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Google, Apple remove Navalny app from stores as Russian elections begin

reuters.com

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Re: Google, Apple remove Navalny app from stores as Russian elections begin

#602
post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By not deleting the app.

Which is means, employees of Apple in Russia go to jail, accounts frozen, offices raided, documents and equipment seized, sales of iPhone banned, access to Apple servers blocked. What do you achieve with this?

The app is up. Have you ever heard about a butterfly effect? And this is not even a butterfly's wing flap.

Re: Google, Apple remove Navalny app from stores as Russian elections begin

#603

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>he's a racist No, he is not. Navalny was against banning a right-wing group from protesting and exercising their freedom of speech. He explicitly condemned their racism and hatred but said it was wrong to limit their freedom of speech: >In late 2006, Navalny appealed to the Moscow City Hall, asking it to grant permission to conduct the nationalist 2006 Russian march. However, he added that Yabloko (Navalny's party)…

> >he's a racist > No, he is not. Yes, he is. For example, he never distanced himself from this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVNJiO10SWw Even if you don't speak Russian, the message is clear. People in the USA have been labelled as racists for much lesser offences. https://globalvoices.org/2013/07/25/ethnic-slurs-haunt-alexe... A quick google “Navalny racist” will bring many sources, some of them in English…

I watched the video, and it is clear that the video is advocating the right for personal firearms. I saw no racism in the video. Unless you would consider any depiction of criminals racist unless it shows criminals of all races (which I am won't).

Re: Google, Apple remove Navalny app from stores as Russian elections begin

#604

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Are you perhaps a Putinist? > I'm and I don't see anything wrong with it. He saved Russia from the eventual collapse where it was led by Gorbachev, Yeltsin and their western puppeteers. I'm very grateful to him for that. This is so wrong. Putinism is a absurd, pernicious ideology. Your ideological upbringing been bad. To call a mafia-state, a freedom is delusional. It's like slaves fighting for the right to be ens…

To call a mafia-state, a freedom is delusional. I didn't use the word "freedom". There's no ideology in the current Russia, unfortunately. Neithr good, nor bad. I guess you're from Ukraine (sorry, if I'm wrong). If anything, Ukraine is much closer to mafia-state than Russia. Corruption in Ukraine is so high now, that even presidents of EU country alert their citizens to avoid doing any business with Ukraine. It's lik…

I don’t think USA asked for Kolomoisky to come launder money here

Re: Google, Apple remove Navalny app from stores as Russian elections begin

#605

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that by this point, all this is expected behaviour. If companies don't want to be complicit in these crimes, they need to extricate themselves from the country and cut all ties. If they do want to put profit ahead of everything else, then whatever, but you don't get to defend them as doing the right thing for their employees. They're enabling the whole situation. [Edit to bring in a sister question] "Why don't…

I have an easier solution that doesn’t require making a false moral choice. Give your customers the ability to install their own software or app stores on the hardware that they own and paid for, without requiring a monopolistic walled garden. Of course, companies like Apple would never do this because they are far too greedy.

There is F-Droid but Navalny app is not on it https://search.f-droid.org/?q=Navalny&lang=en Android does also allow installing apps directly from APK. (Crapple separate issue.) Too bad Navalny team did not try to go open-source route.

They also could have just uploaded their database of candidates to Github.

Re: Google, Apple remove Navalny app from stores as Russian elections begin

#606

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that by this point, all this is expected behaviour. If companies don't want to be complicit in these crimes, they need to extricate themselves from the country and cut all ties. If they do want to put profit ahead of everything else, then whatever, but you don't get to defend them as doing the right thing for their employees. They're enabling the whole situation. [Edit to bring in a sister question] "Why don't…

> If they do want to put profit ahead of everything else, then whatever, but you don't get to defend them as doing the right thing for their employees. They're enabling the whole situation. IMHO, cooperating with an authoritarian regime in this way should be illegal, sort of like a sanctions violation. Cook and Pachai should go to jail for this. That consequence might clarify their thinking a little.

I do not support Cook and Pachal getting arrested over submitting to Putin over their employees being held hostage, but they should definitely pull Apple and Google out of Russia and Communist China. US government should help out, at least by prohibiting US citizens from traveling to these regions without a special exception. Should be easy to do during the pandemic anyway, beats me why the government is so weak about it.

Re: Google, Apple remove Navalny app from stores as Russian elections begin

#607

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that by this point, all this is expected behaviour. If companies don't want to be complicit in these crimes, they need to extricate themselves from the country and cut all ties. If they do want to put profit ahead of everything else, then whatever, but you don't get to defend them as doing the right thing for their employees. They're enabling the whole situation. [Edit to bring in a sister question] "Why don't…

Some of Americas closest allies are authoritarian regimes. Why would anyone expect profit moticated companies like Google or Apple to have higher moral standards than the elected representative US goverment where it operates from itself?

At least those are "allies" and not existential threats.

Re: Google, Apple remove Navalny app from stores as Russian elections begin

#608

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of Americas closest allies are authoritarian regimes. Why would anyone expect profit moticated companies like Google or Apple to have higher moral standards than the elected representative US goverment where it operates from itself?

> Why would anyone expect profit moticated companies like Google or Apple to have higher moral standards than the elected representative US goverment where it operates from itself? Because elected representatives are not moral authorities

Indeed a good point. Had the US elected representatives had better morals none of this would have ever happened. It would have been pre-empted decades ago. But we have no influence over their morals, only an ability to vote for or against them. Those elected by definition are the best people available. So if they don't have good morals that means the whole society does not have good morals. I suppose the best we can do is to try to have better morals ourselves and hope to positively influence the rest of society to make better moral choices...

All that is hard, and that's why evil like Putin prevails...

Re: Google, Apple remove Navalny app from stores as Russian elections begin

#609
post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that by this point, all this is expected behaviour. If companies don't want to be complicit in these crimes, they need to extricate themselves from the country and cut all ties. If they do want to put profit ahead of everything else, then whatever, but you don't get to defend them as doing the right thing for their employees. They're enabling the whole situation. [Edit to bring in a sister question] "Why don't…

This is the kind of moral framework that creates cancel culture. Pulling out from Russia will decrease many Russian's standard of living, but will have zero impact in stopping them from rigging elections. If everyone cuts trade for moral reasons, then there's no incentive for us not to point nukes at each other again.

Pulling out of Russia might have zero immediate impact on stopping Putin rigging elections which are rigged anyway, but it would definitely reduce his and his mafia's wealth and power, thereby helping bring about the inevitable regime change sooner, and in a less turbulent way.

Re: Google, Apple remove Navalny app from stores as Russian elections begin

#610

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Pull out of the countries then. Then why Apple hasn't pulled out of China? Like 2 decades ago? China was always a brutal dictatorship. Why would they pull out of anything? These company profit from bloody dictatorships, like the rest of the western economy. But somehow when it's about Russia it's a problem? The hypocrisy in the west must stop. The west and it's industry never stood for freedom abroad since it decid…

>The west and it's industry never stood for freedom abroad since it decided that business is more important than democracy in the rest of the world, basically when the west accepted China in the WTO. I'd say it was long long before that. The US replaced a democratically elected leader with a dictatorship at the behest of a fruit company to give one example and it has had plenty such business influenced examples prece…

Good point, good point. The recent NordStream deal was disgusting. Unfortunately Western morals are only marginally better than those of the tyrants that Western politicians sell out to.

I suppose whoever cares enough for Western morals to improve needs to try to sell out a little less themselves.

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