After Apple’s announcement that it will stop sales in Russia due to the country’s invasion of Ukraine, CEO Tim Cook the email below to all Apple staff members.
Team,
I wanted to take a moment to address the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.
I know I speak for everyone at Apple in expressing our concern for all of those affected by the violence. With each new image of families fleeing their homes and brave citizens fighting for their lives, we see how important it is for people around the world to come together to advance the cause of peace.
Apple is donating to humanitarian relief efforts and providing aid for the unfolding refugee crisis. We are also working with partners to assess what more we can do. I know that many of you are eager to find ways to support as well, and we want to help amplify the impact of your donations. Starting today, Apple will match your donations at a rate of 2:1 for eligible organizations, and we will make this retroactive for donations to those organizations since Feb. 25. Please visit the Employee Giving Portal to learn more.
We are working to support our teams in Ukraine and across the region. In Ukraine, we have been in contact with every employee, assisting them and their families in any way we can. For our Ukrainian team members located outside of the country that may need support, please contact [redacted]. And for any employee who needs any support, please visit the People site for available resources.
As a company, we are taking additional actions as well. We have paused all product sales in Russia. Last week, we stopped all exports into our sales channel in the country. Apple Pay and other services have been limited. RT News and Sputnik News are no longer available for download from the App Store outside Russia. And we have disabled both traffic and live incidents in Apple Maps in Ukraine as a safety and precautionary measure for Ukrainian citizens.
We will continue to evaluate the situation and are in communication with relevant governments on the actions we are taking.
This moment calls for unity, it calls for courage, and it reminds us that we must never lose sight of the humanity we all share. In these difficult times, I take comfort in knowing that we are united in our commitment to each other, to our users, and to being a force for good in the world.
Tim
MacDailyNews Take: Obviously, we support Ukraine and widespread solidarity against Russia to bring about an end to these atrocities as quickly as possible.
Again, this is not really much of a business issue for Apple since Russia’s entire GDP is less than that of Texas.
Russia's GDP is less than Texas -$1.709B vs. $1.772B, respectively. Russia is small potatoes; a poor podunk nation w/, unfortunately, a bunch of aging nukes left over from yet another failed socialist state, headed by a despot w/ a raging Napoleon complex.https://t.co/WxyKhB2ezy
— MacDailyNews (@MacDailyNews) March 2, 2022
We agree with Apple halting product sales, but we believe people are smarter than Apple seems to think and that propaganda can and should be seen, not censored, as it tells us more about the perpetrators and their motives than does a vacuum created by censorship.
People who are confident in their ideas and values do not need to impose silence on anyone.
Sunlight is the best disinfectant.https://t.co/bRFpDInHC0
— MacDailyNews (@MacDailyNews) March 1, 2022
Therefore:
• RT News: https://www.rt.com
• Sputnik News: https://sputniknews.com
As we often write, the best way to consume “news” is to cast a wide net.
As always, readers of “news” need to consider the sources and interpret what they are are being told accordingly. The more disparate sources you can find, the better. And we don’t mean different newspaper, network, website brands that are all owned by the same conglomerate. Determining the actual ownership of your “news” sources is an investment that requires a bit of time, but it is very enlightening. — MacDailyNews Take, June 17, 2015
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I always appreciate your take, and your perspective, MDN.
You know, worlddailynews.com appears to be available!
Tim Cook could write this also, according to the logic of the letter.
” I wanted to take a moment to address the ongoing crisis in Yemen.
I know I speak for everyone at Apple in expressing our concern for all of those affected by the violence.
As a company, we are taking additional actions as well. We have paused all product sales in Saudi Arabia . Last week, we stopped all exports into our sales channel in the country. Apple Pay and other services have been limited…”
Well said. Not many thinking people around it seems. The warmongers are having a great victory.
This is a great idea. Write to Cook directly and tell him what to do. Not sure what took so long for someone to suddenly care about this.
It would be nice if corporations were bound to act ethically, but as we all know, the very purpose of a corporation is to form a legal entity to shield its managers and fractional owners from any real accountability. The best we could hope for going forward is better regulation. Corporate leaders equate the low bar of legality with ethics, then work like crazy to find ways around the spirit of laws to increase short term profits. Efficient laws to increase transparency and accountability are possible, if only Americans would write to their congressmen with specific suggestions.
When you write your letters, you might as well add several dozen entities to your proposed embargo.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ongoing_armed_conflicts
Total GDP less than Texas and four times the population.
With a much lower income per-capita, many fewer individual Russians who have the disposable income necessary to consider premium products and experiences.
A very small sacrifice for Apple, but a very important sanction to get the attention of influential young and professional Russians.
Apple: leading manufacturer of computing hardware and hot air.
Tim, call out China. Until then, your melodramatic concern memos are worthless.
Does anyone recall the wingnuts complaining about foreign war during the Reagan or Bush years? We’re still paying for their warmongering. GOP fed all kinds of no bid contracts to their corporate friends. Where’s the outrage for that graft, wingnuts?
Now go the whole way and stop selling in the US to punish the warmongers that actually engineered this war. Not to forget, of course, the wars they started all over the globe, including Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Nicaragua, Somalia, Venezuela, Vietnam. But you won’t of course, those people were not blond with blue eyes.
I doubt will happen.
When Russian Minister Lavrov spoke at the UN Human Rights Council the crowd got up and left.
The foreign minister blamed Ukraine for the war and claimed Kyiv has been seeking to acquire nuclear weapons.
It’s so deja vu, nearly the spitting image of some other souper pooper country that whined about the existence of an imaginary weapons of mass destruction program and went on to slaughter roughly 200,000 people…. except the council got fooled on that one.
“It’s so deja vu, nearly the spitting image of some other souper pooper country that whined about the existence of an imaginary weapons of mass destruction program”
Hey Brainless American HATING Leftist from Australia. SHUT UP ALREADY!
We don’t need your day to day barrage for years criticizing the United States, its citizens and its policies! Got it, blockhead???
Are you writing your posts from your home LOCKED DOWN by the DICTATOR Aussie government. Threatened with jail time if you walk on the street in front of your home. Yeah, like you have room to talk HYPOCRITE….
GoeBBels appears to be LOSING it! He likes to TYPE in capital LeTTerS like he is SUPER IMPOrteNT and KNOWledgeable, but maybe he is just super IMPOTENT
Shut up GoeB. You and your fellow right wing nuts will be the death of democracy in the US.
Left wing lunatics are the enemies of democracy. Socialists and communists sit on the left.
You label anyone & anything you don’t like after economic theories. Get real.