[p49k]

Apple is most certainly in a position to influence government. They have a device in the hands of more than a billion people who spend hours per day staring at it.

They absolutely have a responsibility to fight for human rights and freedom. By your logic, no one would ever engage in any kind of civil obedience and no one would be able to effect change: the government, after all, is also more powerful than any individual protestor and many of them are risking their livelihoods or even their lives by protesting.

[sneak]

The most famous advocate of civil disobedience in the US got executed as a result of his prominence.

(In an ultimate irony, Tim Apple keeps a picture of him (MLK) on the wall in his office, alongside a picture of the guy who signed the order as Attorney General to have the FBI put him under 24/7 surveillance (RFK), which resulted in the FBI sending him (MLK) anonymous letters attempting to blackmail him into suicide.)

Apple knows which way the wind blows. Even if they wanted to engage in the maximum amount of resistance that is feasible/practicable, that's not really very much, especially when an organization friendly to the US military has literally every single rich/connected person and the entirety of the executive, legislature, and judiciary under bulk surveillance at all times.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-fbi-icloud-exclusiv...

https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/7/20903613/apple-hiding-tai...

https://www.npr.org/2019/10/10/768841864/after-china-objects...

https://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/tim-cook-barack-obama...

https://gigaom.com/2014/09/18/apples-warrant-canary-disappea...

[hvis]

> They have a device in the hands of more than a billion people who spend hours per day staring at it.

Including 99% of Russian legislators. They're suckers for luxury.

To be fair, though, executing political pressure through this kind of means might raise certain red flags back in US, even if that only happens in Russia, one time.