Money and mutually assured destruction (blackmail-able info).
Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai are cowards - X’s deepfake porn feature clearly violates app store guidelines. Why won’t Apple and Google pull it?
Submitted 3 weeks ago by throws_lemy@reddthat.com to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.theverge.com/policy/859902/apple-google-run-by-cowards
Comments
db2@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Not just blackmail, if either had the balls to ban twitter I don’t imagine the large fascist would keep his mouth shut and not retaliate. So it’s also extortion!
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I thought him and musk had a falling out?
HotsauceHurricane@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
If you have an Apple account take a min to report it.
FarraigePlaisteach@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Thanks, this is very helpful!
It’s only allowing me report apps I’ve installed so I’m wondering if I should very briefly install the app to allow that. I’m generally cautions of allowing dodgy apps on my devices.
HotsauceHurricane@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
You don’t have to open it. Therefore not being able to grant it permissions to access info.
*I mean that theoretically but it’s worth a shot.we can also review bomb it on the App Store.
Jessica@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
I wouldn’t even download apps you don’t feel comfortable with because the permissions they are granted are agreed-upon at the time of download and you are also boosting the download and usage metrics simply by installing it and opening it once.
pleaseletmein@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
They pulled Tumblr over cartoon porn, but using AI to sexually abuse actual women and children is all good, apparently.
abbiistabbii@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
It’s because they fear what Musk might do.
Twitter should be banned for making CSAM.
xenomor@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Because billionaires like these two, and the corporations that they run, believe they’re largely not accountable to the law nor cultural pressure. They exist in a cloud of privilege that never holds them to account for truth, justice nor anyone’s wellbeing as long as the investors get paid. They are sociopaths.
Triumph@fedia.io 3 weeks ago
believe they're largelyare
BanMe@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’ve been an Apple user since the 80s, I used to be penpals with their CFO Ellen Hancock. Would get care packages from their PR team full of promo items. Exchanged emails with Wozniak and Jobs. I was deeply obsessed.
Obviously things have drifted away from the core “underdog” vibe that Apple exemplified for so long, as their popularity and device adoption surged, they’ve been less of the Apple I knew.
But Cook’s behavior this year has me realizing I’ve bought my last Apple device. Bring on Linux in every form.
I know I don’t matter at all, but it would have taken epic amounts of bullshit to make me sour on them, and here we are.
Mr_Dr_Oink@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Your individual change is a drop in the ocean but everyone making that change is a tidal wave. I have very recently moved to linux after almost 30 years using windows. It is an incredible set of OSs with brilliant support from a fantastic community and it keeps getting better.
We need to make the change and encourage others too.
bdama@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
You’re not alone. Used to be the biggest Apple fan, worked there for nearly ten years until 2023.
Last year I made the cut, the new PC I bought was custom built and is running Linux. My MacBook Air is running Asahi Fedora Remix primarily and the iPhone was sold on. Disconnecting from iCloud was a pain, getting pictures off of their system took me three months but it was worth it. Self hosting my stuff now and 2026 is the year to switch my family and friends over as well.
Soup@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I recently saw a video about what changed and it’s very clear that it is almost entirely Tim Cook’s fault. He’s a rotten snake who no one ever seemed to really like and who was constantly wrong about nearly everything and yet was left in charge and, with zero surprise whatsoever, immediately and consistently fucked it all up.
He was handed a roadmap to making money without sacrificing quality or much integrity(corporations seem hell-bent on making sure they always suck a little bit at the very least) and he threw it away to be a little bitch instead.
QuandaleDingle@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yep, sounds like Tim Apple. XD Could you send a link to the video? Sounds interesting.
Sturgist@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Just finishing off setting up ElementaryOS on my wife’s early 2015 MacBook Air. It’s based on Ubuntu LTS, but with a custom theme to make it macOS-esque. Seems pretty good so far, but time will tell if she enjoys using it.
phx@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
And this is also why we NEED mainstream Linux mobile (phone) devices. Google is actively locking down their ecosystem. Both Apple and Google see customers as walking wallets
abbiistabbii@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
I mean Grok is literally being used to make CSAM so it should not only be taken down but illegal to use.
bearboiblake@pawb.social 2 weeks ago
how many times do we have to say it
the law is optional for corporations and the rich
the law is for oppressing the poor and justifying it
QuandaleDingle@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
It’s just crazy dude. Give pedos an opportunity, and they WILL take advantage of it. You could be making an image hosting app for frickin octogenarians and they’ll somehow discover it. I hate that shit.
