Robert De Niro accuses Apple of censoring awards speech
https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/29/23980781/robert-de-niro-apple-censoring-gotham-awards-speech-donald-trump
Bits where he criticized Donald Trump and the film industry were cut.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/29/23980781/robert-de-niro-apple-censoring-gotham-awards-speech-donald-trump
Bits where he criticized Donald Trump and the film industry were cut.
The part of the speech that was removed:
“History isn’t history anymore. Truth is not truth. Even facts are being replaced by alternative facts and driven by conspiracy theories and ugliness. In Florida, young students are taught that slaves developed skills which can be applied for their personal benefit.
The entertainment industry isn’t immune to this festering disease. The Duke, John Wayne, famously said of Native Americans, ‘I don’t feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them. There were great numbers of people who needed new land and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.’
Lying has become just another tool in the charlatan’s arsenal. The former president lied to us more than 30,000 times during his four years in office, and he’s keeping up the pace in his current campaign of retribution. But with all his lies, he can’t hide his soul. He attacks the weak, destroys the gifts of nature, and shows disrespect, for example, by using ‘Pocahontas’ as a slur.”
Meanwhile:
The actor appeared onstage at the ceremony on Monday night for the presentation of the Gotham Historical Icon and Creator Tribute to Martin Scorsese’s Killers Of The Flower Moon, a film distributed by Apple that focuses on a series of murders targeting the Osage people in Oklahoma during the 1920s after oil was discovered on tribal land.
Apple is about making money. If honesty and integrity do not increase profits, they will be discarded.
They all do until it affects profits.
Corporations are legal people but they are all literal psychopaths. They will do or say anything to keep the profits rolling and the real humans mean nothing to them.
We are nothing but a means to an end and that end is profits.
Crucial addition, there's no level of profit or savings (accumulated profit) that's enough. If margins or units can be increased, they will be increased, yielding higher profit.
Yep. He references issues both in the past and present that tie directly into this film they're promoting, yet they censored all this out while pretending like they give a shit about these causes because they put it into a for-profit movie they created.
Well, yes. There have been a lot of reasons to dislike Apple but censorship was not one of them.
You must not be aware then that Apple gladly removes VPN apps from the Chinese app store to continue selling their phones there
VPN services are illegal in China. Apple doesn't "gladly" remove the apps but they can't just not comply with the law. But Apple has helpfully built VPN support directly into the operating system. Once you get the configuration stuff from your provider, you can set it up in the Settings app. Apple did the bare minimum of legal compliance by removing the apps, but also made it so you don't need the apps in the first place.
There have been a lot of reasons to dislike Apple but censorship was only a minor one of them.
He said, bafflingly, of the company with by far the most censorship of apps on their mobile OS.
Tbf, it's the same rant Bobby always gives and they were probably hoping to skip it as well as keep their ceremonies moving.
That makes it worse honestly. If he's known to give those speeches and you give him a platform and censor him anyway, that seems more premeditated censorship than anything.
Tbf
you meant to say "to be a completely disingenuous little cunt"
but i agree that Bobby should keep his crying ass mouth shut if he's not willing to tell Trump voters what he thinks of them.. bitching about Trump just makes it worse, and shows that he's just a fucking crybaby..
How do execs not understand the Streisand Effect yet? If DeNiro had just made the speech and criticized Trump and the industry, I never would have read past the headline. Good for him for speaking out, but I'm good and over "celebrity bashes Trump" stories. Ah but Apple censors Trump criticism, well now you've got my click and my eyeballs. So dumb. Also evil. But mostly just dumb.
What worse is, I was thinking of watching the movie, but knowing it's Apple, and knowing all the control they try to push on the content, then maybe is not worth it.
I been there since 2010 but lately getting into cinematography so I was interested in cinematic experience.
Yeah, "famous actor insults Trump" is such a "dog bites man" story I never would have even registered it.
I've never even heard of this award show. There probably wouldn't even have been an article about it.
Yes, but now they have plausible deniability. They only care that they're not taking the blame for it, not that it's being said. "We tried to stop it, don't blame us".
Tim Apple has to stay on Trump's good side so he doesn't get thrown into the concentration camp with the rest of the gays when Trump gets into office.
I wonder if Peter will have enough room on his plane for his blood boy
https://gizmodo.com/someone-is-trying-to-discredit-the-story-of-peter-thiel-1796135794
What drives me bonkers about all this is that Peter Thiel, a prominent right-wing figure, was doing exactly what all those QAnon nutjobs were accusing people like Clinton of doing, yet they never acknowledge this and instead focus on stupid shit like a pizza parlor with a nonexistent basement.
... in response to “feedback from the filmmaking team that wanted the actor’s remarks to be centered on the movie.”
Fuck that. You had de Niro submit a speech because you want to broadcast his words. You tried to make him a puppet and have your words in his voice.
The only thing actions like this cause is that it makes people wonder how many times smaller voices simply just went with the puppet speech.
I can't believe they asked someone of talent to write a speech and think he'd just roll along with major changes in the voice.
I can't believe they asked someone of talent to write a speech and think he'd just roll along with major changes in the voice.
Me either. Absolute fucking Muppetry.
Fuck all that noise, I am going to take De Niro at his word on this. They probably knew he wouldn't approve the edits and tried to force it on him. How disrespectful.
Definitely read the article for context. It does not reflect well on Apple at all. I know that’s probably unsurprising and not even close to the worst thing we have read about them, but it’s just another disappointing example. What an awful lack of options we consumers have in trying to choose products and services from ethical sources. Also, excellent speech by De Niro.
It's almost like there's really no ethical consumption under this particular system
Well, the first trillion dollar-valued company superpower whom outclasses the rest in terms of capital gains several times over probably isn't the best place to start looking.
There's too much truth to this, I swear I was less biased at one point. But Apple users are too often the type to scoff at data privacy, use the magical cloud for everything, know nothing about how to troubleshoot issues, pay to have XY&Z done for them regardless of how simple it is, and especially eat up all the Apple propaganda (like Android MMS being compressed to hell, which made them believe Android cameras are terrible). It's a perfect designer phone for a wannabe designer lifestyle.