Calls for Apple boycotts made from iPhones; Facebook rivals bite their PR tongues.
From NYT.com Sunday: They Tried to Boycott Facebook, Apple and Google. They Failed.
An analysis of about 58,500 tweets with the hashtag #March1NRABoycott showed that nearly half came from an iPhone or an iPad.
From Monday's print edition: As Facebook Struggles, Rivals’ Leaders Stay (Mostly) Mum
Representatives from companies as varied as Amazon, Microsoft and Slack declined to comment for this story. Part of the silence, people in the industry say, comes from a desire to avoid the business equivalent of bad karma — knowing that they, too, may one day face the buzz saw of public censure. [ex ped: Apple PR also declined.]
My take: Human nature strikes again.
“Ryan Knight, a Democratic activist in Los Angeles, called for a boycott of Apple in February because it hadn’t responded to calls to delete a channel from the National Rifle Association from its streaming-video service after the Parkland, Fla., school shooting.”
Clearly, he did get a response. He just didn’t understand what it was: Apple Tv app usage is the choice of the user. Please don’t shoot the messenger.
The issue here, is that protestors are looking for someone to blame – as usual. But apparently, in this case, they do not know who.
Using the NRA Tv app on an Apple Tv vs the Facebook business model that harvests personal data and sells it to political operatives without your permission – are two entirely different issues.
The Tweet by an individual to “boycott Apple” along with Facebook and Google, etc., is futile because it makes no sense. How exactly would someone accomplish that? Throw away their expensive iPhone or unplug their Apple Tv?
In Googles case one can switch to a different search engine, but asking people to ditch their hardware accomplishes what? Buy other hardware?
The thing is, the NRA Tv app is not a default installation that appears on any Apple Tv. A user must choose to download it.
That’s why this is essentially a rant from people who do not understand how the technology actually works. I respect political activists who want to point a weapon at the NRA for their politics, but watch where you point that thing.