Comment by scarface_74
1 day ago
While Apple especially under Tim Cook has done a lot questionable acquiescences under Cook for political expediences, they really didn’t have a choice here. It was the law.
Now going back on Twitter to get in the good graces of President Musk and bringing TikTok back to the AppStore even though it is clearly against the law is different.
> they really didn’t have a choice here
They did have a choice. They could have said they will just get out of UK. That would have resulted in enough political turmoil in UK that their government would roll back this stupid law. Apple chickened out.
If the UK wants the law to change, that’s up to the citizens of the UK. These are the people they elected.
Don’t expect Apple to rescue the UK citizens to from their own choices.
So, Apple will just give in to whoever is in power? They were not this soft in the San Bernardino case when FBI asked them to unlock a phone.
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Abandoning the UK market would hurt Apple more than it would hurt the UK. They are not a nation-state, Apple cannot wage diplomacy by threatening the government, they can only shoot their own foot off and say it was for the good of everyone.
It would also partially validate the EU's regulation if they abandoned the UK but stayed in Europe. Apple very much doesn't want to feed either side a line.
They could have started with not offering iCloud at all in UK. See how the blowback gets UK government to play ball and rollback the law.
It may have hurt Apple in the short term but helped in the long term.
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