The mad king's digital killswitch
18 comments
·October 25, 2025instagib
You can install 3 non AppStore programs without Jailbreaking onto your iPhone. If you pay $100 per year you can install as many as you want without refreshing and get notifications.
For free: connect your phone to a computer once then follow instructions online then refresh it over WiFi once per week. It does it automatically. Hacked games, Spotify premium no ads, YouTube no ads, or whatever app you decide to make on your own.
montyboy_us
I love Cory’s writing, but this piece leans a bit too much on the metaphor lacking a bit in the mechanics. The walled gardens, DRM, and jailbreak bans long predate the last two administrations. They’re more business model problems and not new authoritarian inventions. Removing an app isn’t the same as adding a backdoor. I think we need to talk more about the real root issue - its a structural one as old as time - closed ecosystems have/will always create the potential for abuse regardless of who is in power.
Now, I'm not sure how we get 'open' ecosystems to a tipping point, but have observed the likes of Apple and Microsoft doing a pretty good job of slowly and steadily 'self-owning'... so maybe it's a waiting game?
linkjuice4all
I guess I'm not shocked but this is certainly disappointing. That being said, do you need a native app to provide most of the functionality? It seems like you could do most of this stuff through browser functionality and some kind of distributed hosting. At the very least you could capture basic reporting through simpler mediums like SMS.
Unsaid in this article is that these phones quickly become useless if governments are able to just shut off internet connectivity through cell service and perhaps targeted local outages to reduce wifi alternatives. Without some kind of mesh networking it doesn't really matter that Apple and Google already sold you out.
chrisjj
> Every device and every service should be designed so that the people who use them have the final say over how they work.
Hmm. Even nukes?
aftbit
Especially nukes (or more generally, weapons)! Can you imagine if your government tried to use the weapons it bought from America, only to have them refuse to start because America decided they shouldn't? Or if you're within the US, imagine if the nukes refused to launch because Raytheon or whoever included a digital kill switch? That would completely defeat MAD.
georgefrowny
There was a whole drama over exactly this in the Cold War.
Permissive Action Links were deeply unpopular with the military because they put control of the weapons with the government, rather than with the relevant commanders. Even when finally mandated, the military set the codes to all zeros.
ben_w
The people who use them kinda do have that say.
aftbit
Declaring ICE a "protected class" or a "vulnerable group" is absolutely disgusting. Nobody who has tanks is a vulnerable group.
__MatrixMan__
I don't think access to equipment is a good qualifier. Nor should "vulnerable" and "protected" be conflated.
More important is whether membership in the group is based on something that harms others. Let's protect people who want to be left alone so they can pursue their passions in peaceful ways. As for those who want to be left alone so they can kidnap and bully--lets ensure they're as vulnerable as possible until they change their ways.
unsigner
The ICE has tanks - can you provide a link? Words have meaning. Maybe some armored cars, but tanks?
hermitcrab
>Tim Cook (a man who never found a boot he wouldn't lick)
I can't imagine Jobs (for all his many flaws) rolling over so easily.
hermitcrab
Swapped one mad king for another.
aftbit
250 years of democracy isn't a bad run.
voidnap
Not even remotely.
There is no Obama or Biden counterpart to Trump's extrajudicial killings in the Venezuelan coast. Nor Trump's coercion over private industry through his tariffs and lawsuits. Even the far-right's fictions about foreign leaders buying access to Biden through Hunter is so incredibly tame to how Trump does this stuff in public with his crypto or like when talking to that Indonesian leader the other day -- that whole weird "I am a good boy" thing from Eric Trump.
Equivocating these things is a derangement syndrome entirely of its own design.
hermitcrab
I agree, but I wasn't referring to a previous US President.
fweimer
> There is no Obama or Biden counterpart to Trump's extrajudicial killings in the Venezuelan coast.
Sadly, this isn't really true. The Obama administration had their Terror Tuesdays:
https://web.archive.org/web/20120530104348/https://www.nytim...
The program was only mildly controversial at thetime. The killing not so much—it was more about the alleged presence of a Democratic campaign strategist in those coordination meetings.
null
I expected some mention of Musk's comments on why he deserves more Tesla shares
> “If we build this robot army, do I have at least a strong influence over this robot army?” he told investors. “Not control, but a strong influence… I don’t feel comfortable building that robot army unless I have a strong influence.”
https://futurism.com/robots-and-machines/elon-musk-remarks-r...