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I’ll defend batterygate. If you know anything about batteries (especially the tendencies of those in that era), the actions taken by Apple were reasonable, though they should have considered the light in which throttling would be taken. The claim against them was valid but I don’t think the actions were ever malicious.
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None of this seems like it could reasonably be described as evil.
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How about these?

Apple knew a supplier was using child labor but took 3 years to fully cut ties (yahoo.com)

52 points by notRobot on Jan 1, 2021 | un‑favorite | 5 comments

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25607386

Apple's Cooperation with Authoritarian Governments (jessesquires.com)

468 points by ig0r0 on March 31, 2021 | un‑favorite | 291 comments

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26644216

Apple removes nearly 100 VPNs used by Russians to bypass censorship (elpais.com)

31 points by speckx on Oct 1, 2024 | un‑favorite | 3 comments

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41712728

Apple's Browser Engine Ban Persists, Even Under the DMA (open-web-advocacy.org)

514 points by yashghelani on July 14, 2025 | un‑favorite | 383 comments

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44557348

Apple defined ICE as a "protected class" in blocking anti-ICE apps (boingboing.net)

146 points by baobun 9 months ago 69 comments

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45520407

https://9to5mac.com/2020/12/29/iphone-workers-forced-labor/

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Let’s try:

> Apple knew a supplier was using child labor but took 3 years to fully cut ties (yahoo.com)

Apple routinely terminates relationships with suppliers when they identify abusive practices, sometimes they’re slow about it.

> Apple's Cooperation with Authoritarian Governments (jessesquires.com)

> Apple removes nearly 100 VPNs used by Russians to bypass censorship (elpais.com)

Apple obeys local laws

> Apple's Browser Engine Ban Persists, Even Under the DMA (open-web-advocacy.org)

Apple chooses to maintain control over a specific implementation detail of their platform that a handful of nerds object to.

> Apple defined ICE as a "protected class" in blocking anti-ICE apps (boingboing.net)

The claim made in this headline is just straight up false.

I don’t know, I don’t think their less-than-ideal behaviour is anywhere bad enough to reasonably be described as “evil”. Otherwise, we’re probably all evil.

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Thank you for your work. You spent far more time debunking misinformation than fsflover spent spreading it.
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Shallow dismissals like "straight up false" that contradict multiple reputable news outlets aren't "debunking".

Calling well-know human right activist NGOs "handful of nerds" is straight up misinformation.

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Well, just enough evil to increase profit margins.
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A list of very normal capitalistic practices. Borderline, sometimes ruthless, sometimes opportunistic. Evil is enabling genocide in Myanmar, which Meta provenly did. Evil is voluntarily steal millions of artworks for your own benefit, which OpenAI has provenly done. Etc…
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That would describe mankind as a whole…

The cars that I’ve driven since 18, My contribution to the plastic problem over the years, etc.

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The difference is Apple intentionally chose unrepairable design, despite much smaller companies offer repairable earplugs (See: PineBuds Pro).
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Approximately no one ever breaks their AirPods, so the amount of waste eliminated through better repairability would almost certainly be non-existent.
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