Tim Cook, center, with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, Right. Photo: Saudi Embassy USA/Twitter
Two weeks ago, news broke of an app on both Google Play and the App Store that had a core functionality of restricting women’s travel. The app allows a man to revoke a woman’s passport, her ability to travel, and gives him notifications when she tries to use her passport. The Saudi government made it to oppress women more easily. It’s part of Saudi Arabia’s human rights violating guardianship system.
Women only recently won the right to drive in Saudi Arabia, and the women activists who fought for that right are still imprisoned. They’ve been tortured and sexually abused for months now. In Suadi Arabia, women need a male guardian to release them from prison after their sentence is up. If she doesn’t have that, her captors can keep her indefinitely. Which, suffering their abuses, likely won’t be long.
Saudi Arabia is also torturing a U.S. citizen currently. This was a story that was broken by journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was himself captured and horrifically tortured and murdered.
These are the actions of a country Google is now standing up for. The app that’s used to oppress women in Saudi Arabia is perfectly okay for the Google Play store, according to Google. An app that allows men to restrict women’s travel and get a push notification if they try to escape the country is perfectly okay, according to Google.
Could you imagine if this was an app for oppressing any other group? Any religion, nationality, race, or even sexuality? Imagine if there was an app for oppressing a group that wasn’t women. Imagine if a group of people tried to escape from a terrible place, a terrible situation, and Google helped send them back.
I feel like Google would take action then, don’t you?
Oh, and this Friday is International Women’s Day. Happy International Women’s Day, women confined in a dangerous and misogynistic regime, from Google.
This Isn’t Over
U.S. Representative Jakie Speier (CA-D) is one of the 13 members of congress who have asked both Google and Apple to remove the Absher app that oppresses women from their app stores. She says this isn’t over. Her and her colleagues intend to continue to push for the removal of this app. No American company should prop up a misogynistic regime that oppresses and tortures women.
“The responses received so far from Apple and Google are unsatisfactory. To say I’m disappointed in their failure to show a sustained commitment to human rights is an understatement. I will be following up on this issue with my colleagues.”
– Jackie Speier
Still Waiting on Apple
Tim Cook with the Saudi Crown Prince at Apple headquarters.
Apple responded to lawmakers, simply reiterating their public statements, that they’re, “Looking into the issue.” It’s been over two weeks. How long does it take to point out that an app that’s used to oppress women violates their rules? It’s an app that aids in harassing women. One could say it falls under Google’s lax rules against bullying and hate speech, it certainly violates Apple’s strict standards.
In fact, it puts women in danger of physical harm, as they’ll be physically restrained at borders, arrested, assaulted, and returned to their male guardian. Like Google’s objectionable content policy, it could also, loosely, fall under hate speech against women. This is in clear violation of Apple’s App Store guidelines. Does Tim Cook give them a pass because he’s such good friends with the Saudi Crown Prince?
We Need to End This
Women only won this right in Summer of 2018. The women who fought for it are still imprisoned and tortured. Photo: Faisal Al Nassar/REUTERS
No American company should support the oppression of women anywhere in the world, let alone Saudi Arabia. The inaction from Google and Apple is, without a doubt, infuriating. I bounced between doing just a “just the facts” article about this and editorializing it, but I quickly realized that I could not trust myself not to inject my utter disappointment and outrage over Google’s betrayal of women. I’m an Android developer. I’ve been to Google I/O. I’ve been to numerous Android developer conferences. I even have an app I made personally on the Google Play store. And I am disgusted that I have anything to do with a platform and a company that supports the oppression of women.
Lawmakers need to take legal action. It’s clear that Google does not have the moral fortitude to support half of the world’s population leading up to International Women’s Day. Our legislators need to take a stand against U.S. companies that support global oppression of women and other minorities. Facebook’s inaction on hate speech lead to genocide in Myanmar. Google’s inaction on this app has, without a doubt, lead to women being stopped at borders as they attempted to leave the country by men who got a push notification on their phone.
This app is the primary tool men use to control the travel of women in Saudi Arabia. The app is their primary tool of oppression. Without it, they may have pushback against the guardian system, leading to the country finally abandoning it. It should not be a tool we give them so freely. Google and Apple have the power to do something for the women of Saudi Arabia, and yet they do nothing.
Sources:
- Shelby Brown, CNet
- Bethan McKernan, The Guardian
- Washington Post Editorial Board, The Washington Post