Tim Cook Faces FTC Warning Over Apple News Curation

[Jumpthesnark]

Why would anyone give you a thumbs down for correcting misinformation with actual numbers?

I laughed at that myself. I guess facts ruined their day.

 

[The_Gream]

What’s with the constant whining?
Do they ever get bored playing the same old victim card over and over again?

It works for Elon and Tim Epic /s

 

[johnmacward]

there is no such thing as "left leaning" in the US mainstream media.

There's the right (Fox, WSJ, Newsmax, Breitbart, etc) and then there's the center (NYT, WAPO, CNN, etc), but there's no such thing as the left.

In practice, the US has only one party (pro business) with a fascist wing and a status quo wing.

A perfect analysis. The left is non-existent in the US, even if left-wing activists exist, they are mostly portrayed as colourful haired hippies who are "wackos" and scorned in the most liberal of media as such. As a European who sees a lot of US news, Americans simply don't know what left means any more and it's kind of ironic as your early labour history was pretty damn left-wing and anti-business.

That history has been mostly hid from you and hence you've become a country that the very powerful business community runs to ordinary peoples detriment. It still shocks me to hear the amount of people who have to work two or three jobs to make ends meet (again, just to make ends meet, not even to thrive). Education is a capitalist institution as well and hence only available to the dreadfully indebted or the very wealthy. You're a country of business wage-slaves and yet you somehow have managed to call this "freedom". We're the same in Europe for sure, however that propaganda works a lot less over here. Freedom exists for sure, but realistically only for the very wealthy who in reality are protected from the slings and arrows of capitalism by the "too big to fail" mentality of socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor.

Your media is absolutely dreadful, with what's called the "left" being nothing more than the capitalist wing of the Democratic party and the right being the Republican party (which by definition is uber capitalist). The frame of discussion has ALWAYS got to take place in this frame of reference and radical left ideas cannot get oven one molecule of air.

Only independent media, which tend to be small insignificant outlets, actually push a somewhat social democratic media that's hardly radical left.

For the country that pushes the joys of "choice" to the population, your political system is utterly devoid of it. Again, please understand that the Dems et the Reps are basically the same thing - representatives of two sides of the ruling wealthy elite (either liberal or conservative, yet both utterly wedded to capitalism).

The real left sees the elimination of capitalism as the end goal and those words cannot be uttered in the US except among certain small sectors of the US population.

 

[johnmacward]

Apple News is clearly heavily left leaning, like 90% of mainstream media, but you can just choose not to use it. It is disappointing that it is so lame, but that's the way it goes. I am not a fan of the government pressure. I would prefer the market to just continue ignoring it. Terrible ratings is the best way to deal with biased content.

Could you enlighten us as to what's so left-leaning about mainstream media ?

 

[amartinez1660]

It’s “news” so it will be inherently political and will be politicized. News apps and news websites exist. Stay out of it all and above the fray. Refocus on hardware and making app stores and app dev tools and get out of stuff that’s overtly political, leave both sides to fight it out and refocus the company on device stuff, like how much key travel a keyboard should have. Why their mouse sucks ass. Why users cannot crop a video system wide. How Google leapfrogged them in documents. Unboxing and setting up a new device. The lack of dual and triple port chargers. Why iMessage should be cross-platform (spoiler: so an Apple device user can easily message everyone out of the box and no longer need to install other messaging apps). Devices sizes (bigger and smaller). How fluid and delightful the software experience is. Product stuff.

I agree with this (and previous takes). Those comments judging you about not focusing on the news angle just want to stir and drag everybody to their left vs right never ending bottomless dirty pit fight nonsense.

The problem with all of these “distraction” services is that we pay for them sooner or later… example via Apple One family tier. I bet left leaning people wouldn’t be happy paying if Apple News were to be majorly right. Same for the very few rights that visit MacRumors.
(Myself I often forget that it even exists).
But it indeed feels that it takes away from more neutral and largely more enjoyable software, like Apple Music… that thing still bugs out often, the macOS app version is still terrible and not up to par to the iOS experience, amongst others.

