In light of Apple’s very public battle with the FBI over encryption, John Oliver designed a satirical ad for Apple to help “both their customers and the government” understand just how hard it is to protect data.
The host of Last Week Tonight — who last April famously boiled down the argument about NSA surveillance to its core issue, dick pics — said he takes Apple’s side, but acknowledged that the company wasn’t doing a very good job of explaining its position.
Watch the two-minute fake ad here. It’s the last two minutes of the segment, embedded below.
“We’re barely one step ahead of hackers at all times,” a voiceover actress explains. “So that when you idiots lose your phone, your information doesn’t wind up in the hands of guys like Gary.” Gary is a creepy hacker gratifying himself over family photos on a phone he stole.
Apple engineers are pictured panicking and cursing.
“So if the FBI comes to us and asks us if we can undermine our encryption without compromising everyone’s emails, texts, and skateboarding videos, this is our response,” the voiceover continues.
“Are you fucking kidding me? We’re engineers, not wizards,” says an engineer.
IT’S EVEN WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT.
What we’re seeing right now from Donald Trump is a full-on authoritarian takeover of the U.S. government.
This is not hyperbole.
Court orders are being ignored. MAGA loyalists have been put in charge of the military and federal law enforcement agencies. The Department of Government Efficiency has stripped Congress of its power of the purse. News outlets that challenge Trump have been banished or put under investigation.
Yet far too many are still covering Trump’s assault on democracy like politics as usual, with flattering headlines describing Trump as “unconventional,” “testing the boundaries,” and “aggressively flexing power.”
The Intercept has long covered authoritarian governments, billionaire oligarchs, and backsliding democracies around the world. We understand the challenge we face in Trump and the vital importance of press freedom in defending democracy.
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
IT’S BEEN A DEVASTATING year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.
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I’M BEN MUESSIG, The Intercept’s editor-in-chief. It’s been a devastating year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.
That’s where you come in. Will you help us expand our reporting capacity in time to hit the ground running in 2026?
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
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