The campaign led notably by Apple to starve Russia of tech — stripping the nation of everything from iPhones and Airbnb listings to defense electronics — is an unprecedented experiment that may lead to unintended consequences, including pushing Russia further into China’s orbit.
Katrina Manson for Yahoo Finance:
No one has attempted modern technological isolation on this scale before, and it’s hard to say how Russia’s 145 million people will ultimately respond. Cutting Russians adrift from online services may undermine pro-democracy activists seeking to organize antiwar protests. And, perhaps most crucially, it threatens to drive Russia closer to America’s rivals, most notably China.
Restricting online services brings a dilemma. It further carves up the internet and threatens to make censorship and disinformation worse.
Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s vice prime minister, is helping spur the tech boycott of Russia by goading companies to act. In 2022, leveraging technology is perhaps “the best answer” to tanks, rocket launchers and missiles, he wrote in an open letter to Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook.
Cook had initially responded to Russia’s invasion by tweeting that he was “deeply concerned with the situation in Ukraine.” He didn’t mention Russia by name, drawing criticism that he wasn’t responding forcefully enough.
Days later, Apple halted all product sales in Russia — despite exemptions available for U.S. phones — and pledged support for humanitarian efforts. But the company stopped short of closing its App Store in the country, drawing another rebuke from Fedorov. In a memo to staff, Cook said the company was still evaluating the situation and that it was “united in our commitment to each other, to our users, and to being a force for good in the world.”
Even if the financial stakes are low, companies still have to struggle with the effect of isolating the Russian people. Cutting off social media and other online services could create a digital fortress around Russia, helping fulfill a goal of Putin’s government.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote on March 1st:
While we agree with Apple halting product sales, 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.
Apple should rethink their relatively newfound knee-jerk propensity to censor. Apple should not treat their customers as if they’re stupid, unable to handle ideas or discern truth. Apple, and any other Big Tech company, should not be playing Big Brother, arbiter of “truth.”
People who are confident in their ideas and values do not need to impose silence on anyone.
• 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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Could. Might. Anything can happen, and the law of unintended consequences could come back to bite us. That doesn’t mean we should sit back and do nothing. We have to make the best decisions we can at the moment, and hope and pray that they work out to the benefit of those suffering.
Posting links to Russian govt. controlled “news” sites. Seriously?
My sympathies. It must be a terrible burden to not be able to read.
So, you obviously, and wrongly, think people outside of Russia are “stupid, unable to handle ideas or discern truth” and must be led by Big Tech working behind the scenes with establishment “authorities” to the proper establishment-approved conclusions.
“People who are confident in their ideas and values do not need to impose silence on anyone.”
You seem to lack basic reading comprehension skills. You should get help with that.
It is important to read some propaganda to analyse and recognise the lies. After all, Putin is just using the same method that Biff D.Trump used to. It was quite popular. This worked on lots of Americans, so it might work as well to confuse many Russians too.
“Wait… so Apple and Nike won’t sell their products made by Chinese Uyghur slave labor in Russia because of human rights issues?!?!?”
Oh those poor Russian people, first censorship, what’s next Macomrade Daily Nausea is just the beginning, even McDNoalds and koka kola has stopped doing business. How are those poor Russian people going to eat now?
In case you haven’t realized those goading Ukrainians are being attacked in their own country by a super power, another deja vu if you follow their movements.
Here is some more goading from Dmytro Kuleba, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.
“Those foreign individuals who have the will and ability to fight along side Ukrainians against invaders are welcome to join the international legion of territorial defence of Ukraine, Please address the Ukrainian embassies in your country.”
[video src="https://videos.metro.co.uk/video/met/2022/02/27/3429479892229471606/640x360_MP4_3429479892229471606.mp4" /]
Not sure WTF you’re babbling about, but MDN is right on free speech.
Apple should rethink their relatively newfound knee-jerk propensity to censor. Apple should not treat their customers as if they’re stupid, unable to handle ideas or discern truth. Apple, and any other Big Tech company, should not be playing Big Brother, arbiter of “truth.” — MacDailyNews
This is more than just freedom of speech being cancelled, it’s business being cancelled, and Apple is not the only one. Business have the right to refuse service.
What I’m babbling about is that Russia has invaded the Ukraine and it butchering the people there. Now I don’t know about, but censoring someone is one thing, killing them is another and I find the latter a lot more important right now.
So much so that I’m passing on the word that people can volunteer to fight along side Ukraine against the invaders. This is war, not a time to be doing business with a clear and perceive enemy to humanity.
The fact MDN doesn’t censor my mindless, anti-Apple håte, nor expose that I am the artist formerly known as Prince ÄppleBS, shows that they truly love FREE SPEECH. Leftist morons can never understand they would be the first ones shot in a communist state because they are just the mindless, useful ïdiots the power structure uses to brown shirt freedom loving and respecting people into submission.
FYI Russia is not communist.
No, it’s not communist, it’s another form of dictatorship.