Steve Jobs’ monument in Russia was torn down the day after CEO Tim Cook opened up about being gay last week. The incident was immediately blamed on homophobic Russians and the country’s anti-gay laws, but the school where the monument was destroyed, says that’s not actually what happened.
School officials told Russian news outlets today that the iPhone statue was removed for a reason any Apple fan can relate to: its screen was broken.
In fact, the press service for the Saint Petersburg State University of Information Technologies insists that it was actually notified that the statue was going to be removed the day before Tim Cook came out publicly, because its screen sensor was faulty.
Students at the college also confirmed that the giant iPhone statue wasn’t working properly, and that its removal wasn’t a result of the country’s anti-gay laws that ban promoting “non-traditional sexual relationships” to people under age 18.
Tim Cook doesn’t actually make a appearance on the monument, which is about as tall as an average man, and displays videos and texts of Steve Jobs on its bigger than big display. The university hasn’t said if the monumnet will be reinstalled soon, but the head of the company that owns it said he wouldn’t be against reinstalling it, as long as it sends “a message to the US rejecting the use of Apple devices.”
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
13 responses to “The real reason Russians tore down Steve Jobs’ monument”
You got it all wrong guys. The owner(not the University)has actually said, that he ordered to remove it, because it sends wrong message to Russians and stands for corrupted values (approx translation).
that’s what was first reported. the university’s press is now refuting that, though the owner doesn’t seem any friendlier toward apple
So the companies involved first said that it was taken down due to Tim Cook ‘promoting sodomy’, then there was an uproar, and then the same people said it was in fact due to it being broken.
And you choose to believe the second excuse.
Any particular logical reason why? Any idea why they didn’t come out with the ‘real’ excuse first? After all, it was apparently nothing to do with homophobia, so how did that happen?
So instead of just repairing it, they ripped it out of the concrete and took it away. Yeah, I completely believe the “but it was broken” statement….pssssh.
It was taken down because the new one is much better.
I’m calling “bulls**t” on the new “explanation” of why this monument was being taken down. The university and the company got a taste of negative publicity over the de-installation, but their new excuse still smacks of anti-gay sentiment.
This explanation actually makes sense. Removing a Steve Jobs monument because of Tim Cook makes 0 sense at all. I didn’t even believe it when I first read it. I don’t know what to believe, though.
Of course. Whenever someone comes out with a stream of homophobic bullshit, and then says, “No wait, I didn’t mean that at all, I meant something completely different,” you just know they didn’t mean it at all and are not in any way making up an excuse after the fact.
But why would they backtrack and make excuses? In Russia it’s patriotic to be homophobic.
EDIT:
OK, I realize this comment (patriotic) was a bad choice of words. What I meant is that homophobia is encouraged by the state and laws back them up. There is an example of a Mayor encouraging lynch mob justice against gays. It doesn’t seem like anyone would oppose a homophobic gesture, and in fact just further enforces their propaganda against gays and state sanctioned mentality of homophobia.
But to answer my own question, there is international pressure and international intolerance homophobic gestures like this. He’s just saving face.
I concede that you’re probably spot on.
This is a good time to upgrade it to the iPhone Monument 6 Plus
This begs the question…why was their an apple/jobs monument in Russia in the first place? And why does its owner hate apple? Bizzare
They’ll replace it with an ever bigger screen. And then some idiot will try to bend it.