That is rather the key point, I think. Why Apple indeed?

The phrase "virtue signalling" is rather widely used and abused, but if it has any definition at all it would have to mean something like this: the very public and noisy display of moral purity through mounting public attacks on those claimed to be less morally pure, specifically for the purpose of boosting your own credentials.

If this firm Jana Partners and Calstrs actually cared about the topic of children and electronics, and was pursuing some well thought out logical agenda to increase child safety in industry, it would make more sense to publicly request down-tier phone vendors whose child-related feature set was not as good as Apple's to rise to their level. They would use Apple as an example for everyone else, not attack Apple and imply that they don't care enough. Objectively they seem to care more than most manufacturers do, even if it's only a small amount (I guess Android has some similar features too these days).

But if this firm is merely posturing and engaged in "virtue signalling", and doesn't actually care much about numerically significant outcomes on children, then it makes perfect sense to attack Apple because the goal is to be as noisy and attention grabbing as possible and Apple has more brand recognition than most firms do.

If major investment funds are being taken over by social activism, this doesn't seem like good news for anyone. What makes us think that Fink in particular has such great wisdom or insight into how society should be remodelled. What if his idea of "contributing to society" looks rather different to most other people's? And what will the people who put money in his funds think, when they discover that he's using their money to advance his own pet political causes?

When I was younger I used to think that faceless financial types like Fink were bad, a part of The System and activism was wonderful. Now I'm older I think the world could use a bit less naive activism and a bit more understanding of how it got the way it is before people go and throw wrenches into it. Fink should get back to delivering returns and let society itself decide what "contributing to society" means.