In an interview on CNN’s State of The Union, President Obama reiterated that Sony “made a mistake” when they decided to bow to North Korea’s threats and canceled the showing of the movie, The Interview. But the president also said that he understood Sony’s decision as a company, but wished they had talked to him first before pulling the plug on the movie.
“I was pretty sympathetic to the fact that they have business considerations that they got to make,” the president said. “Had they talked to me directly about this decision, I might have called the movie theater chains and distributors and asked them what the story was.”
Mr. Obama continued saying that Sony’s decision set a dangerous precedent, one that cannot be adhere to.
“If we set a precedent in which a dictator in another country can disrupt through cyber, a company’s distribution chain or its products, and as a consequence we start censoring ourselves, that’s a problem,” Obama said.
“And it’s a problem not just for the entertainment industry, it’s a problem for the news industry,” he said. “CNN has done critical stories about North Korea. What happens if in fact there is a breach in CNN’s cyberspace? Are we going to suddenly say, are we not going to report on North Korea?
“So the key here is not to suggest that Sony was a bad actor. It’s making a broader point that all of us have to adapt to the possibility of cyber attacks, we have to do a lot more to guard against them.”
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