In late 2010 and early 2011, Apple's supply chain in China came under intense media scrutiny. “1 Million Workers. 90 Million iPhones. 17 Suicides. Who's to Blame?”1 This was the title of an investigation by Wired magazine, published after a tour of a Foxconn factory in Shenzhen. It references the “suicide express” that began in 2010 and asks difficult questions about user complicity in these deaths. By the time this article appeared, Foxconn was in full denial mode. The workers who had jumped to their deaths, or had been crippled for life, did so, the company claimed, not because of harsh working conditions, excessive overtime, or monotonous, repetitive assembly line tasks, but because they must have had preexisting psychological conditions. Foxconn urged better psychological screening. Nets were hung between buildings on factory grounds to catch future jumpers. All of this, of course, was for the “safety and well-being” of...

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