While in this very specific example, I would rather it have Apple News than not, I do still agree that Apple should truly focus back on key useful software and hardware endeavors. Left vs Right battles be damned

 

[johnmacward]

Agree to disagree then.

Clara is actually correct here. If you're delineating line is Democrats are better than Republicans or "liberals are better than conservatives", then unfortunately Dems / liberals of today and the last 40 years are incredibly disappointing and they don't deserve your support, especially if your a decent human being who actually gives a crap about the well-being of others. They are a slightly more socially permitting wing of a massive pro-business class that voted for the worst of American wars, did nothing to stop illegal intervention in multiple foreign countries, blame the genuine radical left for any and all of their failures, are utterly and totally in the pocket of big-business (just like the Republicans) and push hard on the mass killing of Palestinians (even way before the 7th of October).

Ordinary Americans do not OWN their politics - whether Democrat or Republican - the business classes have taken that over. Your politics we're purchased fully and completely in the 70's around the time of the Powell Memo (listen to "The Master Plan" on podcast, very in depth history of how your politics was bought hook line and sinker.). Citizens United was the business community wanting the right to spend unlimited money on buying off politicians so no matter who you voted for, they wouldn't represent you.

Get radical and fight for you and your people.

 

[Philip_S]

"The FTC is not the speech police; we do not have the authority to require Apple or any other firm to take affirmative positions on any political issue, nor to curate news offerings consistent with one ideology or another.“

Cool. Go pound sand then.

It would be fair, and pro-consumer, to insist that aggregators make clear whether they’re just recommending (within broad and public rules, eg no porn) based on your viewing and how compares to others’ (which is what podcasts and music appear to do) or if they’re promoting particular content based on either their own editorial judgement or payola.

Otoh, it wouldn’t be fair to apply that only to one outlet. It’s also absurd that they think WaPo is still “left” even by American standards, or that the Daily Heil has ever been anything but right wing if you look beyond the “look at her tits dress” articles

 

[Philip_S]

Apple News is an aggregator, pulling together stories from several news outlets. It's a convenient way to get a healthy cross-section. This "warning" is about them not including enough of the entertainment-oriented rags.

It’s full of clickbait low-quality “health” and lifestyle articles, even after I set my interests and turns all that crap off. I haven’t bothered to use it enough to train it differently, so it might get better with use.

I’d assumed the complainants were rage-clicking on articles and then whining about being shown more of them.

 

[Artemiz]

It works for Elon and Tim Epic /s

No idea what you’re talking about.

 

[Philip_S]

It’s better for society as a whole that a news story about the earth’s revolution around the sun and rotation on its own axis and how that affects weather patterns wouldn’t have to provide a “contrasting viewpoint” with “equal time” talking about a glass-domed flat earth has governments with machines that can juice the weather to increase the severity of natural disasters to push a “narrative” or “agenda”.

That problem would be solved by only applying it to subjective and normative statements, with a separate rule saying that statements regarding facts (ie those where the question “is that true” is valid, even if the answer is unknown) must be cited in the article, and any conflicts of interest must be stated with the citation.

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

I agree with this (and previous takes). Those comments judging you about not focusing on the news angle just want to stir and drag everybody to their left vs right never ending bottomless dirty pit fight nonsense.

The problem with all of these “distraction” services is that we pay for them sooner or later… example via Apple One family tier. I bet left leaning people wouldn’t be happy paying if Apple News were to be majorly right. Same for the very few rights that visit MacRumors.
(Myself I often forget that it even exists).
But it indeed feels that it takes away from more neutral and largely more enjoyable software, like Apple Music… that thing still bugs out often, the macOS app version is still terrible and not up to par to the iOS experience, amongst others.

