Paul Morris on February 27, 2016, 1:08 am

Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter & Others Unite To Back Apple In Court In FBI Case

A number of high profile companies have officially come out in support of Apple as the Cupertino-based company continues its fight against governmental law enforcement agencies. Apple has already filed a motion against a court order that would essentially force Tim Cook’s company to create the dreaded, and potentially dangerous, “GovtOS”. Apple believes that it has a fairly strong and compelling case against the order, but that case will be cemented and supported by a number of well-respected companies, who are planning on filling similar motions of support.

Incoming reports are suggesting that technology behemoths Microsoft and Google, as well as social networks Facebook and Twitter have internal plans to file official motions of support to Apple’s fight against the legal judgement. This isn’t a particular show of support for Apple as a company, but more of a decision by these companies to carry on the fight against the government’s belief that it can force companies like Apple to decrypt devices at will by building a specifically developed backdoor operating system to circumvent security.

The fact that a number of high profile companies are planning on filing motions of support for Apple shouldn’t really come as any great surprise given the developments and public outpouring of support over the last couple of weeks. Sundar Pichai, Google’s current CEO, has already publicly spoken out about the government’s desire to force Apple to create an iPhone backdoor, calling it a “troubling precedent”. Pichai clearly feels strong enough about the incident and potential severity of it going forward to lead his company into battle alongside Apple, as well as growing list of tech giants who all have a vested interest in the situation. Similarly, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also come out and spoken in support for Apple.

Microsoft’s President and Chief Legal Officer, Brad Smith, has already responded to the matter. Smith has gone on record to say that the All Writs Act was written during the time of the ‘adding machine’ when it first went on sale. Smith argues that laws passed in an age where the adding machine was the first computation device of its era, cannot be applied to the 21st century, which is why it is pertinent that the Congress debates on this issue and new laws are looked into. Of, course Smith unequivocally voiced his company’s support for Apple on this issue.

In addition to support from Google, Twitter, Facebook, and Microsoft, Apple will also get “friend of the court” assistance from the likes of Box, Yahoo, and Amazon. There’s also a serious consideration from Slack to join in on the motion.

Apple may not have many friends in the cut-throat corporate world, and all these companies maybe its fiercest business rivals, but it’s good to see all these companies coming out in support of Apple on this issue. They know that today it’s Apple, tomorrow it could be them in the same position.