Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple CEO Tim Cook Calling for Bloomberg to Retract Its Chinese Spy Chip Story

buzzfeednews.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 334 posts

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook Calling for Bloomberg to Retract Its Chinese Spy Chip Story

#151

Post by athrowaway3z »

moftz wrote: post #135
tunesmith wrote: post #63

Is it precedented for a news organization to double down like this in the case where a reporter just makes stuff up Stephen Glass style? Because barring a Stephen Glass scenario, what's fascinating here is that no matter which side is right, this is evidence of some sort of mysterious power play. Either Apple was hacked, they know, and are denying, which is evidence of them being under the thumb of U.S. national secu…

Tim Cook would have to know. If there is something like a NSL involved, Apple's legal team would have already reviewed it. That same legal team would also be advising Cook on what he publicly says since he is an officer in the company. He could lose his job or be fined for saying false information in the press (think about what happened to Musk) so its in his and his legal team's best interest to only say true things…

>> its probably against the law for him to outright lie about the situation in the eyes of the SEC

Didn't some leaked documents show that a 'shadow' judicial status has been created ( under post 9/11 histeria ) where, in the interest of national security, firms are allowed and even required to lie about things?

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook Calling for Bloomberg to Retract Its Chinese Spy Chip Story

#152

Post by stephenr »

moftz wrote: post #135
tunesmith wrote: post #63

Is it precedented for a news organization to double down like this in the case where a reporter just makes stuff up Stephen Glass style? Because barring a Stephen Glass scenario, what's fascinating here is that no matter which side is right, this is evidence of some sort of mysterious power play. Either Apple was hacked, they know, and are denying, which is evidence of them being under the thumb of U.S. national secu…

Tim Cook would have to know. If there is something like a NSL involved, Apple's legal team would have already reviewed it. That same legal team would also be advising Cook on what he publicly says since he is an officer in the company. He could lose his job or be fined for saying false information in the press (think about what happened to Musk) so its in his and his legal team's best interest to only say true things…

> If there is something like a NSL involved, Apple's legal team would have already reviewed it.

Apple's official statement clearly said, they're not under any form of NSL or gag order.

The prevailing logic seems to be that US courts still believe the government can't force you to say something against your will, only prevent you from saying something.

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook Calling for Bloomberg to Retract Its Chinese Spy Chip Story

#153

Post by abalone »

moftz wrote: post #135
tunesmith wrote: post #63

Is it precedented for a news organization to double down like this in the case where a reporter just makes stuff up Stephen Glass style? Because barring a Stephen Glass scenario, what's fascinating here is that no matter which side is right, this is evidence of some sort of mysterious power play. Either Apple was hacked, they know, and are denying, which is evidence of them being under the thumb of U.S. national secu…

Tim Cook would have to know. If there is something like a NSL involved, Apple's legal team would have already reviewed it. That same legal team would also be advising Cook on what he publicly says since he is an officer in the company. He could lose his job or be fined for saying false information in the press (think about what happened to Musk) so its in his and his legal team's best interest to only say true things…

Just for clarity, there are some cases where the CEO is in fact left out of the loop specifically so they aren't in jeopardy of lying to shareholders. But typically it is the chief counsel who is informed in these scenarios. It is significant the Apple statements have been clear to rule out that possibility.

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook Calling for Bloomberg to Retract Its Chinese Spy Chip Story

#154

Post by electrograv »

leroy_masochist wrote: post #121
electrograv wrote: post #51

I think Bloomberg was probably irresponsible to publish the Chinese spy chip story, whether it was true or false! Here's why: * If the story is false , it's irresponsible because it causes severe monetary and reputational damage to companies that do not deserve it (e.g. Supermicro's stock is still down ~ 40% ). * If the story is true , it's a MAJOR breach of classified information from US intelligence operations; ope…

> If the story is true, it's a MAJOR breach of classified information from US intelligence operations; operations which I assume (without evidence to the contrary) are operating in good faith -- in the interest of the US and its citizens. Breaching classified information of such ongoing investigations to trace supply chains of spy chips could very well compromise those investigations (which would be irresponsible to…

I'm definitely with you when we're talking about journalists acting as a check-and-balance against information or operations that are ultimately harming or betraying the public.

It's just that I've just seen no such evidence that there's any Snowden-style 'betrayals of the public' happening in this particular instance. Maybe I'm wrong, and maybe I'm overly trusting, but I like to default to innocence until evidence of guilt is on the table.

