The most important thing for these companies is money.
Money above ever other consideration.
Money money money.
Human rights … whatever.
Politics …. Whatever.
Democracy …. Whatever.
Money money money money.
Google, Apple remove Navalny app from stores as Russian elections begin
231–240 of 673 posts
Re: Google, Apple remove Navalny app from stores as Russian elections begin
#232Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the definition of Integrity: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrity It means that whatever apple says, they are only driven by the market. Any stance they have on privacy or security is pure bullshit, they don't and will never give a crap about it, they only care about their revenue, otherwise they wouldn't be in China for example. In this case, it proves that whatever they say about their stupid store and a…
When Apple said that they will go vigilante to serve their customers? It's kind of obvious that any claim they make is implied to be within the limits of the government. Like every other legal company ever. There were no cannabis Apps in the US App Store up until the US decided to allow it. Were the users wronged by Apple when it was illegal?
No it is not that obvious and that's my whole point.
The real goal of their app store is not user convenience, security or safety, it's to be able to fully control what the user can and cannot do.
They created the perfect environment to enforce this kind of decision, because that's what their real goal is, this kind of news shows it.
They need to remove all freedom from their users, to feel safe as a business in any kind of market.
If Apple had integrity, they would allow to install apps outside of the store and other stores. This way they could still be within the limits of governments while not putting their own customers in bad situations, but they are fighting really hard against it.
Re: Google, Apple remove Navalny app from stores as Russian elections begin
#233China's too big of a market - companies have to comply with local authoritarian regime demands. Russia's too big of a market - companies have to comply with local authoritarian regime demands. It really helps that North Korea and Afghanistan are dirt poor.
Russia's too big of a market Russia's GDP: $1.710 trillion Texas GSP: $1.9 trillion
Russia Hypersonics Missiles: +
America Hypersonics Missiles: -
Looks like money isn't everything :D
Re: Google, Apple remove Navalny app from stores as Russian elections begin
#234Earlier quoted context omitted.
Arbitrary imprisoning or harming the employees of Google or Apple would likely result in many other western IT firms closing their offices and leaving, that would be a very stupid thing to do for the Russian government. So I don’t think such threats could have been real (but I guess you can’t really count on authoritarian regimes not doing something completely irrational).
Putin has attacked a good many political dissidents on foreign soil, is it really such an unbelievable claim? > likely result in many other western IT firms closing their offices and leaving That's just naive. Russia and China are huge markets. Apple and Google are not going anywhere unless their hands are forced.
It’s not an all or nothing outcome. And I’m not talking about Google or Apple leaving. There are many companies which have dev offices in Russia, they would be less likely to hire new employees in Russia if they believed they can be arbitrarily imprisoned for random reasons.
Just look at what’s happening in Belarus in the last year (IT companies started fleeing to neighboring countries)
Re: Google, Apple remove Navalny app from stores as Russian elections begin
#235Earlier quoted context omitted.
The vast majority of electoral votes is going to be cast in Russia either way.
I mean the app isn't removed, maybe just hidden from search for Russian users.
I guess, the important question is what happened to the app copies already installed on the phones? Do they still work? Can they still receive push notifications?
If they're still working - it's much less of an issue. The fact of pulling the app is still serious but surely everyone who wanted to participate had the app pre-installed for a while. If that's the case then Russian tsar's demands for pulling the app off the AppStore are just another example of your classical bureaucracy fuck-up.
Re: Google, Apple remove Navalny app from stores as Russian elections begin
#236Earlier quoted context omitted.
> What makes you think you know better what is good for the Russian people and the opposition groups than Russians and the opposition groups themselves? Because if regime's economy collapses, the regime will collapse sooner.
Regime collapse doesn't mean something better will replace it. Russia collapsed end of the 80s, but what replaced it leaves a lot to be desired...
Well, yes. But for Russia's former satellite states things definitely improved.
Re: Google, Apple remove Navalny app from stores as Russian elections begin
#237Government officials supposedly threated these companies employees with jail time. I'm mostly critical towards these corporations the only bad guy here is only Russia government.
Re: Google, Apple remove Navalny app from stores as Russian elections begin
#238To bring a bit of perspective on everything, it's good to remember that democracy, or what the West idealises as such, is not necessarily the ultimate regime that every country in the world needs to follow right now for its own sake.
Of course there are places when power is abused, taken, stolen from entire populations but not every society is fit or ready for what we'd like to think as the world standard of governance.
Cultural, historical reasons, micro and macro economies, ethnic groups, religions, resources... This kind of evolution takes time. Generations. Ages.
And to be honest, even if the grass looks greener in our pasture, the fundamentals of democracy are meant to evolve as well in the West. For the best I hope. Feels like it's been taking hits when we entered the information age.
Re: Google, Apple remove Navalny app from stores as Russian elections begin
#239Earlier quoted context omitted.
>It's worth watching Why haven't you provided a link then?
It was published on a Telegram channel: https://t.me/A000MP97/93
Honestly Apple's Russian executives look very weak and unprepared in this video.
I suspect they're just hired from some agency or consultancy as FAANG have very limited corporate presence in Russia.
So they just keep being sheepish and stumbling because they have no incentive to stand their ground. Just hired guns.
Re: Google, Apple remove Navalny app from stores as Russian elections begin
#240Earlier quoted context omitted.
Care to provide a source for this?
>Google removed the app in Russia under pressure after officials threatened to imprison its local employees, a person close to the company said, speaking on condition of anonymity. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-09-16/russia-ta... >Google removed the app Friday morning after the Russian authorities issued a direct threat of criminal prosecution against the company’s staff in the country, naming specific…
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