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by spoonjim 1857 days ago
It’s basically impossible for an American company to defy the American government. They can try in court but ultimately the government has F-22s and nuclear weapons and Apple does not.
4 comments

Thanks, now I'm imagining a dystopia where large tech companies have their own militaries.
If you want to watch a fictional version, the scifi shows Continuum and Dark Matter both portrayed a future where corporations ran the governments or were the governments.
See the Citizen app that was front page a day or two ago.
This is completely untrue. Tell me the last time the US government used nukes and F22s on a company lmao. You always have courts and laws.
All laws are backed by the threat of overwhelming violence. If you have a corporate fine, and you don’t pay it, the state will seize your property. If you stand in your doorway and obstruct the sheriff, he will arrest you. If you resist the arrest with weapons, he will bring his own weapons. If you have enough weapons to require a military response, a military response is what you will get.
What about Apple's fight with the FBI over iPhone encryption? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI%E2%80%93Apple_encryption_d...

It's definitely not common, but it happens.

If the military went against the law then they'd be rebels. The fed doesn't let rebels drive the tanks.

They don't need to use weapons to spy on citizens. The constitutional right to privacy was stripped in the Bush era and it's been open season ever since.