Martha McCallum Grills John Kirby: Why Is the White House "Keeping an Eye on Twitter" While Not Even Saying a Word in Private to Apple About Actively Assisting China in Repressing Its Own People?

In case you missed it, Apple bowed to the demands of their Chinese Communist Partners and secretly deleted a key feature in Apple phones which protesters and dissidents had previously used to communicate discretely.

Apple's updates are usually very thorough about telling you exactly what they will change. But not this time -- the update, intended only for the Chinese market, omitted any mention that the "AirDrop" feature, long relied on by protesters and dissidents, would be greatly limited.

AirDrop eludes censorship/monitoring systems because, if I understand this right, AirDropped transmissions go phone-to-phone, like walkie-talkies, without having to first go to through a cell tower or the internet.

Users had no idea they'd be crippling one of the few tools they had to communicate without state monitoring when they accepted the update.

Which is the way Apple wanted it, because that's the way their Chinese Communist partners and paymasters wanted it.

A Nov. 9 software update included an additional AirDrop feature applying only to iPhones sold in mainland China.

AirDrop, which allows users to share content between Apple devices, has become an important tool in demonstrators' efforts to circumvent authoritarian censorship.

The feature relies on wireless connections between phones, rather than internet connectivity, placing it beyond the scope of internet content moderators.

Protests in China have attracted international attention as the greatest challenge of President Xi Jinping's premiership and a major knock to the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) longstanding authority.

But their spread within China was partially hobbled by a key change in Apple
's AirDrop feature, launched just weeks before the unrest.

AirDrop, which allows users to share content between Apple devices, has become an important tool in protestors' efforts to circumvent authoritarian censorship regimes over recent years.

That is because it relies on wireless connections between phones, rather than internet connectivity, placing it beyond the scope of internet content moderators. It uses Bluetooth to form a peer-to-peer Wi-Fi network between two devices.

The tool was used widely during Hong Kong's 2019 pro-democracy protests, when demonstrators would share messages and protest literature with passers by and visitors from mainland China through AirDrop's open network.

More recently, in mid-October, AirDrop was reportedly used to disseminate messages based on banners produced by a Beijing demonstrator known as "Bridge man."

China-only software update

However, it was limited earlier this month, when a Nov. 9 update to Apple's global operating system, iOS 16.1.1, included an additional AirDrop feature applying only to iPhones sold in mainland China.

Under the update, iPhones can now only set their AirDrop to receive messages from "everyone" for 10 minutes before switching off. The other settings allow for file-sharing between "contacts only" or "receiving off."

Apple did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment. In an online statement, the company said the software update includes "bug fixes and security updates and is recommended for all users." 

NSC spokesman John Kirby appeared on Martha MacCallum. She wanted to know why the Biden White House -- and Biden himself, in fact -- had all but declared Elon Musk a National Security Threat and ordered a Deep State probe of him because he wasn't imposing the left's totalitarian censorship regime, but had offered absolutely no criticism or government scrutiny of Apple, despite it now being officially part of the Communist China Secret Police apparatus. 

He says, "Because Apple is a private company." 

She responds, "Twitter is a private company, too." 

He then says, "These are completely different situations," having failed in his first attempt to mark them as different situations. 

He then says that Twitter must be subjected to a Deep State probe because it might have foreign investors. 

Note that Twitter also had foreign investors when it was imposing the left's censorship regime, and the left had no problem with foreign investment then. 

Also note that Apple has a lot of foreign investors. 

Martha MacCallum points out that Apple is taking orders from a foreign government here, which seems to be the very situation that this bullshit concern over "foreign investors" is aimed at preventing. 

That is, grumbling about foreign investors is ultimately about trying to keep a major company from being perverted by foreign powers to work their will. 

But Apple is already working China's will, to help it crush an organic protest movement. 

And Kirby says "But it's different!"

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