While in this very specific example, I would rather it have Apple News than not, I do still agree that Apple should truly focus back on key useful software and hardware endeavors. Left vs Right battles be damned

There's the meme: full-sized person, a "fat cat" wearing a top hat and a monocle looking down observing in a glass box a miniature angry urban woman with blue hair shouting at a miniature angry rural man wearing a red trucker cap and corresponding attire.

I stopped playing the game. I resist the temptation to comment these days. Most people who are angry have no idea they are players in an endless game.

Upstairs, Downstairs UK TV series from the early '70s—set in and around WWI in London. My mother was able to show me a scene where the characters were having virtually the same political arguments people are having today. I could only laugh. The distractions will continue until our eyes are open.

"Are you left or are you right?"

"I love my puppy. Do you want a cup of tea?"

 

[Philip_S]

I would like to see a Constitutional amendment that bans individuals or families from owning above a 5% share of any media outlet, or perhaps institute a cap on individual or family media ownership share that is inversely proportional to readership/viewership.

I’d like an amendment imposing strict spending caps on all forms of political activity (even by candidates, and including support in kind) so no one can spend more than the poorest voter can afford (as cash) and non-citizens (including corporations) can’t outspend citizens.

 

[nt5672]

It is very important to actually study history and realize how much things can change, yet still be called the same thing.

And how much of that reported change in actually propaganda covering up the reality.

 

[Karma*Police]

Your whole argument swings on the idea that Breitbart is an independent fair minded objective provider of verifiable truth.

One thing you could do is to take any story you linked to and fact check where that Hoax started and ended up using chatGPT.

Then you might understand why many here feel sorry for you as a victim of far right propaganda.

Let me explain that; All of your links are titled HOAX, they are written to appeal to a demographic with a particular mindset, in this case "Open to Conspiracy Theories" or "Belief in a deep state elite class pulling strings!" When you click, your prejudices (we all have them) get confirmed and emboldened. Author's will take some facts, twist them, add a few of their own and twist again. There will be no doubt in a reader's mind that SOMETHING, even if it's not that, is going on! That's why we feel sorry for people who have been sucked in, they've lost objective truth and they are blindly unaware of having it taken from them.

I noted that Breitbart billed themselves as a conservative outlet. Personally, I don’t care which way a news org leans. I care about the truth, and at the very least not being lied to.

However, the mainstream media that bills itself as arbiters of objective truth is pushing left-wing narratives instead of news which is far more dangerous because innocent people like you will fall victim to their propaganda, going so far as calling ideas that disagree with the mainstream narrative conspiracy theories. The question is, how many conspiracy theories need to be true before you realize you’re being lied to and turn to more reliable sources like Breitbart that’s constantly debunking their lies? Here’s just a couple of glaring examples of how the media lied, and continues to lie to you…

 

[ClaraStahlbaum]

A perfect analysis. The left is non-existent in the US, even if left-wing activists exist, they are mostly portrayed as colourful haired hippies who are "wackos" and scorned in the most liberal of media as such. As a European who sees a lot of US news, Americans simply don't know what left means any more and it's kind of ironic as your early labour history was pretty damn left-wing and anti-business.

That history has been mostly hid from you and hence you've become a country that the very powerful business community runs to ordinary peoples detriment. It still shocks me to hear the amount of people who have to work two or three jobs to make ends meet (again, just to make ends meet, not even to thrive). Education is a capitalist institution as well and hence only available to the dreadfully indebted or the very wealthy. You're a country of business wage-slaves and yet you somehow have managed to call this "freedom". We're the same in Europe for sure, however that propaganda works a lot less over here. Freedom exists for sure, but realistically only for the very wealthy who in reality are protected from the slings and arrows of capitalism by the "too big to fail" mentality of socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor.

