I don’t see that Apple has a choice here if they want to keep doing business in the U.S.
Trump and Musk have made it pretty clear that you either give in to their petty demands or there will be trouble.
And any company that defies the administration is going to learn really quickly why they shouldn’t.
Part of their whole plan has been to upend the whole corporatist idea that both parties have embraced and turn it into “we are pro-corporate, but only for the right corporate. You scratch our back, we’ll scratch yours.”
Big problem with that, is we’re heading down the V for Vendetta “everyone uses the government controlled phone” path. Apple’s capitulation just adds more weight against their, “hey we’re completely closed-source, but you can totally trust us as the most secure private phone platform because we said so,” narrative.
Not that there’s a real correct-answer way out of this right now. People will just have to leave platforms and do their own thing.
I would suggest that either Apple capitulates and is made part of the system or Apple refuses and is removed from the system. Because if the goal is everyone to use a government controlled phone, it doesn’t really matter if Apple is involved or not.
And expecting any massive corporation to do the thing that will make them less money is to just expect things that never happen.
I don’t see that Apple has a choice here if they want to keep doing business in the U.S.
Trump and Musk have made it pretty clear that you either give in to their petty demands or there will be trouble.
And any company that defies the administration is going to learn really quickly why they shouldn’t.
Part of their whole plan has been to upend the whole corporatist idea that both parties have embraced and turn it into “we are pro-corporate, but only for the right corporate. You scratch our back, we’ll scratch yours.”
Big problem with that, is we’re heading down the V for Vendetta “everyone uses the government controlled phone” path. Apple’s capitulation just adds more weight against their, “hey we’re completely closed-source, but you can totally trust us as the most secure private phone platform because we said so,” narrative.
Not that there’s a real correct-answer way out of this right now. People will just have to leave platforms and do their own thing.
I would suggest that either Apple capitulates and is made part of the system or Apple refuses and is removed from the system. Because if the goal is everyone to use a government controlled phone, it doesn’t really matter if Apple is involved or not.
And expecting any massive corporation to do the thing that will make them less money is to just expect things that never happen.