News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Google, Apple cave to Pakistan pressure to take down apps... by zepto on Friday February 05, 2021 @04:28PM (#26041444)
Apple is not against sanctions, so there is no comparison.

If the US government includes technology restrictions as sanctions against Pakistan, I expect Apple would comply.

Re:Google, Apple cave to Pakistan pressure to take down apps... by babesh on Friday February 05, 2021 @05:40PM (#26042132)
The point is that companies argued to continue doing business with South Africa because it would be a net benefit to those countries. It’s the same argument.
Re:Google, Apple cave to Pakistan pressure to take down apps... by zepto on Friday February 05, 2021 @06:50PM (#26042667)
No it’s not remotely connected.

There is no international sanctions campaign aimed at forcing Pakistan to support freedom of religion.

There isn’t even any significant international response.

The argument is that in the absence of any international action against Pakistan that might actually cause change, it is better for the people to continue to have smartphones, access to Google search, etc.

If there was any international political movement for change in Pakistan, and Apple or Google were arguing against sanctions, then you would have a point.

Re:Google, Apple cave to Pakistan pressure to take down apps... by babesh on Friday February 05, 2021 @08:07PM (#26043160)
You don’t take a moral stand when everyone else takes a moral stand. Someone has to be first.
Re:Google, Apple cave to Pakistan pressure to take down apps... by zepto on Friday February 05, 2021 @09:26PM (#26043576)
You also don’t take a moral stand when it would do more harm than good.

Someone has to be sensible, and not hurt people just to please vocal activists in another country.

Re:Google, Apple cave to Pakistan pressure to take down apps... by babesh on Saturday February 06, 2021 @12:07AM (#26044288)
That is oh so convenient and so wrong. It’s also known as the not my problem argument.

Suppose you lived in England in 1861. Would you choose to do business with the Confederacy? Where is your magic calculator that shows you would do more harm than good by not doing business with them? In reality there isn’t one and you can’t make the calculation based on that. Instead, the magic calculator always swings to do business because it is profitable to do so.

What happened to Google when it left China? Those services just got magically replaced. Search replaced. Streaming replaced. Cloud services replaced.

Re:Google, Apple cave to Pakistan pressure to take down apps... by zepto on Saturday February 06, 2021 @11:36AM (#26047640)
Ok. So you think that it would actually do no good at all for these companies to leave, because they would be replaced.

It seems like you don’t actually care at all about religious freedom in Pakistan then.