Your media is absolutely dreadful, with what's called the "left" being nothing more than the capitalist wing of the Democratic party and the right being the Republican party (which by definition is uber capitalist). The frame of discussion has ALWAYS got to take place in this frame of reference and radical left ideas cannot get oven one molecule of air.

Only independent media, which tend to be small insignificant outlets, actually push a somewhat social democratic media that's hardly radical left.

For the country that pushes the joys of "choice" to the population, your political system is utterly devoid of it. Again, please understand that the Dems et the Reps are basically the same thing - representatives of two sides of the ruling wealthy elite (either liberal or conservative, yet both utterly wedded to capitalism).

The real left sees the elimination of capitalism as the end goal and those words cannot be uttered in the US except among certain small sectors of the US population.

This is an interesting assessment. I often use the term "left" to refer to the wackos and crazy "activists", but the term does not truly fit what they represent. I genuinely think what you see of those people is craziness, insanity, rather than any kind of coherent ideology.

Everything you say here is correct. This country is an oligarchy dominated by extremely rich and small elite who own all of the medias (left or right wing), who own the main companies you see in stores to give you an illusion of choice. As someone who lives in the United States, everything feels artificial and soul-less. You have both the "revolutionary" politicians, at least, those who portray themselves as such (Trump and Sanders), who when they are in power, cozy up to the elite and give them kickbacks. We have never had an actual "left" politician or leader in any real power who actually seeks to reduce the power of the elites in any meaningful way in a long, long time.

In my opinion, I would probably be considered a radical for saying this - but I want this country to be run without politicians, instead of politicians, I would rather there be an apolitical council of people representing various trades. Politicians are scum, on both sides. The less power they have, the better off we'll be. The big businesses in this country aren't even honestly businesses, they are part of the government with how much they are involved and influence things. The first thing that needs to change is that big business needs to be removed from politics and the big corporations all need to be broken up. The US economy isn't very competitive. It's dominated by the same monopolies who have had power for all these years.

Our media in this country constantly lies to you, both parties constantly lie to you. This country's elite is a global empire which seeks to extract resources from other countries to enrich their shareholders. It has nothing to do with "Freedom" or "Democracy". What kind of a "Democracy", are we, when we have only "Two" choices to choose from, and both of them agree with each other on foreign and economic policy?

 

[jlc1978]

Is it a reasonably intelligent conservative voice? Yes. Yes it is. Is that what passes for left-learning now? “Oh sure, you’re conservative, but you stick to the facts! Insanity!”

For many. left leaning is anything to the left of their position; as evidence by those who consider Fox News no longer sufficiently right wing.

Where as Fox News seems literally mental. It's like a television version of our Daily Mail. Just utter nonense by over dramatic over excited nutty people. It's very very weird - but then so is a lot of America.

Some of whom are now in government. Weird is fine as long as it is on the front porch with a beer, not driving the car.

 

[groove-agent]

How can Apple be accused of being left when Tim attends Trump's parties? 🤔

 

[VulchR]

I’d like an amendment imposing strict spending caps on all forms of political activity (even by candidates, and including support in kind) so no one can spend more than the poorest voter can afford (as cash) and non-citizens (including corporations) can’t outspend citizens.

I agree wholeheartedly. I believe that the US has a structural problem whereby wealth inequality is effortlessly translated into power inequality (the Epstein child rape ring is just a symptom of this). I would love to see Constitutional amendments to block that (reforming campaign finance, lobbying, conflicts of interest and bribery laws, corporate interference in elections, media ownership (as mentioned in my post above), and PAC's). I am not anti-free speech. I am anti-disproportionate-amplification-of-speech through money and political bribery.

I am concerned that this structural issue will impact on the continued lack or regulation of AI, as tech bros put politicians in their pocket. Apple's case is a little different though - it seems the government is picking on them more than being bribed by them. I wonder to what extent this puts Apple at an unfair disadvantage.

 

[DeftwillP]

Why would anyone give you a thumbs down for correcting misinformation with actual numbers?

