As Louis Rossman pointed out in a couple recent videos, Apple seems to keep themselves intentionally naive about their manufacturing partners' labor practices in order to retain plausible deniability. We should expect better from such a huge and wealthy company.
It's strange to say that, when Apple is literally the only tech company that audits (including random audits) their manufacturers factories for working conditions and labor code violations.
This problem is not exclusive to Apple and we should expect better from many other tech companies as well. And apparently Apple's audits are insufficient if this kind of stuff is happening.
If we cared about this stuff, we would require our government to do something about it...
Don't want child miners in the Congo making cobalt for your iPhone?
We could pressure apple not to buy that cobalt... but then some other company will buy it instead - cobalt is a fungible resource.
We could pressure the US government not to allow that cobalt be imported... but then some other country will buy it - after all, cobalt is fungible...
The only solution is to force the Congolese government to work to prevent the behaviour we don't like. That would involve aid conditional on the issue being resolved, or sanctions if the issue is not resolved.
It's the only way that works. Trying to shame companies into cleaning up their acts only works with companies with a reputation to uphold, and fungible resources mean the bad actors can always sell to companies or countries that don't care about this stuff.
Despite this long post, it feels like you do not understand the true reasons behind this.
Congolese people and governments are influenced by large wealthy corporations and governments to turn a blind eye and allow the exploitation, so they get a cut of the blood money. This is the same situation in India, China, and the rest of the developing world.
Please research post/modern colonialism, it’s what enables the life that developed countries lead.
An alternative to Apple using cobalt from Congo is Apple using cobalt from Cuba, Russia, Iran, and China itself, a perfect quadriga.
And Apple works as one huge lobbying company on behalf of Chinese state, interfering on any USG attempt at tackling Chinese political influence in US.
You may think of how Apple may have monetary incentive to lobby for China against anti-slavery laws, but you cannot conceivably imagine why in the world Apple lobbies for laxer campaign financing rules, and against stricter rules against foreign campaign donations.
The only way to solve the Apple issue, is make it cease its existence as a business.
If US don't kill the Apple it surrenders this option to the enemy.
For as long as Apple has such enormous incentives for continuing being amicable with communists to continue its existence, they will continue to lobby for them.
Undoubtedly so. A lot of Taiwanese and Chinese manufacturers expanding into India need to know that Indian labour is inexpensive and talented but they are very conscious of their rights as workers. Labour is usually unionized and conscious of their rights.
