Disney, Apple and Others Misleads Public Regarding Censorship Concerns
Bob Iger, the head of Disney, recently explained that he withdrew ads in opposition to a Tweet made by CEO Elon Musk. “By him taking the position he took, we felt that the association with that position, and Elon Musk and X, was not a positive one for us,” he said.
However, Disney is heavily invested in China, where political dissent is heavily suppressed and citizens are monitored by one of the world’s most comprehensive surveillance regimes. Such investments include not just manufacturing many of Disney’s products but also the sprawling Shanghai Disneyland, which opened under Iger’s watch. Iger and Disney’s passion for entering the Chinese market was so intense that in 2010, he met with the country’s propaganda minister and promised to help “introduce more about China to the world” through the company’s products and platform.
IBM, which also pulled ads in November, has a wide range of economic partnerships in Saudi Arabia, which last year was ranked 170 out of 180 on Reporters Without Borders’s index of press freedom.
Apple, another company who pulled ads on X, struck a deal to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in China, making a promise to “do its part to develop China's economy and technological prowess through investments, business deals and worker training.”
The message these firms are sending is that free speech – which includes speech that some people may find offensive – makes X too reputationally damaging for them to associate with. While Disney, Apple and IBM representatives may argue they are concerned with free speech, there is a lack of consistency in the application of their values, with each directly supporting institutions that facilitate censorship and the suppression of free expression.
Read More:
https://public.substack.com/p/corporations-offended-by-free-speech
