Apple refuses to engrave ‘liberate’ protest slogan on HK customer’s Apple Pencil

Do I like this? No. Do I approve of this? No. But does it surprise me? Also no.<p>Apple has time and time again chosen to take the side of oppressive regimes (by banning apps in HK that help protesters, forcing Telegram to remove chat groups that help protesters in Belarus, etc).<p>It is to be expected. In all such cases, the protestors are on the right side of history by fighting oppressive&#x2F;authoritarian regimes.<p>But Apple (like most corporations) only really cares about money at the end of the day. If they don&#x27;t do stuff like this, it&#x27;ll just lead to them being banned from operating in these countries. Then they won&#x27;t be able to make money. It is what it is.<p>Long gone are the days in which Google refused to operate in China because it was asked to censor searches.<p>The only reason Google search doesn&#x27;t operate in China today is because leads to massive backlash each time they try to go back on that decision. But if Google&#x27;s current management had been in place back then, they would have never made that stand in the first place.<p>Ethical public companies simply cannot exist in this world.

Similar story: Back in 2001, Jonah Peretti requested the word &quot;sweatshop&quot; engraved on his Nike shoes. They refused the request, and it became a Thing.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;knowyourmeme.com&#x2F;memes&#x2F;events&#x2F;nike-id-sweatshop-e-mail-controversy" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;knowyourmeme.com&#x2F;memes&#x2F;events&#x2F;nike-id-sweatshop-e-ma...</a><p>Peretti later went on to found BuzzFeed.

If you&#x27;re looking to a giant corporation&#x27;s products to be a channel for the expression of your moral position, you&#x27;re looking in the wrong places.<p>Just the fact you want to buy their products speaks more than any 8 letters you can choose to engrave &#x2F; &quot;personalize&quot; your dollars with.<p>Go work to do real things, change real things. Corporations swing with the wind, and just as soon as they would support what movement you have this month, they might abandon the next. Do something that sticks.

It&#x27;s hard not to be cynical about Apple&#x27;s supposed commitment to social justice issues in America when they do stuff like this abroad. Apple under Tim Cook may be succeeding financially, but their hypocrisy is becoming too much to ignore. At least Jobs had the decency to <i>try</i> and be apolitical.

It is simple: Don&#x27;t vote for Apple with your money. Especially iPhones. But wait they are tinkering with search engine project. They will support freedom of speech, or not. Interesting times we live in, very interesting.:)

Greedy corp is afraid of losing totalitarian regime&#x27;s market, news at 11.

Do all engravement requests have to be approved by several tiers of heirachy before getting made?

What about that great 1984 commercial?

The 21st century will be the Chinese century

If this, and other decisions by Apple <i>for</i> China makes you upset or angry, do email the CEO Tim Cook (his email address is easily found online) and let him know your displeasure and that you’re not going to buy things from the company as much as you used to. I don’t think he reads HN or any other forum regularly.<p>Quote back to him his own statements in interviews where he has emphasized that Apple supports human rights. Also quote other areas where Apple has spoken <i>for</i> the people (like “Dreamers”, for example). Ask why Apple is being so hypocritical.<p>Well written correspondence can get through, and can make a difference down the line.

Well, I guess Apple really do Think Different.<p>At least different than the rest of the civilized world, but that&#x27;s not too surprising either given their history.

I was confused by the title, at first I thought they refused to engrave the word “liberate”.

This is the chilling effect of our close economic ties to oppressive regimes. I dont know if we can expect Apple to stand up to China. I think our government needs to do more to set the parameters of our economic interactions with them.

&quot;The higher-ups&quot; are screening engravement messages? Call me naive but that sounds like nonsense. At least, it SHOULD be nonsense.<p>If true they must be terrified of upsetting the CCP.

I&#x27;m guessing the engraving happens in China. No way the CCP lets that happen. It&#x27;s like ordering a set of &quot;free hk&quot; t-shirts from a Chinese printer.

I’ve always wondered how much human intervention they add to the engraving.<p>“cunt” can’t even be submitted, but “c u n t” could be last time I tried. Didn’t order it, just had a laugh. One could also go with Scunthorpe and add some Tipex.<p>(Yes, I’m twelve and think that’s funny)<p>On a related note: a few months ago I read an article about how Disney(?) tried to sensor “bad words” in one of their Habbo-Hotel like apps for kids. Starting with blacklists, moving to whitelists, then trying a scratch-like building blocks. People would start to arrange sofas to talk to each other. You can’t really stop it.<p>Can’t find it anymore though.

Some next level censorship by local Apple employees, probably don&#x27;t want to get caught in crosshairs after it blows up

I was thinking of buying a new iPad, I&#x27;m pretty turned off now.<p>Disgusted really.

Let&#x27;s not lose focus of what really matters here: money.

I thought Apple was &quot;socially aware&quot;?

here&#x27;s to the crazy ones

Company refuses to do what&#x27;s bad for business, news at 10.

Why is this news ???.

Misleading headline. He was trying to engrave &quot;LIBERATE HKERS&quot;.

&quot;Liberate&quot; is different from &quot;Liberate HKers&quot;. Please make the topic headline more accurate. And it is obvious why Apple will not allow this in China&#x2F;HK.

If I should ever buy an Apple Pencil, I will order a &quot;Liberate HKers&quot; inscription for moral support. But then, I don&#x27;t live in Chinese jurisdiction.<p>Corporations won&#x27;t support us in the development of civil society, that&#x27;s our own job. They will abide by the rules of whoever is in power in their respective regions of operation. Their purpose is to make money and if that requires that they engage in slavery, torture, or mass murder, they will do just that. Consult the history books for examples.