The U.K. Parliament is pushing ahead with a sprawling internet regulation bill that will, among other things, undermine the privacy of people around the world. The Online Safety Bill, now at the final stage before passage in the House of Lords, gives the British government the ability to force backdoors into messaging services, which will destroy end-to-end encryption. No amendments have been accepted that would mitigate the bill’s most dangerous elements. If it passes, the Online Safety Bill will be a huge step backwards for global privacy, and democracy itself.
I
mightbe cynical af but I believe China is a market they can’t ignore, but the UK, well…they can afford to send a message there. With some quick google-fu it looks like Apple sells more iPhones about every 8 days than it sells in the UK in a year. That’s comparing 2023 numbers for China to 2019 numbers in the UK for the record, I’m too lazy to look past the first few links really, and doubt that math would change enough to ruin the point.They also wouldn’t pull out of the UK, they would likely just revert to SMS there in the messages app rather than give the UK a back door into their encryption.
Of course they could ignore China, they just choose not to because they want more money.
Yes and no, fiduciary duty to shareholders plus they rely on China for manufacturing.