On the matter of Parker, Apple likely banned Parler because of exposure to criminal, civil, and PR liability. Per the CEO of Parler, banks and payment vendors, law firms, and text and mail services also cancelled on them. That’s why people are talking about alternative currencies in the same breath as Parler.

Anyone too slow to ban Parker could face a full court press from all sides, and not merely any one firm. Apple has also banned porn and that is not legally required at all, and somewhat ideological.

> Apple how about you let the social justice fight to the NGOs and the political parties and instead you announce

Apple has a handful of employees. I suspect they’re more than capable of doing more than one thing at a time

(Pure speculation though... the whole company might still be focused on un-jamming that printer in HR)

> Pure speculation though... the whole company might still be focused on un-jamming that printer in HR

That should explain why they didnt verify they were exploiting children in 3rd world countries.

Why do you think that social justice should only be worked on by NGOs? It seems that all of the comments on this thread are folks who don't want Apple working on social problems.

Apple customers know the supply chain is supported by coerced labor and they don't care. I mean...look no further than HN...everyone here has seen the stories, and you are all still buying iPhones.

What about the device you’re writing this from? I bet it was assembled by the same kind of labor. This isn’t limited to “Apple customers”, so don’t act like it is.

It’s currently impossible to buy a good performing smartphone that has been ethically manufactured.

Close to impossible but not entirely. There is Fairphone: https://www.fairphone.com/

I did know about fairphone, but sadly its hardware really holds it back.

Samsung S20 made in Vietnam. Find me stories of expoitation.

https://www.google.com/search?q=samsung+vietnam+factory+cond... doesn't look good

Would you please stop posting unsubstantive and/or flamebait comments to HN? You've been doing a lot of this, and it's not what this site is for.

If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of this community to heart, we'd be grateful.

No, corporate social justice usually means low impact changes that don’t affect the bottom line.

I’m saying that speaking as someone who’s been on one of those social justice teams and was frustrated to discover we were mostly there for PR reasons.

Sure, but here the key word seems to be "corporate" and perhaps D&I, rather than social justice as a concept, which is much more all-encompassing, and includes stuff like pushing for a union, paying workers a living wage, as well as recognizing that racism is a real thing.

That’s fair, I agree with your definition of social justice generally, but I think the way it’s wielded by the powerful usually defangs the term. And that watered down definition has become the more common colloquial definition imo.

I've always taken "social justice" as a dogwhistle for "Let's address social issues in a way that solves them only for certain minorities". That suspicion has been strengthened again and again every time I've seen the word used unironically.

I do think huge companies should take a stance on social justice issues, as they have a lot of power...

Both can be done, but the things you stated are the minimum, not optional, if they care about humans at all.

Fair and safe working conditions first. Duh.

Then enabling equality in access and participation. Apple is enforcing the social status quo, if they uphold economic entry barriers. Gender and race issues are important, but for the most part they manifest as class issues. Much safer and easier to become an iOS developer, if you're a white dude, than a black woman. If you live paycheck to paycheck, you can't afford a Mac for development or the AppStore license.

So doing both is important, but without tidying up your own yard, it's all just green washing a dirty white collar.