Apple CEO Tim Cook has a clear message for white supremacists looking to spew their hate on his platforms: Take a hike.
Receiving the first “Courage Against Hate” award from the Anti-Defamation League, Cook took what could be deemed as an unveiled swipe at Facebook and other tech companies currently under fire for being too slow to eradicate hate speech and misinformation on their platforms.
“At Apple, we believe technology needs to have a clear point of view,” Cook said in an acceptance speech. “This is no time to get tied up in knots. We only have one message for those who seek to push hate, division or violence: You have no place on our platforms. You have no home here.”
Cook went on to say: “From the earliest days of iTunes to Apple Music today we have always prohibited music with a history of white supremacy. Why? Because it’s the right thing to do. And as we showed this year, we won’t give a platform to violent conspiracy theorists. Why? Because it’s the right thing to do.”
In August, Apple yanked several podcasts from conspiracy theorist Alex Jones off of iTunes. Facebook, YouTube and Spotify soon followed suit. Twitter, which resisted the move at first, eventually joined the ban.
“We believe the future should belong to those who use technology to build a better, more inclusive and more hopeful world,” Cook said. “I believe the most sacred thing that each of us is given is our judgment, our morality, our own innate desire to separate right from wrong. Choosing to set that responsibility aside in a moment of trial is a sin.”
Last year, Cook blasted President Trump’s response to the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville in an email to employees and pledged to donate $2 million to organizations battling hate groups.
“What occurred in Charlottesville has no place in our country,” the email said, according to BuzzFeed, which obtained a copy. “Hate is a cancer, and left unchecked it destroys everything in its path. Its scars last generations. History has taught us this time and time again, both in the United States and countries around the world.”