Ahead of the GOP (Grand Old Party) takeover of the House in early 2023, Apple CEO Tim Cook has scheduled meetings with top Republican lawmakers in Washington.
The meetings are part of the tech company’s effort to expand its outreach in Washington to counter increasing pressure from legislators to lose control of its App Store and reduce dependence on China.
Tim Cook to meet GOP representatives likely to oversee tech industry in 2023
Bloomberg reports that Tim Cook’s meetings with “Republican Representatives Jim Jordan of Ohio, Darrell Issa of California, and Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington” were scheduled weeks in advance. Jordan and McMorris Rodgers are likely to chair the committees overseeing the tech industry when GOP retakes the House in 2023.
However, it is not going to be an easy task for Cook to get the republicans on his side because some of them support Apple’s rival, Twitter Inc. CEO Elon Musk. Recently, Musk publically accused Apple of reducing ads on Twitter and threatening to remove it from the App Store over its “free speech” approach.
Some Republicans are rallying behind Musk, who on Monday attacked Apple and Cook in a series of tweets, claiming that the company threatened to remove Twitter from Apple’s app stores and paused its advertising on Twitter’s platform.
Critics have said Musk’s plan to pare back the rules governing speech on Twitter is leading to a spike in abuse, harassment and threats on the platform.
Out of the three republican representatives, Jordan, who is likely to chair the House Judiciary Committee in the GOP majority House, has publically put his weight behind Musk.
It is also reported that Cook is going to meet Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn and Democratic Senators Martin Heinrich of New Mexico and Brian Schatz of Hawaii. Cornyn is a strong critic of Apple’s ties with China.
Cornyn, one of the loudest China hawks in the Senate, has publicly criticized Apple’s ties to Beijing. Cornyn was one of several lawmakers who sent a letter earlier this year questioning Apple’s plans to use memory chips from a Chinese chipmaker.
In the coming days, we will get to know how fruitful Cook’s upcoming meetings in Washington were for Apple.
Read More:
- Apple CEO Tim Cook visited victims of Hingham Apple Store car crash
- Apple CEO Tim Cook talks about new emergency features, privacy, Twitter and what’s next for him
- Apple CEO Tim Cook says “education is a great equalizer of people”
- Apple CEO Tim Cook interested in buying Manchester United as it goes up for sale
