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Russia restricts opposition election voting app

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Re: Russia restricts opposition election voting app

#11

Post by yonixw »

sneak wrote: post #5

Apple is in no position whatsoever to fight governments. The amount of money and power they wield in the market and society is huge, but it doesn't even rank in competition to the power of the state. (For scale, the US, just a single country, has spent, only on the military, 4.3x the entire market cap of Apple ($2410B) since the iPhone was introduced.) They have to do whatever the CCP tells them to do, as they are co…

While true, they (and other companies) do market themself heavy as liberal&young™ with all of theirs twitter logos (such as in pride month).

Given that, one would assume they are willing to take a hit in profit (by not selling & not cooperating) in places like Russia and China.

And as it seems, they prefer profit. Which kinda make all their marketing talk as purely virtue signaling.

Re: Russia restricts opposition election voting app

#12

Post by csande17 »

vasco wrote: post #3

> On Friday, sources confirmed on background that at least one of the U.S.-based companies implementing the restriction felt compelled to comply for fear that local staff could face legal action upon receipt of a takedown order from the Russian Federation. Really making the world a better place. How hard would it be to have employees from outside the country make the app review, and shield local employees from this?…

"Shield local employees from this" is the main hard part of this proposal. The Russian government does not especially care which part of the company Google claims is responsible for app review, and they will happily arrest/prosecute/murder any staff they can get their hands on if there's a chance it'll get then what they want.

Re: Russia restricts opposition election voting app

#13

Post by raverbashing »

sneak wrote: post #5

Apple is in no position whatsoever to fight governments. The amount of money and power they wield in the market and society is huge, but it doesn't even rank in competition to the power of the state. (For scale, the US, just a single country, has spent, only on the military, 4.3x the entire market cap of Apple ($2410B) since the iPhone was introduced.) They have to do whatever the CCP tells them to do, as they are co…

Agreed. Remember the "good old days" where corporation would fight governments tooth and nail for their interests?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Fruit_Company

Re: Russia restricts opposition election voting app

#14

Post by benque »

vasco wrote: post #3

> On Friday, sources confirmed on background that at least one of the U.S.-based companies implementing the restriction felt compelled to comply for fear that local staff could face legal action upon receipt of a takedown order from the Russian Federation. Really making the world a better place. How hard would it be to have employees from outside the country make the app review, and shield local employees from this?…

What would prevent Russian authorities from taking action against local employees anyway? The buck stops at the government. The only options for private companies in these type of situations are: comply or exit.

Re: Russia restricts opposition election voting app

#16

Post by sneak »

yonixw wrote: post #11
sneak wrote: post #5

Apple is in no position whatsoever to fight governments. The amount of money and power they wield in the market and society is huge, but it doesn't even rank in competition to the power of the state. (For scale, the US, just a single country, has spent, only on the military, 4.3x the entire market cap of Apple ($2410B) since the iPhone was introduced.) They have to do whatever the CCP tells them to do, as they are co…

While true, they (and other companies) do market themself heavy as liberal&young™ with all of theirs twitter logos (such as in pride month). Given that, one would assume they are willing to take a hit in profit (by not selling & not cooperating) in places like Russia and China. And as it seems, they prefer profit. Which kinda make all their marketing talk as purely virtue signaling.

> Given that, one would assume they are willing to take a hit in profit (by not selling & not cooperating) in places like Russia and China.

If Apple didn't cooperate with China, there would be no iPhones, and Apple wouldn't meaningfully exist. iPhones are nearly exclusively manufactured in China. All the chips in iPhones, iPads, and now the most important macs are exclusively manufactured immediately adjacent to China, in a territory claimed by China.

China is the iPhone.

Re: Russia restricts opposition election voting app

#17

Post by leppr »

In this case there's not many reasons for it to be a native app instead of a Progressive Web App. This would simplify distribution.

If the app is open source, it could also be hosted on F-droid (or just as an .apk on some website).

These kind of situations are exactly why we fight against walled gardens and centralizatiom. It's not a problem until it is.

Re: Russia restricts opposition election voting app

#18

Post by varjag »

csande17 wrote: post #12
vasco wrote: post #3

> On Friday, sources confirmed on background that at least one of the U.S.-based companies implementing the restriction felt compelled to comply for fear that local staff could face legal action upon receipt of a takedown order from the Russian Federation. Really making the world a better place. How hard would it be to have employees from outside the country make the app review, and shield local employees from this?…

"Shield local employees from this" is the main hard part of this proposal. The Russian government does not especially care which part of the company Google claims is responsible for app review, and they will happily arrest/prosecute/murder any staff they can get their hands on if there's a chance it'll get then what they want.

It almost sounds as if operating in Russia is a bad idea.

Re: Russia restricts opposition election voting app

#19

Post by pjmlp »

yonixw wrote: post #11
sneak wrote: post #5

Apple is in no position whatsoever to fight governments. The amount of money and power they wield in the market and society is huge, but it doesn't even rank in competition to the power of the state. (For scale, the US, just a single country, has spent, only on the military, 4.3x the entire market cap of Apple ($2410B) since the iPhone was introduced.) They have to do whatever the CCP tells them to do, as they are co…

While true, they (and other companies) do market themself heavy as liberal&young™ with all of theirs twitter logos (such as in pride month). Given that, one would assume they are willing to take a hit in profit (by not selling & not cooperating) in places like Russia and China. And as it seems, they prefer profit. Which kinda make all their marketing talk as purely virtue signaling.

Those that fool themselves with marketing fluff are the ones to blame.

"Do no evil" from Google, or "Think differently" from Apple, really, how naive one must be to think the end game isn't only about money and keeping the board happy about exponential growing sales?

Re: Russia restricts opposition election voting app

#20

Post by varjag »

sneak wrote: post #16
yonixw wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While true, they (and other companies) do market themself heavy as liberal&young™ with all of theirs twitter logos (such as in pride month). Given that, one would assume they are willing to take a hit in profit (by not selling & not cooperating) in places like Russia and China. And as it seems, they prefer profit. Which kinda make all their marketing talk as purely virtue signaling.

> Given that, one would assume they are willing to take a hit in profit (by not selling & not cooperating) in places like Russia and China. If Apple didn't cooperate with China, there would be no iPhones, and Apple wouldn't meaningfully exist. iPhones are nearly exclusively manufactured in China. All the chips in iPhones, iPads, and now the most important macs are exclusively manufactured immediately adjacent to Chin…

Just say 'Taiwan' it's not hard. It's OK, HN is in America.
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