Russian Politician Decries Apple’s Free U2 Album as ‘Gay Propaganda’
Apple CEO Tim Cook and U2 at an Apple event in September 2014.(Photo:Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press).
Today in Offensive Russian Activities™, a Duma state deputy is complaining that the U2 album that Apple gave away to its customers promotes the devious homosexual lifestyle.
Per a report from the Guardian:
“Alexander Starovoitov, a member of the rightwing LDPR party, says Apple spammed youths with illegal content when it released U2’s latest album, Songs of Innocence, to more than 500 million iTunes customers worldwide in September 2014.″
Starovoitov is asking the attorney general to investigate, per The Guardian.
As you may remember, Apple’s dad-like decision to automatically load U2′s album into every iTunes user’s library did not go over well with customers. Many people who discovered the music in their library thought they’d been hacked. Either that, or they didn’t know who or what U2 was in the first place. After fielding so many complaints about the incident, Apple finally released a tool that allowed people to remove the collection of songs. But as my colleague Daniel Bean can attest, some are still suffering from the incident eight months later. Take, for instance, an email he received this morning:
Though most customers vented their frustration over the “gift” via social media, some Russians have launched a (very late) retaliation by threatening a homophobic lawsuit. In addition to Starovoitov, a Russian lawyer named Evgeny Tonky claims that the album’s cover art—a photo of the band’s drummer Larry Mullen Jr. hugging his 18-year-old-son—is morally corrupt and therefore illegal.
Tonky told a Russian newspaper that he plans to sue for damages on behalf of his son.
(Via Twitter).
Though U2′s latest album was objectively horrible, these allegations are pretty ridiculous. According to a blog post on the group’s website, the Glen Luchford photograph is a (somewhat obvious) metaphor for the album’s theme, which explores “how holding on to your own innocence is a lot harder than holding on to someone else’s.”
It’s more likely that this very late complaint has more to do with Apple CEO Tim Cook’s recent announcement that he is gay. Following that announcement, a St. Petersburg university retaliated by dismantling a monument to Steve Jobs.
“After Apple CEO Tim Cook publicly called for sodomy, the monument was taken down to abide to the Russian federal law protecting children from information promoting denial of traditional family values,” a statement from a group of companies called ZEFS (Western European Financial Union) read.
If Russia does in fact find Apple guilty of distributing gay propaganda to youths, it may force the company to cease operations for up to 90 days or pay as much as 1 million roubles (about $20,000), according to the Guardian.
For Apple, which has close to $178 billion in cash to spend, that is the rough equivalent of a $2 ATM fee.
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