Apple’s an easy target, but you can’t blame them for Foxconn

The cries from the media blaming Apple for the conditions at Foxconn are getting out of hand. Blaming Apple solely for the problems at the factory is like blaming one car-maker for greenhouse gasses. It doesn’t make sense. There are many companies and many factors that make Foxconn what it is.

Does Apple have a responsibility to the workers are Foxconn? Absolutely. However, I believe that Apple is doing more than any other company out there. They publish reports of audits and also detail things like what it’s doing to rid its products of dangerous chemicals.

What are the other companies doing that even compares to Apple’s progress? We don’t really know, because nobody bothers to find out.

TechCrunch’s Devin Coldewey nailed it in an article the other day saying that “Foxconn is used by most of the major electronics brands in the world. Samsung, Microsoft, Amazon, and the rest all contract with Foxconn to manufacture, assemble, or finish their products. The threatened mass suicide the other week was, in fact, at an Xbox production facility.”

Why then aren’t the media holding Microsoft’s feet to the proverbial fire over that? Because that headline isn’t as sexy as blaming Apple.

We can’t simply ignore the problems that arise in manufacturing the devices we love to use, but we can’t throw the blame at Apple’s feet and demand they do more. At the very least the reporters blaming Apple should contact the other companies and ask what they are doing to solve these problems.