Apple successfully killed proposed legislation in Louisiana that would have required iPhone makers to allow developers who market their apps on the app store to use an alternative payment system by threatening to cancel the making of a Will Smith movie in state, according to a report. .
In 2021, lawmakers in the Bayou State were poised to pass a bill that would allow app developers to use alternative payment systems that would have bypassed Apple’s app store.
Apple, which charges developers a fee to make their apps available to iPhone users for download from its app store, perceived the bill as a threat to one of its key revenue streams and intervened , according to The Wall Street Journal.
An employee of the Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant reportedly told Tanner Magee, a senior lawmaker in the Louisiana House of Representatives, that if he went ahead with the app store bill, Apple would pull the plug on production of “Emancipation,” the historical drama in which Smith plays “Whipped Peter”—the former slave who was infamously photographed in 1863.
“Emancipation” was shot in Louisiana. The Apple representative reportedly informed Magee that the company would be relocating the film, which would have dealt a blow to the local economy, the Journal reported.
“He basically said if we didn’t kill the bill, it would kill film and hurt our economy,” Magee told the Journal.
An Apple spokesman denied to the Journal that any threats had been made.
“We always operate with the highest standards of integrity, and claims that we don’t in this case are false,” an Apple spokesperson told the newspaper.
The Post has sought comment from Apple.
Recently, Apple has reportedly thrown its weight behind killing another piece of proposed legislation, where Louisiana lawmakers sought to require the company to force its smartphone users to verify their age.
Earlier this year, Kim Carver, a first-year lawmaker, told the Journal that Apple lobbyists flooded her with “panicked” messages when they learned he would include the age-verification provision in a bill proposed for the protection of children from the pitfalls of society. media and technology.
Louisiana was one of the first states to try to force Apple to verify the age of users of its devices.
Child safety advocates argued that Apple and Google — the two companies that own the smartphone operating system market — are best positioned to keep children safe by having them verify their age.
Rival tech firms such as Meta – owner of Facebook and Instagram – and Match Group have backed this view – arguing that app developers should not be the ones to carry the burden alone.
“Instead of requiring parents to upload sensitive information or provide proof of their teen’s age for every single app their kids use, app stores can provide a central place for families to do so ,” a Meta spokesperson told the Journal.
A representative of Match Group, whose portfolio of companies includes Tinder and Bumble, agreed, telling the Journal: “Kids are less safe when responsibility is limited to developers.”
Under Carver’s proposal, companies that failed to make “reasonable efforts” to verify the ages of their users would face significant fines.
But Apple reacted furiously to the legislation, accusing Carver of including a “poison pill from Meta.”
According to Carver, Apple lobbyists bombarded him with messages “all day, every day.”
“At that point, I was like, ‘OK, we’re done talking,'” Carver told the Journal.
“We unanimously passed the bill on the floor of the house [without the provision that would have obligated Apple].
Louisiana was the first state to pass a law requiring age verification with ID for sites hosting adult content. Other states followed suit in passing similar statutes.
In May, The Post was the first to report that Google and Meta spent nearly $1 million on lobbyists hired to fight proposed legislation in New York aimed at protecting children online.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, already faces several nationwide lawsuits alleging it exposed children to harmful content that had a negative impact on their mental health.
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