AppleInsider Staff
While many of Silicon Valley's elite are in lockstep opposition to Indiana's new "religious freedom" law, former Hewlett-Packard chief and potential Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina has taken the other side, accusing Apple CEO Tim Cook of acting hypocritically by opposing Indiana's law but continuing to do business in oppressive countries around the world.
"When Tim Cook is upset about all the places that he does business because of the way they treat gays and women, he needs to withdraw from 90 percent of the markets that he's in, including China and Saudi Arabia," Fiorina said to the Wall Street Journal. "But I don't hear him being upset about that."
Last weekend, Cook penned an editorial blasting state legislatures across the country for passing so-called "religious freedom" laws "designed to enshrine discrimination in state law." He was responding in part to a bill recently enacted in Indiana which would allow businesses to cite religious beliefs when defending themselves against discrimination suits.
Opponents of the law feared that it would give businesses a way to legally discriminate against gays and lesbians, after a federal appeals court ruling forced Indiana to recognize same-sex marriages late last year.
Following a raucous national outcry, which included an announcement from Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff that his company — one of Indiana's largest employers — would pare down operations in the state as a result, Indiana's legislature amended the bill to include specific protections against discrimination.
Fiorina, who fancies herself a candidate for the presidency in 2016 despite her disastrous California U.S. Senate campaign in 2010, blamed the outcry on "narrow special interests." Technology leaders who have opposed the law, including Cook, have displayed "a level of hypocrisy here that really is unfortunate," she added.
Christine McKee
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394 Comments
There is a difference between doing business in a country with its own sovereignty; and speaking up as a citizen of a self-governing republic and commenting on its law making.
So glad HP doesn't do business in China. Oh wait. [B]Rule of the troll:[/B] It's only hypocritical when Apple does it.
I heard a similar argument from the right saying that "liberals" (is there anything more demonic in the US!) are hypocrites because they want equality for homosexuals in Indiana, but are also wanting a nuclear deal with Iran, who demonize gay people. They don't seem to understand that just because you can't make everything better, it doesn't mean you shouldn't try to make something better. If Cook and others are able to play a part in making the world a more equal place, good on them. Same goes for the CEO of Wal Mart who's pressure seems to have had a positive outcome in Alabama.
She is really a dangerous airhead. That's why she was fired at HP.
There is no hypocrisy, idiot. Tim Cook did not boycott Indiana, he expressed his disapproval and said Apple is open to all.