European countries and the USA have an increased misalignment as the USA becomes more radicalized and less willing to work with other countries.
By the way, the US is not a stranger to that kind of overreach, either (e.g. CLOUD act).
Apple is being sufficiently friendly with the current administration that lawmakers are going to go to bat for them and prevent this sort of stuff from happening. Apple is a pawn on a global stage and the governments are the true players. It’s always been this way, it’s just more obvious now. The big sea change has been the last four years big tech has been a target of its own government as well as foreign governments. That’s largely why you’ve seen big tech jump ship to a political party that better serves their interests and doesn’t constantly investigate them. I’m not being political here, it’s just a fact of life.
Apple is going to be protected as they bent the knee and kissed the ring, just look at the name of the large Gulf to the southeast of the United States in Apple Maps.
What do the map companies call the Islas Malvinas? Or the East Sea? How about the Gulf of California? Or the Sea of Cortez? How about Mt Everest?
If a Mexican mapping tech company wants to call it the Gulf of Mexico, that’s their right.
Apple’s market cap is greater than UK’s GDP. Giant companies have a long tradition of flouting British authority.
That’s pretty big leverage.
I think shareholders would disagree. Several billion in sales and all assets in the UK are not insignificant. On top if that would be the reaction of other governments to seeing a business successfully defy a government. ait could be them next.
>That’s pretty big leverage.
True and it shows how foolish governments are to allow such reliance on foreign suppliers.
Reminds of when UK regulator blocked Microsoft from buying Activision.
It was suggested by some that Microsoft has lots of power of UK and can threaten to pull out of UK and disable every single Windows PC and server in UK and destroy data belonging to UK businesses held in Azure, etc.
Shame it didn't happen, would have loved the reaction from Macron/French/EU given their hatred of US big tech.
That’s only valid for non-US companies or the US or Chinese government
Apple just happens to operate their buisness in a way that's very vulnerable to government overreach. Their OS is dependent on centralized, easily firewalled services. They have a lot of brick and mortar stores, and so on.
I believe that corporations can operate paralegally when need be.
It's pretty in line with their online protection act though, which is threatening jurisdiction over worldwide websites, no matter the size and with no clear guidance as to what a significant audience in the UK means.