The App Store Was Always Authoritarian (opens in new tab)

Apple bent the knee for months, leaving many commentators to ask why. But the reasons are not mysterious: Apple wants things that only the government can provide, things that will defend and extend its power to extract rents, rather than innovate. Namely, selective exemption from tariffs and an end to the spectre of pro-competition regulation and the threat of real browsers in the US, the EU, and around the world.