Apple markets itself as the pinnacle of innovation, design, and lifestyle integration, with flagship products like the iPhone, Mac, and Apple Watch shaping consumer culture worldwide. Its brand identity rests on minimalism, exclusivity, and seamless user experience, often positioning Apple products as aspirational symbols of progress and creativity.
Behind this image, Apple’s manufacturing practices tell a different story. Factory workers in China and other sourcing regions have reported excessive overtime, low wages, and hazardous conditions in plants producing iPhones and MacBooks. Despite decades of “supplier responsibility” reports, audits remain opaque, and enforcement is weak, allowing systemic abuse to persist.
Politically, Apple projects neutrality but benefits from silence. It has avoided scrutiny on Palestine while continuing to comply with authoritarian demands in markets like China, demonstrating that its global dominance is built not only on design and marketing but also on complicity and omission.
Apple’s sleek brand masks a reality of systemic harm: exploitative labour practices, environmental extraction, and political compliance that sustain its dominance at the expense of workers and communities worldwide.
Apple’s supply chain sits at the center of extractive economies. The company relies heavily on minerals like cobalt sourced from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where mining is tied to child labor, dangerous conditions, and systemic exploitation. Lawsuits and investigations have shown that Apple benefits from supply chains built on violence and displacement, while offering little more than vague pledges of “traceability.”
In its manufacturing base, especially China, Apple has been repeatedly linked to abusive labor practices. Reports detail excessive hours, poverty wages, and unsafe conditions in factories producing iPhones and MacBooks. Supplier audits are opaque and enforcement inconsistent, with workers bearing the brunt of Apple’s pursuit of high margins and rapid product cycles.
Politically, Apple has faced mounting criticism for its silence on Gaza and its willingness to comply with authoritarian demands elsewhere. While other companies have faced pressure over contracts with Israel, Apple has escaped much of that scrutiny, yet remains complicit by omission—benefiting from global markets while refusing to acknowledge or address its role in upholding systems of oppression.
Boycotting Apple targets one of the most profitable corporations on earth, signaling that supply chain exploitation and political complicity cannot be hidden behind design and branding.
For many, Apple products are tied into work, education, and daily life, making a full boycott unrealistic. The strongest step is slowing the upgrade cycle: extend the lifespan of your devices, repair instead of replacing, and buy secondhand or refurbished. Each skipped purchase weakens demand for Apple’s extractive supply chains. Where possible, explore alternatives: Fairphone for modular, repairable smartphones; Framework for customizable laptops; and refurbished Linux machines for everyday computing. The act of slowing down consumption itself, resisting Apple’s “new release” treadmill, is a practical form of boycott.