Bunbury@feddit.nl 2 weeks ago
The thing is though… is it actually CSM according to the law if there is no real child involved along the way? At least some countries might need a law change first before tackling this.
abbiistabbii@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
The thing is though… is it actually CSM according to the law if there is no real child involved along the way?
Legally, yes. The law in the UK also includes images of children that are drawn or computer generated.
magnetosphere@fedia.io 3 weeks ago
Do you need a back brace to stand up straight, buddy? Because at this point, I am certain you haven’t got a single vertebra.
Just want to make sure this line gets the attention it deserves.
stringere@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Post deepfake porn of them and their wives or husbands on X.
muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
That’s…actually a pretty good idea.
Leonardo_da_Vinci@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
More views, more ads. Go ahead make them richer.
Spacehooks@reddthat.com 2 weeks ago
Time to find out if they are into sph.
kinkles@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
This was a really good article. The author is rightfully pissed off.
sausager@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
jenings@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
You can just enable ublock origin to bypass these verge popups
tgcoldrockn@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Everyone watched as Tim Cook bowed and kissed the ring. The coward was already his namesake.
xep@discuss.online 3 weeks ago
More proof that rules and guidelines only apply to those without money or privilege.
MimicJar@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Why won’t Apple and Google pull it?
Google will pull it as soon as Apple does, they’re a follower not a leader.
cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Funny how it’s the other way around when it comes to hardware. Headphone jack removal and fingerprint reader, Droid did both first.
With software, copying Apple is everyone’s game. Samsung were caught red handed literally telling their designers where they could copy Apple more. They’re only just getting around to the important bits. Software updates, and synergy with a computer (which unfortunately is Windows, not Linux).
MolochHorridus@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
The ”Droid” you’re talking about isn’t Google.
Conflating the company Google, Android operating system and every company that makes phones running Android is a common mistake people make.
brachiosaurus@mander.xyz 2 weeks ago
Because they are indeed cowards.
Signtist@bookwyr.me 2 weeks ago
“Coward” implies that they want to do good, but are to scared to do so. There’s no reason to think that, and indeed we shouldn’t. They want money and Elon makes them money; that’s all there is to it. If ethics mattered to them at all, they wouldn’t have been able to climb to the position of CEO of a major corporation in the first place.
Tamps@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
It appears to demonstrate that it’s very much profit over principles and values.
lechekaflan@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Because money. And the laws are useless against them.
Puddinghelmet@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
And the blackmail in daily life
ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
Because billionaires like to stick together because they think that they’re better than all of us combined.
DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Because, it’s NEVER been about protecting kids, or other vulnerable people. The filthy rich don’t give one flying fuck about vulnerable people.
SpicyTaint@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
What’s stopping people from making extremely cursed deepfakes of these idiots and spamming it everywhere? They’ve got to get tired of it eventually.
frongt@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
They can afford to hire the Pinkertons to find you.
Bob_Robertson_IX@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
Not them… their family members. Spouses, siblings, parents, kids. There are no rules any more.
RightEdofer@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
These people benefit from a world where real evidence is buried and indistinguishable from deepfakes.
HertzDentalBar@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
In elons case he actually would love that, he’s fucked
0_o7@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
I don’t know man, C level executives are all about the money, they would sell out their moms to make a buck.
If it doesn’t hurt their position in the company, they wouldn’t give a single fuck. They literally kissed the ring of a dictator, they’d dance to any tune to make the line go up.
Sunshine@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
Hit their bottom line!
