In this article and the nyt one they are actually saying US is doing it and it's not even a secret. Here is a quote:

"The N.S.A. bans its analysts from using Kaspersky antivirus at the agency, in large part because the agency has exploited antivirus software for its own foreign hacking operations and knows the same technique is used by its adversaries."

That is not the same thing. The fact that they've exploited AV does not mean that they coerced an AV company into installing 0day for them. Those are very very different things.

Ok, four questions:

1. Is hacking into a foreign AV company by a state an OK thing to do?

2. How do we know the anonymous source is being truthful?

3. If yes to the first two, are we certain that it wasn't exploited but was coerced?

4. If all of these things are true and they were coerced, what is the practical difference for the party being monitored?

The difference is that in theory, you can make secure software in the US that hides information from the gov't. For example the secure enclave on newer iPhones. Of course, if you don't make secure software, they will get exploited by security services.

In China it is not even theoretically possible because the gov't mandates backdoors and can easily shut down your company if you don't comply. You have way less recourse on rule of law.

You are absolutely right that we don't know any of these things for sure. My point is not that we know them for sure. Simply that, as written, the article does not claim the US to have done something morally equivalent to Russia. And to my knowledge, there is no evidence that the US has done something like that, either.

Even if US government doesn't have such power as chinese (though I doubt they don't have) there still can be a motivation for US companies to cooperate because it can be mutually beneficial (for example, a company in exchange can get some contracts or some changes in legislation).

A lot of that is because Russia and China don't feel very secure compared to the US for various historical/geopolitical reasons. The US govt is known to act ruthlessly when it feels there's an existential threat.

Feel like this is moving goalposts, especially given the context of this discussion (IT corps protecting their users from the government).

Think about the fact that the FBI had to actually get a warrant to even begin talking to Lavabit. They had to actually go through bureaucracy. It was not instantly handed over to them on request.

But they have successfully shut down the Lavabit as a result.

As a Ukrainian Jew, the idea that Russia doesn't act as, if not more, ruthlessly than the U.S. is pretty laughable.

As an Arab Muslim, the idea that the US is any better is laughable.

You must not live in Afghanistan.

As a Turkish atheist, I cannot even express my feelings on the Internet.

The Soviet Union committed far worse crimes up to the 1950’s. The US did far worse (Vietnam, Iraq, many other wars) since WW2.

The Russian government is presently bombing hospitals in Syria.

Sure. So did the US in Mosul.

Arrant nonsense

You've been breaking the HN guidelines by repeatedly posting uncivil and/or unsubstantive comments, and also by using HN for flamewars and ideological battle.

We ban such accounts that do these things, so would you please read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stop?