FCC’s Brendan Carr slams Apple’s Tim Cook for China censorship hypocrisy
By Thomas Barrabi
April 22, 2022
A top Federal Communications Commission official slammed Apple CEO Tim Cook for hypocrisy on human rights issues – arguing the iPhone maker’s dealings with the Chinese Communist Party were at odds with its claimed commitment to protecting consumer rights.
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr detailed his concerns about the tech giant’s activities in China policies in a letter that referenced Cook’s recent keynote address at the IAPP Global Privacy Summit 2022 where Apple’s top boss spoke at length against the exploitation of technology to infringe on users’ rights.
“Indeed, at the very same time that you were speaking in D.C. about your App Store policies promoting privacy and human rights, your company was continuing its well documented campaign in Beijing of aggressively censoring apps at the best of the Communist Party of China,” Carr wrote in the letter.
Many of the allegations are tied to the Chinese government’s crackdown on ethnic and religious minorities in the Xinjiang region – where human rights activists have accused Beijing of various abuses – including mass surveillance, forced labor and the establishment of internment camps. The US government has labeled China’s actions a genocide.
