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We Can No Longer Expect Google and Apple to Fight for Internet Freedom

Rogue Valley

Lead or get out of the way
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We Can No Longer Expect Google and Apple to Fight for Internet Freedom - The Moscow Times

Opinion | The news of Google and Apple finally succumbing to Kremlin pressure and taking down Navalny’s app caused confusion and understandable anger among Russian liberals.
www.themoscowtimes.com



Google and its YouTube subsidiary, Apple, and Telegram all succumbed to Kremlin pressure and removed the availability of Alexei Navalny's Smart Voting app from the Russian people.

This app gave Russians viable alternative election candidates to Putin's United Russia rubberstamp candidates.

Why is Apple and Google closing down the Russian Navalny voting app not a massive story?

The story is chilling. Russia is holding a three day election for the Dumas. The Navalny opposition created a brilliant app to help Russian voters in not only voting against the Putin government but having a better chance of voting for people who will...
www.dailykos.com
 
I'd only expect them to fight for that if either shareholders were willing to take a profit hit to advance such goals, or the boards/execs worked out a way to profit from fighting for internet freedom.
 
Time to tax the shite out of these companies. They are not American companies, they are global entities desirous only of making money. Working to keep Putin in power tells the story.
 
"We Can No Longer Expect Google and Apple to Fight for Internet Freedom"
What makes the author think that Google and Apple ever did fight for Internet freedom? I think they wanted control all along.
 
Mr Person said:
I'd only expect them to fight for that if either shareholders were willing to take a profit hit to advance such goals, or the boards/execs worked out a way to profit from fighting for internet freedom.
Click to expand...



That is the bottom line. Google, Apple are business propositions, whose goals are profit. They exist to make profit. And unless, as you point out, profit can be made from fighting for internet freedom, it is idle thinking to expect these tech giants to back what are loss propositions
 
Mr Person said:
I'd only expect them to fight for that if either shareholders were willing to take a profit hit to advance such goals, or the boards/execs worked out a way to profit from fighting for internet freedom.
Click to expand...

Perhaps they shouldn't do business in dictatorships where they are beholden to the regime?
 
Mr Person said:
I'd only expect them to fight for that if either shareholders were willing to take a profit hit to advance such goals, or the boards/execs worked out a way to profit from fighting for internet freedom.
Click to expand...
Rogue Valley said:
Perhaps they shouldn't do business in dictatorships where they are beholden to the regime?
Click to expand...
Perhaps they shouldn't? Shouldn't because why?

I'm not saying I like that they cater to such people, but they are a business. Two groups of people get to say what the business should and should not do:

- Shareholders
- Governments

It's certainly fine to say one doesn't like what Apple and Google are doing. But in terms of actually stopping them from doing it, that's the way it is. Now, perhaps mass criticism will convince enough shareholders to apply the necessary pressure, but the vast majority put their own bottom dollar before social causes. Which is why I never expected them to fight for internet freedom. They'll only do that if there's a financial or legal incentive.
 
Why would Russia be treated differently than what these companies do for China, Iran, or any number of other countries?
 
Mr Person said:
Perhaps they shouldn't? Shouldn't because why?
Click to expand...

Why? Because it's a given that they will have to assist in preserving a dictatorship.

Don't they make enough multi-billions already in the West?

Is profit always the end all?
 
Fishking said:
Why would Russia be treated differently than what these companies do for China, Iran, or any number of other countries?
Click to expand...

This isn't the Asia or the ME forum.
 
How many countries suck off China and follow their censorship and innumerable authoritarian regulations?
 
Rogue Valley said:
Why? Because it's a given that they will have to assist in preserving a dictatorship.

Don't they make enough multi-billions already in the West?

Is profit always the end all?
Click to expand...

You edited the entire substance out of the post, which was:
​
I'm not saying I like that they cater to such people, but they are a business. Two groups of people get to say what the business should and should not do:​
​
- Shareholders​
- Governments​
​
It's certainly fine to say one doesn't like what Apple and Google are doing. But in terms of actually stopping them from doing it, that's the way it is. Now, perhaps mass criticism will convince enough shareholders to apply the necessary pressure, but the vast majority put their own bottom dollar before social causes. Which is why I never expected them to fight for internet freedom. They'll only do that if there's a financial or legal incentive.​
​
​
​
I'll never understand why someone edits out the meat of a post, then posts questions the meat directly addressed as if this makes for a rejoinder. It's explicit evasion and deflection. Yes, profit is the end all, unless and until you convince enough shareholders to change corporate practice or you get lawmakers to pass laws that would cut out those "multi-billions already in the West" and thus force them to do what you wish.

That's reality. Demanding that I justify what you consider Apple's and Google's moral failings is ridiculous and useless, especially when I never said I like what reality is.
 
He won't answer why it's OK for those companies to cater to regimes like China, that are even more restrictive, but is singling out only Russia to be treated differently.
 
Big surprise, seeing as Google attempted to help China's censorship endeavors with "Dragonfly"

Dragonfly (search engine) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org
 
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