Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, speaks at the 2019 Dreamforce conference in San Francisco on November 19, 2019.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Apple CEO Tim Cook on Thursday linked Facebook’s business model, which used data to display targeted ads, with practical consequences such as violence or decreasing public confidence in vaccines.
In Cook’s speech at a data privacy conference in Brussels, Facebook was not mentioned by name, but the social media company was clearly a target of the Apple CEO’s warning.
“When a business is built on deceptive users, on data exploitation, on choices that aren’t choices at all, it doesn’t deserve our credit. It deserves disdain,” Cook said.
Cook also criticized recommendation algorithms suggesting extremist groups to users because Facebook is under fire for this. Facebook said on Wednesday that it will no longer automatically recommend political groups.
Cook also said he believes some companies are rewarding content that could undermine public confidence in vaccinations to increase engagement.
“At a time of rampant disinformation and conspiracy theories fueled by algorithms, we can no longer turn a blind eye to a technology theory that says all engagement is good and the longer the better,” said Cook.
The speech comes as the battle between the Silicon Valley rivals heats up, particularly over a new iPhone feature called App Tracking Transparency, which will force apps to request user consent to access an important device ID provided by companies such as Facebook and Google are used to operate and measure mobile ads.
Cook’s comments also come amid questions about whether Facebook’s algorithms and tools were used to boost the pro-Trump riot on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg had already been forced to defend the company, saying that rioters who planned violence were “largely” not organized on Facebook.
“It has been a long time since we have had to stop pretending that this approach doesn’t cover the costs of polarization, lost trust and violence,” Cook said. “A social dilemma must not cause a social disaster.”
On Wednesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg condemned the change to App Tracking Transparency, saying Apple was the biggest competitor. He also suggested that Apple is using privacy as a justification for hurting Facebook.
“Apple has every reason to use their dominant platform position to interfere with the way our apps and other apps work, which they regularly do to show their own preference,” said Zuckerberg.
Apple told CNBC on Wednesday that the next beta of its iPhone operating system will enforce app tracking, meaning the change will soon take effect for everyone – Apple says it will be in “early spring.”