WOW: Apple CEO refuses to kowtow to anti-gun activists targeting the NRA

It turns out that when it comes to free speech, Apple is more responsible than many universities these days.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has just squashed the demands of anti-gun activists that he remove the NRATV app from their app stores (h/t: The Blaze):

SFGATE – You can’t have democracy without discourse, Tim Cook said in a recent interview, and that’s why the National Rifle Association’s channel is staying on Apple TV.

Following the Parkland shooting, some gun control proponents called for a boycott of companies that stream NRA TV, the pro-gun group’s free television channel. In addition to Apple TV, the NRA channel can be streamed on Amazon, Roku, SiriusXM, iHeartRadio, YouTube, iTunes and Google Chromecast.

In a conversation last week with Recode’s Kara Swisher and MSNBC’s Chris Ayes, Cook addressed the NRA TV controversy by invoking the necessity of protecting free speech.

“Democracy without discourse is not a democracy,” the Apple CEO said.

Cook admitted to disliking the NRA’s “tactics” and “positions” – “Some of the things they’ve said are unbelievably distasteful,” he said – but stressed the importance of representing the NRA “point of view,” as well as the “alternate point of view,” on the Apple streaming service.

If that point of view veers “into the path of hate speech,” it’s another story, he said. “Then we’re cutting it off.”

Apple has a unique responsibility in that they run the app stores on all their devices, including Apple TV, and they police the content. They have ultimate say if something is accepted or rejected. So it’s very good to see they aren’t running their app stores like an activist organization would run it. As an Apple user, this pleases me greatly.


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