＂Tim Cook's Busy Week＂ - Apple Pressures Texas Over CONTROVERSIAL Online Safety Bill
Episode Stats
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Summary
Apple CEO Tim Cook personally called Texas Governor Greg Abbott to request changes or a veto of a child safety bill requiring app stores to verify users' ages. With an Apple spokesman stating if enacted, that Apple marketplaces will be required to collect and keep sensitive personal identity information for every Texan who wants to download an app, even if it s an app that provides weather updates or sports scores.
Transcript
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Tim Cook called Texas Governor to stop online child safety legislation.
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Why would Tim Cook call to stop online child safety legislation?
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Apple CEO Tim Cook personally called Texas Governor Abbott to request changes
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or a veto of a child safety bill requiring app stores to verify users' ages
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that Apple marketplaces will be required to collect and keep sensitive personal identity information
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even if it's an app that simply provides weather updates or sports scores.
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The bill passed with veto-proof majorities would make Texas the largest state
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potentially increasing costs for Apple and Google.
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The Texas legislation mandates that app stores verify device owners' ages,
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linking minors' accounts to parents for an app approval,
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which supporter Senator Angela Paxton said her parent helped parents understand
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what their children are really interacting with
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and give them tools to help them make a good parenting decision.
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He's working hard and he's got things going on.
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But there's some things in here that America needs to think about.
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If you want to operate a liquor store in the state of Texas,
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You have to check IDs, everybody in there, right?
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And you have to get yourself a liquor license, right?
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You get yourself a license in some state and you operate a liquor store.
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And you have to check IDs for everyone that doesn't look 30
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and have those stickers that are up by the register.
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When you swipe their credit card, you're keeping sensitive information.
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So now all they're saying is, hey, Apple, if you want to operate in the state of Texas
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and when kids are downloading apps like games where they want to buy additional levels and
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things in the games or the games or things like Grand Theft Auto, they're saying, hey,
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You've got to link the kid's account to your account because parents are also asking, wait
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I want to know what's on Instagram and Facebook.
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I know that certain things at Grand Theft Auto are going to get rated higher and I have
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to allow, I have to allow my kid, unless they get around me, to get that app.
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And Tim Cook's being told, but he says, listen, you want to operate a gun store?
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You want to operate a supermarket that sells beer?
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We're asking you to check and we're asking you to link because there's another thing
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hiding an iceberg below the surface that Apple doesn't want to talk about and Meta doesn't
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And the fact is all these statistics on kids and the distraction and what's happening in
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school when they're on social media during class, what's happening to the minds and young
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girls, we don't need to do it now, but there's a ton of data out on young girls that were suffering
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depression, hurting themselves or doing things online.
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They shouldn't be directly attributed to social media and social media platforms that were
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And if you want to sell these things in your store to Texans, you got to check.
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And they said, well, it's going to cost us a lot of money.
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It says, okay, well, let me, let me check checking my notes.
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You're the largest, most valuable company in the world.
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I think you got some walking around money that you can, you can handle putting these
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You're a, you're a software developer, develop things to make it easier.
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Well, I, I want to kick this back to you, PPD, because this seems like something that,
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that parents need to be fully aware of whether they're in Texas or not.
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You know, I, this past weekend, I was at one of my best friends, sons, bar mitzvah, 13 years old.
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So all my friends, their kids are 10, 11, 12, 13 in this age bracket.
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And I remember being at quinceaneras and birthdays and bar mitzvahs, you know, a hundred years ago
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when I was that age and you were so fully in the moment and so fully present.
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So what I want to understand is as a parent, how do you navigate stuff like that these days?
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Because for me, it's very weird seeing kids, 13 years old, 12 years old, just face down in their
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I know you've been very clear about how you handle this, but what's your advice on the general
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Well, I mean, look, what, what Apple is trying to do, we had Layla Micklewaite on and a Pornhub
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owner, Rob, if you remember when we had the Pornhub owner on, and I'm asking him, saying, so
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why aren't you just checking IDs for people that go on Pornhub?
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Is it because 90% of traffic would drop because nobody wants their IDs to be checked?
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The person's going to be like, I don't want to be documented.
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I said, well, you would lose 90 to 95% of your traffic.
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So Layla Micklewaite pursues this and goes as far as doing this.
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And I think she was one of the ones that, you know, caused this Senate bill 2420 to
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be taking place at governor signature, aiming to require app stores to providers like Apple
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This is, this is, let me tell you, this is massive for a lot of people in the porn industry
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that if this legislation goes through in Texas, guess who does it next?
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All the other red states, they're going to say, we want the same exact thing.
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When it comes down to phones, Dylan's over here.
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So as a kid, your kids are going to ask you for the phone for a few different reasons.
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Well, they can't buy if they don't have your credit card.
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But if you don't give them a locked in account that they can't log in and just go buy stuff.
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Or YouTube if they're watching videos and they're watching movies and stuff like that.
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So as a parent, if you want them to like, we're on a flight here and on the flight, you know,
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the kids watch movies in the, you know, on the seat, you can see that.
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He's listening to music, but he's listening to music and he's texting or she's texting.
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Do you want that level of accessibility at that young age to be texting somebody nonstop?
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So now phones and iPads, you have to be, parents have to be very much because kids can tell
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you, I just want to listen to some music, but they're really texting somebody and not playing
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I'm definitely not for, yesterday we went to dinner and we had a few people that are not
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accustomed to being with dinner with us and the phone was sitting on the table and it's
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Because I'm like, my kids are not going to come and say, well, if they can have a phone
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So, you know, we go to summertime, we go vacation together or Christmas or whatever we do.
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I know this sounds weird and we fully put it on a different table and we don't even look
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We're talking, talking, looking at each other, talking, we're talking, we're talking conversation.
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I think we need to go more and more in that direction, but this is to the average parent,
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to the average person that's reading the story.
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They're like, I don't even know why they're covering the story to the average person.
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It may not be a big deal to you, but to somebody that's in business that knows what's about
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to happen with Apple, there is a reason why Tim Cook picked up the call and called the
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governor, not saying one of his C-suite executives to call.
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This could be massive for Apple and very expensive across the board.
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