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Comment by SebastianKra | Hacker News Reader

What you're indirectly saying is: Apple should break the law in countries that don't follow western ideals. This is a slipppery slope. Do you really want companies to fight over what they think is morally right?

...because then get ready for Xiaomi sending the floor plan from your Roomba straight to the chinese government.

...or what if Telegram suddenly started banning gay users because that's obviously wrong and immoral by Russian standards?

...or what if American Ad-Companies decided that they "morally disagree" with GDPR.

Just like any individual person, Companies can fight for their ideals as long as they follow the law of wherever they are.

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But Apple is already doing that - they’re building their perception, at least in USA, as freedom of speech and privacy fighting company, with Tim leading the way sharing his personal experience being a gay man. Where is Tim’s aversion to oppression and discrimination when it comes to standing up to Russia and China? If Tim was an open gay Joe Schmo waking around in st Petersburg he would be considered a criminal. So yes - Apple does try to speak out of both ends and that’s my issue here: at least every other tech company acts as a corporation putting profit and market penetration first, only Apple tries very hard, in USA, to make it seem like they stand for something more only to immediately roll over behind the scenes.

I think you misunderstood. Yes, they're "fighting" for certain ideals - but only where it's legal to do so.

If the USA proposed a law that forced them to hand over all user data, they would of course try to fight it. But if it was passed, do you really think they would suddenly stop doing business in the USA because of their ideals?

> If Tim was an open gay Joe Schmo waking around in st Petersburg he would be considered a criminal.

It's not true. There are some laws against LGBT in Russia, but being gay is not prosecuted.

But there are sure some anti-gay laws in Saudi Arabia, which, AFAIK is not suppressed by any of US sanctions.

small sidenote -- telegram has nothing to do with russia, the founder had to flee russia to ensure his freedom, and that was _before_ he created telegram.

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