My Email to Tim Cook
It's once again time for Apple's CEO to deliver action as lofty as his language
Like my friend Wiley Hodges, I also sent a note to Apple CEO Tim Cook. As Wiley so aptly said in his post recounting his letter: “We are in a very dark place right now in our country, and we need leaders who act with courage based on principle.”
Tim,
I’m writing because I was profoundly disturbed by Apple’s recent removal of the ICEBlock app from the App Store.
Apple’s brand has always stood for empowering people. For giving individuals the same computational power that once belonged only to governments and corporations. As Steve Jobs once put it:
“When we started Apple, our dream was to make the computers that we wanted, and to make them for everyone. Because once you could have this power on your desk, you could do things that only the biggest companies or governments could do before.”
That vision wasn’t just about technology; it was about liberty. It was about ensuring that power flowed outward — to our users. That idea built Apple’s brand, its products, and the trust of hundreds of millions of people.
I spent just under a decade at Apple and NeXT. First as a software engineer and manager for five years, and later another stretch of years in Apple’s operations organization. I saw firsthand how seriously the company once took its duty to defend the rights of its users. Your stand against the FBI in the San Bernardino case remains one of the proudest moments in Apple’s history — proof that Apple’s values were more than words.
The removal of ICEBlock undermines that legacy. If Apple acted without a clear, lawful government order (or if it yielded to informal pressure rather than insisting on due process) that decision is not just a policy failure. It’s a betrayal of the very principles Apple once defined for the industry: user empowerment, privacy, and the defense of civil liberty against coercive power.
As Apple’s own Commitment to Human Rights reminds us:
“We believe in the critical importance of an open society in which information flows freely… and the best way we can continue to promote openness is to remain engaged, even where we may disagree with a country’s laws.”
Removing an app that protects individuals from unlawful overreach — without transparency or evidence of a legitimate legal basis — runs counter to that promise. It risks eroding the moral authority Apple earned when it stood up to the FBI.
As a shareholder and former NeXT/Apple employee, I am asking for clarity:
On what lawful grounds was ICEBlock removed?
Did any government agency present a binding legal order?
What steps will Apple take to prevent similar actions without due process in the future?
Apple is more than a corporation; it is a cultural institution built on courage and principle. Every time it yields quietly to political pressure, it strengthens the hand of those who would centralize power and weaken the freedoms the company once championed.
True shareholder value isn’t created by appeasing governments or bending to political pressure. It’s earned, patiently, through countless small acts of integrity. Through choosing, time and again, to stand with customers even when it’s inconvenient. That trust, once lost, cannot be bought back with marketing or quarterly results; it’s built slowly, through consistency of principle. Apple’s enduring value has always come from that moral capital — the belief that the company’s actions reflect the same courage and conviction it asks of its customers.
I’m asking you to reaffirm Apple’s founding promise: that technology exists to liberate, not to control.
Respectfully,
Alex Horovitz
NeXT/Apple Alumni