>I don't think it's a cost issue. The issue is one of association. There are strong social forces that punish association with any distasteful speech.
Yes, association is also an issue so there are at least 2 forces happening: cost and/or association.
Since I used the word "undesirable" and you used the word "distasteful", I believe we're thinking of 2 different scenarios:
(1) inconvenient/controversial content like politics or alternative COVID theories
(2) vile or obscene content like beheadings or adult porn
My perception is that the censorship topics I see getting press is more of (1) than (2) and the levers putting pressure on the money trail is the primary weapon for (1).
E.g. supporting Hong Kong protests are not category (2) vile/obscene (maybe your "distasteful"?) but nevertheless, Apple removed podcasts with that subject matter from the App Store to appease China[1].
Even with Apple's billions in its war chest, Tim Cook did not say "China can fuck off -- we're keeping the podcasts because our App Store is all about free speech!". That didn't happen because Apple wants to sell smartphones in China and so they will cooperate with China's limits on "free speech".
Yes, association is also an issue so there are at least 2 forces happening: cost and/or association.
Since I used the word "undesirable" and you used the word "distasteful", I believe we're thinking of 2 different scenarios:
(1) inconvenient/controversial content like politics or alternative COVID theories
(2) vile or obscene content like beheadings or adult porn
My perception is that the censorship topics I see getting press is more of (1) than (2) and the levers putting pressure on the money trail is the primary weapon for (1).
E.g. supporting Hong Kong protests are not category (2) vile/obscene (maybe your "distasteful"?) but nevertheless, Apple removed podcasts with that subject matter from the App Store to appease China[1].
Even with Apple's billions in its war chest, Tim Cook did not say "China can fuck off -- we're keeping the podcasts because our App Store is all about free speech!". That didn't happen because Apple wants to sell smartphones in China and so they will cooperate with China's limits on "free speech".
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jun/12/apple-rem...