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Comment by basisword | Hacker News Reader

Just finished reading the bio so I can clarify this a bit. Despite what it sounds like out of context the take away was that he did know the App Store rules but he was under the (wrong) impression a company of that scale could speak with Apple and get the data anyway.

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TBH this highlights even more how out of touch they are -- too used to living in a bubble where the rich can get what they want and bypass rules that apply to regular folk.

It’s not like there’s no precedent for this. Look at all the rules WeChat was able to ignore due to their size and influence. I assume Elon expected a similar treatment for Twitter.

WeChat is way more important to everyday life in China than the iPhone is. I'm writing to you from Shenzen right now.

You don't need an iPhone to survive in China. You absolutely need WeChat to survive. For example, you literally can't order food when dining inside a large number of restaurants without WeChat. The menu is in WeChat.

So whatever WeChat (Tencent) wants, Apple has to consider it. Otherwise, Chinese phone makers can and will provide more convenience.

WeChat is backed by the CCP, aka the government with a military and de facto legal control over Apples factories. If they don't comply with WeChats requests, the CCP can ban Apple from doing business in China, with force if they have to. Hence, Apple complies.

That's where the precedent comes from - WeChat (as well as basically all major Chinese companies) carry state backing to force their way. Musk has afaict no backing from any government, least of all the DoD (who hate his guts for the shit he's pulled with Starlink in Ukraine).

You're overreaching. Can the Chinese government force WeChat to provide data to the government? Yes. But WeChat is a private product built by a private company. In addition, WeChat has a ton of competitors inside China as well. These competitors can overtake WeChat. The government isn't preventing competitors from competing directly with WeChat.

WeChat is literally just Tencent. I'm staying at a hotel next to Tencent office right now in Shenzen. There aren't any military people working here. Just engineers.

Read my post within this chain for why I think WeChat has a lot of power when it comes to getting Apple to create features it needs.

Thanks for the clarification.

However, I don't think it's even legal for Apple to hand over credit card info to third parties. Not that Apple would anyway, because it would completely destroy customer trust in Apple.

I guess Musk does not talk to Zuck

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