Konstantin Ernst, director of Channel One TV; Photo: Maxim Konstantinov / Zuma Press / Profimedia
Apple founder Steve Jobs was included in the list along with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler because of the iPhone’s “harmful impact” on society. This statement was made by the head of one of Russia’s largest state-owned TV channels, Konstantin Ernst, according to the independent news website Agence.
Channel One CEO Ernst called the iPhone “extremely harmful and detrimental to humanity” because, in his opinion, it “destroys human relationships”. According to him, people stop visiting their loved ones because of smartphones and replace face-to-face meetings with phone calls or messages.
“Today, you don’t go to your parents, you just call them. This allows you not to visit them for months and sometimes years,” Ernst said at the state event. “Communication with friends is also reduced to calls or text messages, because it is almost unethical to make phone calls now.”
According to him, Jobs is “on a par with the characters where only Adolf Hitler is in front of him”.
Last year, the Kremlin banned its internal staff, including President Vladimir Putin’s re-election team, from using iPhones over fears of espionage. A Kremlin spokesman acknowledged that up to 30% of the presidential administration’s staff still use iPhones for personal communication.
Ernst, 63, is under EU sanctions as the head of a major Russian media holding company that “organises and disseminates anti-Ukrainian propaganda”. In 2021, an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), based on a leak of 12 million financial documents, found that Ernst had received a stake in a billion-dollar real estate project in Moscow. The Kremlin called the report unfounded and refused to comment.
Ernst’s statement highlights the growing tension between the Russian authorities and Western technology corporations, which the Kremlin perceives as a potential tool for Western influence on Russia’s domestic policy.
