On his show Last Week Tonight, John Oliver breaks down popular and often misunderstood subjects in factual and hilarious rants that take on any debatable topic and lays out all the cards. If you’ve been following coverage of the ongoing fight for iPhone encryption between Apple and the FBI, you’ll nod along, laugh, and gain further insight. If you haven’t, here’s your crash course. He begins, “You may not think about encryption much, but it is pretty fundamental to all of our lives.”
John Oliver presents clips from either side of the argument, showing the complexity of a situation that’s been largely simplified in debates. He highlights the assumed ‘magical’ quality of Apple which is largely its own fault with taglines like, “the only thing that’s changed is everything.” He’s also not a fan of the new Rose Gold color, and he pointed out ethical grey areas in Apple’s awareness such as Foxconn’s “factory suicide nets.” This goes to show that it’s not all rainbows and sunshine coming from the glorified company that is Apple.
However, Oliver points out that even if Apple could create a backdoor that the ‘bad guys’ couldn’t also get into (which experts have widely agreed is impossible) there will always be new ways to add encryption, ultimately leaving the FBI in the dark anyway. Even Senator Lindsey Graham’s opinion has been swayed after learning the complexities of the situation to which Oliver replied, “It’s a miracle, Lindsey Graham has met the concept of nuance.”
John Oliver closes the bit reminding us that Apple is just a step ahead of the hackers, “We’re engineers, not wizards.” And this point is illustrated earlier in the clip when Oliver highlights the simple tech needed to hack into an older iPhone running on iOS 8 or earlier, “the point is, best case scenario, we can keep hackers out of your stuff for about six months.”
“Apple. Join us as we dance madly on the lip of a volcano.” I highly encourage you to watch the full clip below.
