“It really showed Apple’s ability to control the operating system,” said Brian Wieser, head of business intelligence at GroupM, an advertising company. “Facebook does not control its fate.”

Three current and former Facebook employees said Apple’s privacy strategies were hypocritical. Apple has always had a lucrative deal The Google To connect a data hungry Google search engine with Apple products, for example. Facebook executives have also indicated that Apple is rooted in China, where the government censors its own citizens.

In secret, Zuckerberg told aides that Facebook “should do harm” to Apple and Cook, according to a person familiar with the discussions. The Wall Street Journal Previously mentioned About this comment from Zuckerberg.

Behind the scenes, this work was already underway. In 2017, Facebook expanded its business with Determinants of public affairs, A Washington company that specializes in investigating dissent against political enemies of its clients. Definers employees distributed the investigation of Apple’s obligations in China to journalists, and the Definers website published articles critical of Cook, according to documents and former employees of that agency.

The Specifiers Company has also launched a campaignAstroturfingTo appoint Cook as the presidential candidate for 2020, likely to put him in the crosshairs of President Trump, Informó The New York Times In 2018. The website, “Draft Tim Cook 2020”, included a quote from the CEO and a platform for the campaign. I have linked the data behind the site to Definers.

(Definers ‘work was also funded by Qualcomm, another Apple competitor, according to a Definers employee. Facebook withdrew Definers’ services after reporting its activity to The Times.)

Apple and Facebook are starting to compete in other areas as well, such as messaging, mobile gaming, and “mixed reality” devices, which are basically a kind of eyeglasses that mix digital photos with a person’s worldview.