The Apple CEO and person Steve Jobs foolishly hand-picked to lead his company after his death in 2011 was at a conference in China this week where he made it known that he believes platforms in the US such as Apple, Facebook and Google need to opt for the same censorship standards as the Chinese Government does in order to squash what Cook believes is “Hate Speech,” otherwise known as speech he doesn’t agree with.
Here is more via The Washington Post:
“BEIJING — Reading headlines from the World Internet Conference in China, the casual reader might have come away a little confused. China was opening its doors to the global Internet, some media outlets optimistically declared, while others said Beijing was defending its system of censorship and state control.
And perhaps most confusing of all, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook stood up and celebrated China’s vision of an open Internet.
Say what?
China has more than 730 million Internet users, boast the largest e-commerce market in the world and consumers who enthusiastically embrace mobile digital technology. But it censors many foreign news websites and keeps most Western social media companies out.
The World Internet Conference held in the eastern Chinese city of Wuzhen is meant to promote China’s vision of “cyber-sovereignty” — the idea that governments all over the world should have the right to control what appears on the Internet in their countries.
In practice, in China, that amounts to the largest system of censorship and digital surveillance in the world, where criticism of the Communist Party is sharply curtailed and can even land you in jail.
But that wasn’t mentioned when Cook delivered a keynote speech on the opening day of the gathering Sunday.
“The theme of this conference — developing a digital economy for openness and shared benefits — is a vision we at Apple share,” Cook said, in widely reported remarks. “We are proud to have worked alongside many of our partners in China to help build a community that will join a common future in cyberspace.”
Chinese media welcomed Cook’s endorsement, with the nationalist Global Times declaring in a headline that “Consensus grows at Internet conference.”
Alongside Cook in endorsing China’s digital vision were officials from countries such as Saudi Arabia and Serbia, it noted.
Free speech and human rights advocates were less impressed.
“Cook’s appearance lends credibility to a state that aggressively censors the internet, throws people in jail for being critical about social ills, and is building artificial intelligence systems that monitors everyone and targets dissent,” Maya Wang at Human Rights Watch in Hong Kong wrote in an email.
“The version of cyberspace the Chinese government is building is a decidedly dystopian one, and I don’t think anyone would want to share in this ‘common future.’ Apple should have spoken out against it, not endorsed it.”
Hey, Cook since you love flaunting your sexuality every chance you get maybe you would also like to adopt the way China deals with Homosexuality?
More on this via Newsweek:
“The worst place in the world for LGBT to live is China, according to a survey that puts Beijing at the bottom of a list of most welcoming cities, alongside several other Chinese cities.
To celebrate Pride Month, German housing website Nestpick ranked the most welcoming cities for people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer. Beijing came last out of a 100 cities, while Shanghai sat at number 89 and Hong Kong at 83.
At the other end, Madrid topped the list, followed by Amsterdam, Toronto, Tel Aviv and London.
Last week, Shanghai Pride activists told The Daily Beast about LGBT life in China, saying that although gay clubs exist, few people come out as many people struggle to be accepted by families and the state. Homosexuality in China was decriminalized in 1997, and was removed from an official list of mental illnesses a few years later.
A 2013 survey by the Pew Research Center found that just 21 percent of China’s population was in favor of homosexuality. There are clinics in China offer still offer “conversion therapy” to homosexuals.
Though most in China do not follow monotheistic religion, unlike many countries with low acceptance of homosexuality, many parts of society still hold conservative views on social issues. One of the activists who spoke to The Daily Beast, Charlene Liu, Shanghai Pride organizer, emphasized this: “The family culture—being able to start a family, getting married, having children to carry on the family name—that itself is one of the biggest issues in the country. And that leads to a whole set of different issues like, do I go into a marriage of convenience, do I become a single parent, and so on.”
However, a study conducted by Peking University in 2016 found that 58 percent of gay and straight Chinese people felt that LGBT people were ostracized by their families. In the same survey, just 15 percent of gay people said they had come out to their families, and fewer than half said that had gone well.
Though homosexuality is not illegal, the state does in some ways restrict LGBT visibility. China’s strict censorship laws extend to film—as well as political censhorship, cutting scenes that portray the government in an unflattering light, the authorities have removed scenes depicting homosexuality, for instance, Michael Fassbender’s gay alien kiss was cut out of the movie Alien: Covenant, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
However, despite a conservative society, younger generations are much more supportive of LGBT rights, with the majority in favor of same-sex marriage being legal. And, as the gay-friendly venue listings in Time Out and Conde Naste Traveler show, it’s still possible to have fun.”
Sometimes you have to be very careful with what you wish for, Tim!
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