Tim Cook calls removing Alex Jones simply 'curation'

In an interview with Vice News that aired tonight on HBO, Apple CEO Tim Cook publicly explained some of the reasoning behind removing Alex Jones and InfoWars from the company's podcast app and App Store. According to Cook, the move wasn't politically motivated, or coordinated with any other tech companies, as he denied ever discussing the subject with them.

Instead, he said: "What users want from us and what we've always provided them is a curated platform. We think the what the user wants is someone that does review these apps, someone that does review the podcasts, someone that on like Apple news, where a human is selecting the top stories. And that's what we do."

He also reiterated previous comments calling for some form of regulation when it comes to privacy, saying that when the free market "doesn't produce a result that's great for society, you have to ask yourself what do we need to do?" Interviewer Elle Reeve also pushed Cook on his company's business in China, but he only offered that for user data in the country "it's encrypted like it is everywhere," and as he has before, said that Apple tries to design privacy into its products. You can watch the interview in its entirety below.