Cook: Why Apple speaks out about human rights and the environment

By Rene Ritchie
published

Agree with Cook or not, he consistently believes that, in order to change the world beyond providing new and more accessible personal technology, Apple needs to stay engaged and be a part of conversations that not only affect the company's business but the people who make up the company.

Tim Cook spoke at the 2018 Fortune CEO initiative in San Francisco. He discussed the company's core beliefs and ideals.

Here, Adam Lashinsky asks Cook about what he chooses to speak out about and when, why Apple doesn't contribute to political campaigns, the new midterm election section in Apple News, and the role of the modern CEO.

Well worth the watch.

Rene Ritchie
Rene Ritchie
Contributor

Rene Ritchie is one of the most respected Apple analysts in the business, reaching a combined audience of over 40 million readers a month. His YouTube channel, Vector, has over 90 thousand subscribers and 14 million views and his podcasts, including Debug, have been downloaded over 20 million times. He also regularly co-hosts MacBreak Weekly for the TWiT network and co-hosted CES Live! and Talk Mobile. Based in Montreal, Rene is a former director of product marketing, web developer, and graphic designer. He's authored several books and appeared on numerous television and radio segments to discuss Apple and the technology industry. When not working, he likes to cook, grapple, and spend time with his friends and family.

6 Comments
  • I wonder if his core beliefs are the truth. Since, it is fact that the separation he discussed before was mandated in 2015/early 2016, not now. So why not speak up then? Oh, I get it... https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/06/12/414023967/obama-i... - if I can post a link. From June of 2015: "The families are being held in detention centers in Texas and Pennsylvania. A federal judge in Los Angeles issued a preliminary ruling finding that the administration is violating an 18-year-old court settlement, Flores v. Meese. The settlement requires the government to house migrant children in "the least restrictive environment" or release them to relatives." As in, keeping the kids with the parents violates a 1997 law that says the kids need to be in a less restrictive environment or with families.
  • Tim Cook is a great virtue signaler and posturer. And Rene swallows it all uncritically. As just one example, Tim Cook beat up on the state of Indiana for passing a very modest religious freedom law so that Christian bakers are not compelled to bake a wedding cake for a gay marriage with a message that conflicts with their religion. But the same Tim Cook is happy to set up an iPhone manufacturing plant in India where any gay physical intimacy is labeled sodomy and is PUNISHABLE AS A CRIME. If Tim Cook went to India and engaged in any homosexual intimacy, he could arrested and thrown in prison. But this hypocrisy is OK, for Tim Cook and his supporters.
  • Under Tim Cook, Apple has donated millions of its investors' money to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is itself a hate group. Southern Poverty Law Center Apologizes and Agrees to Pay $3.375 Million Settlement https://www.quilliaminternational.com/southern-poverty-law-center-inc-ad... Quote (but read the whole story):
    The Southern Poverty Law Center, Inc. has apologized to Quilliam and its founder Maajid Nawaz for wrongly naming them in its controversial Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists. In a public statement, the SPLC’s president, Richard Cohen, explained that “Mr. Nawaz and Quilliam have made valuable and important contributions to public discourse, including by promoting pluralism and condemning both anti-Muslim bigotry and Islamist extremism.” Watch Mr. Cohen’s complete statement at https://www.splcenter.org/20161025/journalists-manual-field-guide-anti-m.... The SPLC also agreed to pay a $3.375 million settlement, which Quilliam and Nawaz intend to use to fund work fighting anti-Muslim bigotry and Islamist extremism. “With the help of everyone who contributed to our litigation fund, we were able to fight back against the Regressive Left and show them that moderate Muslims will not be silenced,” said Nawaz. “We will continue to combat extremists by defying Muslim stereotypes, calling out fundamentalism in our own communities, and speaking out against anti-Muslim hate.”
    --- End quote ---
  • Indiana deserved to get beat up for allowing bigotry. Christians hide behind their religion to justify homophobia. Spare me the BS. And the SPLC isn't a hate group. Just because dotard says it is doesn't make it so.
  • posted in the wrong spot
  • Yet the Foxconn plant that will be built in Wisconsin will be taking about 5 million gallons of water out of Lake Michigan per day! This is nothing some feel-good PR to help make Apple users feel better about using a product that will drain the Great Lakes.