Don't you know? That poster (who gave it a thumbs down) is the model citizen of r/enlightenedcentrism. Both sides are evil. You're all sheep for not seeing it.

Nevermind that the scales of evil tip ever so slightly to the right and by that, I mean that the de facto lead of the republicans has his name in a file as much if not more than the namesake of the file. And everyone under him sits quietly because they must support child rape, I guess.

"oh but gates and clinton" punish them too if they're guilty. But start doing something.

 

[The_Gream]

No idea what you’re talking about.

Your message

“What’s with the constant whining?
Do they ever get bored playing the same old victim card over and over again?”

If MR isn’t reporting something along the lines of this thread, they fill in the gaps with Elon and Epic lawsuits.

Anytime someone does something Elon doesn’t like, he threatens then sues them.
Tim Epic, purposely violated a contract, whined when his company’s product got kicked and whined all the way to the courts, and still pretty much lost.

 

[ClaraStahlbaum]

I agree wholeheartedly. I believe that the US has a structural problem whereby wealth inequality is effortlessly translated into power inequality (the Epstein child rape ring is just a symptom of this). I would love to see Constitutional amendments to block that (reforming campaign finance, lobbying, conflicts of interest and bribery laws, corporate interference in elections, media ownership (as mentioned in my post above), and PAC's). I am not anti-free speech. I am anti-disproportionate-amplification-of-speech through money and political bribery.

You are really speaking my language here, if such a thing ever could happen - it would be a great fresh air to the US. I would also like to see an amendment banning lobbying on behalf of foreign powers (such as Israel.)

 

[ss2cire]

My opinion: Apple should leave the content business, period. Allow app makers to fill that gap, there are well enough of them.

i dont see why it's a problem for them to be in the content business, it's not like Apple is using all their devs to curate and make consumer content (like news etc) it's a department of it's own. the devs themslves can still focus on what they need to do. i'll admit though that they haven't done a very good job of that as of the last few years (probably longer)

 

[Karma*Police]

I agree with you on this. However this isn't just a left-wing problem, it takes two to tango - so they say anyway.

Agreed but the ideology on the left is extreme and

None of this true. In fact, the mainstream media leans conservative and regularly gives Republicans a pass for things it has previously criticized Democrats for. You need to step out of the Fox News bubble sometime.

You’re joking, right? Outside of Fox, what mainstream media is conservative?

CNN, Reuters, AP, WP, NYT, PBS, ABC, CBS, NBC, ESPN, Bloomberg, Newsweek, MSNBC, all of Hollywood, etc. are all left to far-left.

I think you’re the one living in a bubble. I don’t blame you since leftist ideology is everywhere, but at some point I think you’ll realize as I, and millions of Americans have, that mainstream media has become a propaganda machine for the Dems. It’s also why trust in media continues to hit new lows and why they’re shutting down or having mass layoffs while independent media continues to grow.

Remember this bit of “right wing conspiracy theory” peddled by every major news outlet outside of Fox?

 

[BaldiMac]

Agreed but the ideology on the left is extreme and

You’re joking, right? Outside of Fox, what mainstream media is conservative?

CNN, Reuters, AP, WP, NYT, PBS, ABC, CBS, NBC, ESPN, Bloomberg, Newsweek, MSNBC, all of Hollywood, etc. are all left to far-left.

When you're on the far right everything seems to your left. Most of what you chose to highlight here is center to center left. Heck, AP and Reuters are the most middle of the road, fact-based reporting around.

 

[bgillander]

And how much of that reported change in actually propaganda covering up the reality.

Apparently nearly 100% of the numbers you had stated, which is really strange when it comes to verifiable data over 150 years old. Historically the propaganda was more current and tended to sway more accurate over years as more of the truth bubbled its way to the top as time passed. Of course, that trend was established prior to everyone with a computer having a platform to further cloud it.

But, sure, we can still pretend Trotsky never existed.