Higher powers tell me that trade wars work.
They bring a little jolt to the status quo. They create a frisson of fear in at least one of the parties. They might even drag a little justice in their wake.
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These trying thoughts come to me because I'm tired.
I'm tired of Facebook[2] flouting privacy and decency in the relentless pursuit of money, power, and the constant surveillance of every human on Earth.
I'm tired of Facebook's executives mumbling that they'll do better when you know that what they'll try to do better is to hide what they're really doing.
And I'm tired of reading about how much lower Facebook is prepared to go to achieve its aims.
The latest incident involves a so-called research app that slid past Apple's app rules[3] and paid teenagers for the privilege of Facebook following them around everywhere.
Apple reacted by temporarily banning Facebook's internal iOS apps[4].
I can't help wondering, though, whether Apple shouldn't just ban all of Facebook's apps until it can be satisfied it is not performing in underhand ways.
No more Messenger, no more Instagram, no more WhatsApp. It would surely be a colonic irrigation of the soul, as well as an actual way to stop Facebook in its tracking.
I hear you howl that this would be a frightful abuse of power.
Well, it depends on how you define abuse. When a company like Facebook has been abusing trust since its inception, it's hard not to think that the only thing it'll ever understand is the sound of silence.
For all