“Yes, dear leader.” - Timmy Apple
this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2025
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I’d love to give this a simple upvote. What is Tim Cook’s choice here? Operate illegally in China until the government shuts down their entire source of revenue in an entire market which, also, is the one that produces nearly all of its hardware?
If he doesn’t do it - shareholders will remove him in the blink of an eye and replace him with someone who will.
Where I’m agreeing though is - my current phone is my last Apple phone. I’ll be going with Graphene after this. I don’t want corporations telling me what software I can and can’t run on my decides while surveilling me.
Devils advocate:
…It’s kinda strategic for Apple to “stay.”
Let’s say they say no, and get kicked out of China. You think the Chinese tech giants are going to put up a fight about dating apps?
Seems better to Apple to keep a finger in the pie and do what they can get away with, if only for the LGBTQ folks.
Another example I used to point to is Steam which got away with sneaking a lot of culture into China under the government's nose. And it’s cause they didn’t make loud trouble.
This is literally the same argument that Elon made in defense of censoring Twitter in Turkey.
Elon is more aligned with Turkey's politics though, right?
Tim Cook is gay. I don’t think there’s much pretense of him liking this one bit.
I’m sure it is. My point is - what do Lemmy users expect out of a for-profit company operating inside of a capitalistic economic system? Saying “no” to China’s LGBT hating demands is impossible in this situation.
Same, just holding onto my iPhone 11 till the graphene phone comes out
Buy a inexpensive compatible Pixel Device that can run graphene OS and try it out.
Please please please be a good phone. I feel like that’ll be great. I’d like a Linux phone, but I can’t see that shaping up as a Linux reliable daily driver in the next couple of years.
You could probably sell your phone and get an older Pixel for pretty much nothing if you wanted to swap now.
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The trouble with appeasement is that you’re eventually pushed to the point where you won’t cave anymore. You say no. And they punish you for it.
And now, all that appeasement has meant nothing. You sold your soul, you didn’t fight back, you did damage to yourself or your reputation or your customers or whatever. But you’re right where you would have been if you didn’t appease at all.
You have an enemy. If you didn’t, they wouldn’t be making you do terrible things. Do you want to tell them no to their face now? Or after they’ve recruited you into their scheme for years?
It’s sunk cost fallacy as international strategy and it’s terrible.
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Any pushback, any moralization, any sort of semblance of a spine.
Not just 'fuck LGBTQ'.
Don't you worry, Android is about to get locked down too and the biggest open source app store already said they are going to close up shop. It's all going to shit.
Better be smart and buy a phone that runs well with PostmarketOS or Ubuntu Touch if you desire freedom.
the biggest open source app store already said they are going to close up shop.
What? F-droid isn't going anywhere afaik.
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Look out, the tankies will swarm to deny that this problem exists.
One of them already downvoted you. I'm sure that more of them are coming.
Does China know Tim Cook is gay? Does Tim Cook?
Yes, but he's straight for pay.
Currently on a business trip where it’s technically illegal for me to exist. Feeling this comment.
More importantly does Tim Cook know he's Ellen DeGeneres?
He can't hear you over the sound of all the money entering his bank account.
Tim Cook absolutely doesn't
I'm sure he's happy to fuck all Apple customers for money if he thinks he can get away with it, which strictly speaking would make him Pansexual.
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china doesnt care if you have tons of cash, thats why asians love westerners that are wealthy or well off, they want to be them. and thats why alot of tend towards conservatism too(at least the older ones) john xina, DWAYNE johnson, and some white influencers cater to the country.
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Apple told Wired that it must “follow the laws in the countries where we operate.”
Businesses always lie about supporting queer causes. They only care about the money.
If it was more profitable to be fascist nazis, that's what they would do.
I mean, it didn’t stop them from disobeying laws in western countries and the EU. They will comply when they know there’s no way to wiggle out of it
As someone else mentioned, if he didn't cave & risked losing the China market, the board would replace him in a heartbeat with someone who will do whatever it takes to keep the money flowing.
I can only imagine this pains him to do seeing as he's gay himself.
The dude gave a fucking golden statue to Trump. He doesn’t give a shit about other gays, he got his billions and bent the knee. Fuck him and fuck apple.
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Same logic applies to the nazis.
Remember that above all else, rich people identify as rich. All the divides on gender or sexual/romantical preferences are secondary to the rich yes/no question.
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China has increasingly cracked down on LGBTQ+ individuals’ rights and groups in recent years
Yeah, it has a conservative streak disguised as post-Deng communism where the only freedom there is to make money and rip off another fellow citizen, anywhere from dating scams and pig butchering to tofu-dreg products.
Part of the problem with "China Bad" articles is that they tend to report "Thing Happened" without diving into the "Here's Why". If you get past the Engadget article that's just a four paragraph click-through/reprint of the Wired article and read the original piece, there's at least a bit more meat on the bone.
https://www.wired.com/story/apple-removes-gay-dating-apps-china-app-store/
In July, Blued abruptly stopped new user registration without giving an explanation, according to Chinese social media posts. For a month, Chinese users who wanted to get on the platform were paying as much as $20 for secondhand Blued accounts on ecommerce websites. But registration resumed in mid-August.
In 2020, BlueCity, the parent company of Blued, went public. It announced that the app had over 49 million registered users and over 6 million monthly active users. The same year, BlueCity said it was acquiring Finka, its main competitor in China, for about $33 million. The company delisted in 2022 and was acquired by Newborn Town, a Hong Kong–listed social media firm. Most of the longtime employees of Blued, including its founder Ma Baoli, left the company after the acquisition, says a former Blued employee who asked not to be named for privacy reasons.
In 2024, Blued rebranded its international version of the app to HeeSay, which became popular among users in India, Pakistan, and the Philippines, according to The Wall Street Journal. HeeSay remains available in app stores.
So the apps merged, then were traded, had the team gutted, and the app pivoted to serving an entirely new audience of users.
Why would this provoke a response from a Chinese regulator? Idk. Would be great to find out further details from the news outlet itself, rather than just getting another "China hates gay people" superficial response.
It doesn't look like the Cyberspace Administration of China purged all gay dating apps from their behind-the-firewall app store. So it seems premature to conclude this is a new vast pogrom against gay dating. Was Blued/Finka filling up with scams to the point that a regulator stepped in? Was there some kind of personal beef between the new owners and the Chinese regulatory agency? Did a bribe not get paid? Is this actually the beginning of a vast pogrom against all dating apps?
No fucking clue. And nobody doing the reporting seems to be interested in following up and asking.
Ok so... make an app for finding "friends" and leave it up to users to discuss whether they want to slob knobs or paint miniatures or whatever
okay, hear me out - sure, the apps need to be removed from the app store
why can't people just install them separately anyways?
It took the EU to force Apple to allow sideloading and Apple obviously implemented it horribly.
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What the hell are the GOP gonna use to find the all male orgies when the my visit their handlers in china?
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