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Apple Is Not Such a Freedom Fighter In China (latimes.com)

Posted by yaelk on from the protecting-us-or-not dept.

mi writes: Though loudly resisting the American government's attempts to make it help break into the phone of a dead scumbag, Apple is very accommodating of the Chinese government's attempts to keep tabs on the citizenry's communications. Apple has censored apps that wouldn't pass muster with the Chinese government, moved local user data onto servers operated by the state-owned China Telecom, and submitted to Chinese audits. According to James Lewis, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, "I can't imagine the Chinese would tolerate end-to-end encryption or a refusal to cooperate with their police, particularly in a terrorism case." Why the accommodation there?

7 of 238 comments (clear)

  1. I'm *NOT* an Apple supporter by any means... by acoustix · · Score: 5, Insightful

    But you cannot compare the two. Citizens of the US are guaranteed certain freedoms and liberties. Citizens in China are not. That's China's problem, not Apple's. If the people of China want the same protections, they need to do something about it.

    Go ahead and check my history. I'm a huge BlackBerry supporter and generally dislike Apple products. But Apple is 100% correct here.

    --
    "A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
    1. Re:I'm *NOT* an Apple supporter by any means... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Apple's moral high ground is irrelevant. They are protecting the rights of their customers in this instance, at great expense, and if their motives are not snow-white, then that does not invalidate their actions. They are being drafted, as a company, to produce work for free to the united states government, which will coincidentally do what is probably a great deal of harm to their user base. They have cooperated with every lawful court order and it is only the unlawful one they are objecting to.

      Captcha: Bugged. Because just reading your slashdot posts isn't enough for Uncle Sam.

    2. Re:I'm *NOT* an Apple supporter by any means... by Aaden42 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Apple's stance is to comply with the laws in the jurisdiction they operate in. In China, that means do what central government says. In the US, that means do what the laws say. Apple's stance in the US case is that FBI's request isn't supported by current US law. That's the way the law works in the US. The government tries to do a thing, and it's the citizen's right (including citizen corporations) to challenge that by due process in court. Apple is complying with US law in the US and Chinese law in China.

      Also, nice impartial language in the summary, eds...

  2. Do you have a locally-sourced organic smartphone? by Brannon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's weird that Apple is always pointed out for using "slave labor" when every other manufacturer of consumer electronics is at least as bad.

    BTW: have we now fully accepted the redefinition of "slave labor" to mean "voluntarily working at a job which pays the at or above the typical prevailing wage of the area in which the job is located"? Because "slave labor" used to mean something...different.

  3. The fact that we're even having this discussion by clonehappy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Shows just how far we've slipped down the hole to tyranny.

    It used to be we would point to things done by the governments of China and other communist/repressive regimes and show our superiority that we maintain an orderly and law-abiding society without resorting to such nefarious, underhanded activities against our own citizens. Why, backdooring hardware, warrantless wiretapping, sneak and peek raids? Those are things done by tyrannies! Who would ever....in America??

    Now, we ask why a private company won't give our own government the same things it gives to a repressive tyrannical regime. It should go without fucking saying why a private company would hold it's own, supposedly above board and representative government, to a higher standard than a third-world dictatorship! Are we all really so dense that the question even needs to be asked?!

    Now, we can wax intellectual about whether the United States government has ever been a representative one or if freedom ever really has existed, but that's a philosophical conversation that has no place in this discussion. The fact remains is that the line we're all sold, since the day we're born, is that America is the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, and our freedoms are the envy of the world and it's what makes us stand out as a beacon of liberty in an otherwise oppressive world. And now that an organization with a little bit of money and power is asking the powers that be to put their money where their mouth is, we get to see the true colors of the establishment, in all it's disgusting, ugly, hypocritical hues.

  4. Re:Apple ain't a freedom fighter at all by Aighearach · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Apple isn't a "Freedom Fighter" they're an American company who insists on fighting for their own American freedoms.

    They're not Chinese, they don't really have a stake in Chinese Freedom, or an expectation of it.

    It doesn't need to "fool" anybody; American companies are expected to stand up for their own rights, it is a prerogative of those having some Freedom, it is not presumed to be some sort of ideological or political or PR endeavor.

  5. Re:Apple ain't a freedom fighter at all by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Informative

    Corporations are bound to obey the laws of the countries in which they operate. Apples argument against the FBI subpoena is not that it is wrong, but that it is illegal. In China, they cannot make that argument. China is an authoritarian country, and that is not something that is going to be changed by Apple, or any other American corporation. It is not their role to "fix" China. The Chinese people need to do that for themselves.