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Apple Hides Taiwan Flag in Hong Kong

(blog.emojipedia.org)
1456 points pulisse | 3 comments | 07 Oct 19 16:24 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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CoconutPilot ◴[07 Oct 19 17:26 UTC] No.21183510[source]▶
Apple stood up to the US government's requests to decrypt devices but capitulated to China's request to remove an image of another country's flag.

This is scarey.

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zepto ◴[07 Oct 19 18:04 UTC] No.21184024[source]▶
Removing an emoji from a keyboard is as scary as hacking all of someone’s personal data?
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CharlesColeman ◴[07 Oct 19 18:08 UTC] No.21184076[source]▶
> Removing an emoji from a keyboard is as scary as hacking all of someone’s personal data?

Yes. While seemly small, removing the emoji is an instance of political censorship.

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1. natch ◴[07 Oct 19 19:26 UTC] No.21184953[source]▶
I doubt Apple leadership is unbothered by the reality of censorship that some countries impose. Unfortunately China fully embraces censorship though. There is a lot of good done by giving another billion and a half people access to a non-privacy-invading mobile OS so balancing that against bowing to censorship is a tough decision.

If you think you disagree, please discuss your reasons.

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2. CharlesColeman ◴[07 Oct 19 20:35 UTC] No.21185663[source]▶
> There is a lot of good done by giving another billion and a half people access to a non-privacy-invading mobile OS so balancing that against bowing to censorship is a tough decision.

> If you think you disagree, please discuss your reasons.

Because it's not going to work that way, since that "access" actually amounts to authoritarian leverage over the ecosystem. Apple feels it needs the Chinese market more than the PRC feels it needs Apple [1]. As a result Apple's already haded over the Chinese iCloud to a local company (state owned, I think), which will undoubtably hand over encryption keys to the authorities whenever it's asked. It's not inconceivable to me that the PRC may use its leverage over Apple further weaken the iPhone ecosystem (either for Chinese phones or worldwide).

[1] The PRC has many domestic manufacturers like Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo (~OnePlus), Vivo, etc. The domestic costs for them for banning a foreign maker with a sub-10% marketshare like Apple are approximately zero.

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3. natch ◴[07 Oct 19 21:11 UTC] No.21185991[source]▶
I have no inside knowledge but what I’ve heard is that Apple’s cloud generally does not hold any keys. Keys are derived from information available only on user devices including the user password, and do not leave the devices. There are exceptions for cases where required for some cloud based functionality but that would not include simple storage and retrieval.

However this may be different in China. Just saying it’s possible for the cloud to be kept in the dark in some cases and that’s what Apple supposedly does whenever they can. Yeah some weasel words there, I realize.