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook Calling for Bloomberg to Retract Its Chinese Spy Chip Story

#155

Post by eiaoa »

blueboo wrote: post #17
newscracker wrote: post #12

With all the strong denials so far, my guess is that heads are going to roll at Bloomberg and that there may be retractions. Worst case, Bloomberg gets caught as publishing fake news endangering entire countries and companies, and closes shop in shame. There’s too much at stake for Bloomberg here. Hopefully someone at the top at Bloomberg is taking this seriously and looking at some quick and decisive actions. These…

If this were proved beyond a shadow of a doubt, China would be shown to be guilty of a massive act of corporate espionage. Surely geopolitical pressure combined with the commercial pressure for that not to happen is enough for Bloomberg to retract its story regardless of truth?

> If this were proved beyond a shadow of a doubt, China would be shown to be guilty of a massive act of corporate espionage.

> Surely geopolitical pressure combined with the commercial pressure for that not to happen is enough for Bloomberg to retract its story regardless of truth?

Perhaps that could also be the source of Apple and Amazon's strong denials. What if they were told on no uncertain terms by the Chinese that if they corroborated Bloomberg's story, they would be shut out from the Chinese market? The PRC could even cripple Apple's international operations by interfering with their manufacturing.

I think Tim Cook would have a very hard time doing anything but deny, if confirmation meant writing off a billion-user market and justifying it to Apple's shareholders.

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook Calling for Bloomberg to Retract Its Chinese Spy Chip Story

#156

Post by gowld »

stochastic_monk wrote: post #129
mtgx wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still waiting for WashPost to disclose their owner's deals with the CIA whenever it publishes a post about the CIA...

There’s also that one time they published 16 anti-Sanders articles in 16 hours, probably because his ideas would reduce Amazon’s profits. [0] [0] https://www.democracynow.org/2016/3/11/headlines/washington_...

A news website publishes many articles about hot topics. Is 16 a lot or a littler? Is that more or less than pro-Sanders or anti/pro-Clinton articles? DemocracyNow had nothing to say about that.

Even though a complaint whose only evidence is one hand-assembled image shouldn't be taken seriously as an evidence-backed analysis, here goes:

WaPo's response to that cherry-picking accusation (which included some strange cherries, like "Sanders stands up to Clinton's interruptions" being called a negative story): https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/03/08/ha...

and the complaints ignored pro-Sanders and anti-Clintion articles from those same days. https://www.google.com/search?q=site:washingtonpost.com+clin...

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook Calling for Bloomberg to Retract Its Chinese Spy Chip Story

#157

Post by emilfihlman »

fhood wrote: post #9

Man, I am now 90% convinced that someone intentionally misled Bloomberg. It looks like this may end up being an extremely embarrassing episode for them.

Bloomberg?

Sounds more like Bloomberg was the messenger and is being silenced.

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook Calling for Bloomberg to Retract Its Chinese Spy Chip Story

#158

Post by losvedir »

athrowaway3z wrote: post #151
moftz wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tim Cook would have to know. If there is something like a NSL involved, Apple's legal team would have already reviewed it. That same legal team would also be advising Cook on what he publicly says since he is an officer in the company. He could lose his job or be fined for saying false information in the press (think about what happened to Musk) so its in his and his legal team's best interest to only say true things…

>> its probably against the law for him to outright lie about the situation in the eyes of the SEC Didn't some leaked documents show that a 'shadow' judicial status has been created ( under post 9/11 histeria ) where, in the interest of national security, firms are allowed and even required to lie about things?

No.

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook Calling for Bloomberg to Retract Its Chinese Spy Chip Story

#159

Post by pvg »

tunesmith wrote: post #63

Is it precedented for a news organization to double down like this in the case where a reporter just makes stuff up Stephen Glass style? Because barring a Stephen Glass scenario, what's fascinating here is that no matter which side is right, this is evidence of some sort of mysterious power play. Either Apple was hacked, they know, and are denying, which is evidence of them being under the thumb of U.S. national secu…

this is evidence of some sort of mysterious power play.

Why not just 'reporters talked to a bunch of sources and those sources are wrong or were misinterpreted or were given undue weight/credence by the reporters'. It's unusual and the news org processes are supposed to catch this but it's not that hard to imagine them occasionally failing in some mildly improbable way without any kind of 'hacking to an extreme level' or collusion between companies and spooks.

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook Calling for Bloomberg to Retract Its Chinese Spy Chip Story

#160

Post by bnastic »

wpdev_63 wrote: post #100

I really have little doubt that the Chinese are integrating their spy chips into computer hardware going to the big four or even the pentagon. It's probably how they stole the designs to the f-35[you know that plane that costs over a trillion dollars to develop]. It would catastrophic if apple knew or even acknowledges the possibility of the Chinese having a backdoor into their servers and would result in massive shi…

> you know that plane that costs over a trillion dollars to develop

From my understanding, it's the joint cost of the program over its projected lifetime over the next 50+ years. Not the cost of getting it up in the air.

Post reply on HN