!linuxphones@lemmy.ca
FrankFrankson@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
They are not cowards, they don’t give a single shit about it. There isn’t enough backlash to effect Google so Google doesn’t care. That is how corporations deal with every subject. They don’t treat child porn differently becuase it’s one of the more henious offenses; it’s simply another rule broken and it is delt woth the same way as anyother broken law or rule: ignore it or throw money at it and admit no wrong doing.
e461h@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
It’s the opposite. They are cowards. Any move to do the right thing makes you a target for oh dear leader (who is also a pedophile). So they ignore it because it’s more profitable to avoid falling out with the administration. The only value a corporation has is greed.
melsaskca@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Fuck Tim Apple and Sundar Google.
tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Time to spread vids of Cook and Pichai 69ing
9point6@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
All sorts of weird precedents are being set in the shameless kowtowing to the deluded traffic cone
Lawyers are going to be making all sorts of weird arguments based on precedent for years thanks to this presidency
evol@lemmy.today 3 weeks ago
hopefully more leftists/progressives will wake up about how trusting these companies with “censorship” and having closed source proprietary tech/platforms so entangled in our lives is a bad thing. Most in my experience just complain about how we need to tax them without really thinking about how we can disentangle them from our lives. The past 20 years have been this weird bubble where the largest creators of capital (silicon valley) were not explicitly sided with the auth right wing. People have gotten too use to this especially with personal data and just expecting the state to save them.
I like to think this will cause open source solutions and federated ecosystems to become more popular. Maybe i’m a doomer but we will just get more tiktoks about trump is bad and “late stage capitalism”. People I think just will never sacrifice convenience in life, its why authoritarianism seems to always win.
PierceTheBubble@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
[deleted]TeddE@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
No, I don’t think that’s what’s happening here. I think people are theorizing that X is very likely to respond to pressure from Google and Apple threatening to deplatform them, and loudly complaining about them not applying their own rules equally is a great way to remind their internal lawyers to put pressure on them (insulting the CEOs is just a nice bonus).
Frankly, if the fallot here is a relaxed adult policy, that’s still a win. LGBTQIA advocacy groups tend to get lumped in as ‘adult’, which is a problem for trans-affirming suicide prevention hotlines trying to save lives.
As for your slippery slope question, that Pandora’s box is already open. Just half a year ago Mastercard and VISA put the strongarm on Valve and itch.io to let the payment processors ban any game they choose under the guise of pornography censorship. Pressuring a platform to censure an app ‘for the sake of the children’ just isn’t the virgin ground you seem to think it is.
JensSpahnpasta@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
There is another battle: There is a fight to open up app installation on phones. The EU recently forced Apple to allow other app stores on iOS and Apple is fighting this as hard as you would expect. Apple & Google are taking 30% of each sale in their stores and are making bank. One of the arguments they are pushing is “safety”. Only apps on their vetted app stores are safe, every other store is unsafe and so on. If they allow a child porn app in their store, all of their arguments in this debate are invalid. And that is also an important fact for that debate.
hornedfiend@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
Why would respecting the guidelines upset “the right”? Are they all pedophiles?
Apple’s keyboard doesn’t even have the word pedophile. Kind of ironic isn’t it?
gustofwind@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Right in the name
They’re guidelines
TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com 3 weeks ago
fancytalk for a double standard
Telorand@reddthat.com 3 weeks ago
Exactly. They’re okay with the fascist Xitpool, but if any regular dev ever crossed those “guidelines,” they’d be banned in a heartbeat.
LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Sadly I’m hoping they do it so Musk will poor money into allowing side loaded apps in Android and iOS permanently
MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
But Xitter disabled image gen now.
Sure, yes, in any niche app, they would’ve pulled it and never allowed it again.
sigh@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
this is actually a pretty wild headline to appear on the verge frontpage
good on them
W3dd1e@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
I see a lot of people hate The Verge and I don’t understand why. Is it perfect? No. But, I think they have a pretty solid ethics policy and they call out bullshit.
I like 404 better but Verge is by no means bad.
Maybe there was an issue with them that I don’t know about? Idk!
missphant@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
An eon ago they made a PC building guide that was riddled with mistakes and had to pull it down again and I think that’s still where most of that comes from.
cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Paywalls mostly (speaking for myself).
That and, back in the day, they trashed Samsung for making big phones, then praised Apple for making objectively less functional ones (no stylus, no Note like features). We started calling them iVerge back then, for favoritism to Apple. Even as an Apple guy, I found it annoying.
frongt@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Google “verge pc build”. They ran a video of a guy, completely unqualified, building a “$2000 PC”, and doing almost everything wrong. And then the guy called people racists for dunking on him. There’s layers to the story. The Verge has been a joke of tech reporting for years.