forgot to add he's also an alien reptile.

alien reptile??!?!
Oh please, everyone knows he is one of those clones made by the Grays.

 

[Defthand]

Frankly, I wouldn't credit or blame Cook himself for Apple's decision. I doubt he made the decision. Was probably the advice of some board members and Apple's PR body.

Aside from Cook's homosexuality, none of the topics he comments on were personal causes that he raised awareness of. Everything from immigration, to privacy, and fake news, are topics that the company has a stake in, or products that address them.

Cook is not as forthcoming and outspoken as his predecessor. The company had to bow to China's wishes, but this is one occasion where I'm curious how Jobs would have answered for Apple's action.

 

[iGobbleoff]

I'd like to think that Jobs would have told them to go stick it where the sun don't shine.