Apple CEO Tim Cook recently sat down for an interview with VICE News Tonight on HBO's Elle Reeve, and the footage from the interview aired tonight on HBO.
Cook covered topics that include the importance of privacy, Apple's relationship with China, and why Apple blocked conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his Infowars app and podcast. The full VICE News Tonight on HBO interview can be watched below.
On privacy and its impact on Siri, Cook said that Apple doesn't believe that personal data is needed to make services better. "Whoever's telling you that -- it's a bunch of bonk," he said.
Cook also said Apple has not made it easier for the Chinese government to get data from Chinese customers because the company uses the same encryption everywhere.
It's not easy for anybody to get it. I mean it's it's encrypted like it is everywhere. And so no, I wouldn't I wouldn't get caught up in the, 'Where's the location of it?' I mean, we have servers located in many different countries in the world. They are not easier to get data from being in one country versus the next.
On the topic of Alex Jones, Cook said that the removal of the Infowars show from Apple podcasts is an example of the importance of human curation. Cook also said that Apple does not lean one way or the other politically, and it wasn't taking a political stance removing Jones' offensive content.
What users want from us and what we've always provided them is a curated platform. We think the what the user wants is someone that does review these apps, someone that does review the podcasts, someone that on like Apple news, where a human is selecting the top stories. And that's what we do. We don't take a political stand. We're not leaning one way or the other. You can tell that from the stuff on the App Store and in podcasts etc. You'll see everything from very conservative to very liberal. And that's the way I think it should be.
Cook went on to explain that there was no coordination between tech companies after Facebook and Twitter both removed Infowars content after Apple did. "I've never even had a conversation about [Alex Jones] with other tech companies," he said. "We make our decisions independently and I think that's important."
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Top Rated Comments
(View all)Now if Tim really believes this, then just provide a switch to select curated or not and see how many want curated versus not censored. I'll bet a significant portion will select no censorship. But no, that'll never happen because it will expose the political bias that Tim denies.
Don't like what he's saying - then don't listen to him.
Simple as that.
This makes me miss Apple when Steve was still the CEO.
I thought it was incredibly weird that she asked him "why didn't you talk to other companies about Alex?". Dumb question.
To be fair, it's Vice. Extreme leftists. She obviously wasn't going to push the real issue at hand that much. She's probably glad he's gone so she can be spoonfed her safe CNN nightly news, followed by some Jimmy Kimmel on ABC to give her some giggles.