Apple’s Ideals Face a Very Public Test in Hong Kong App Controversy
Tim Cook has come under fire in the Twittersphere for removing an app that supporters said helped people in Hong Kong avoid danger
By Mark Sullivan
Apple is a profit-making company. It’s also progressive, idealistic, and outspoken. Rarely have those two identities come into conflict as they are now over the banning of a social app popular in the political flashpoint of Hong Kong.
The app, called HKmap.live, uses crowdsourced information to map local happenings in Hong Kong. Since the demonstrations started, people in Hong Kong have been using the app to avoid places where demonstrators or police are gathering. Apple said it had received reports that people were using the HKmaps.live app to target police.
In a letter to employees today, Apple CEO Tim Cook defended the decision to remove HKmap.live. Here is the key sentence:
However, over the past several days we received credible information, from the Hong Kong Cybersecurity and Technology Crime Bureau, as well as from users in Hong Kong, that the app was being used maliciously to target individual officers for violence and to victimize individuals and property where no police are present.
