Never Forget How Eagerly Apple and Google Coddled Fascism
This opinion piece criticizes Apple and Google for updating their mapping services to reflect controversial name changes initiated by the Trump administration. The author argues that these tech giants are complicit in enabling authoritarianism by prioritizing compliance with government data over ethical considerations.
Why it matters
It highlights the growing debate over the social responsibility of big tech companies in the face of political polarization and government overreach.
The US slide into autocracy has been enabled at every step by pathetic tech executives that enthusiastically embraced a complete lack of ethics.
Earlier this week I wrote about the tech press' hagiography of outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook, and the media's uncanny ability to downplay or ignore his legacy of boring products and enthusiastic coddling of violent global autocrats . Offhandedly I threw out the question of whether Apple's new CEO John Ternus would demonstrate something more concretely resembling a backbone when it comes to authoritarian appeasement. Yeah, well, about that.
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