This article was published on March 22, 2016

Want to know where your state sides on the Apple vs FBI debate? Check its voting record


Want to know where your state sides on the Apple vs FBI debate? Check its voting record

While the FBI and Apple case is on hiatus until April 5, the public debate rages on about whether Apple should assist the FBI in unlocking the San Bernadino shooter’s iPhone.

Turns out, it’s pretty easy to find out if your state supports Apple or the FBI: just look at its voting results from the 2012 presidential election.

When you lay the two maps on top of one another, there is little variation between republican-supporting ‘red states’ and democrat-supporting ‘blue states.’ What little variation there is mostly comes from swing states, like Iowa, Missouri and Indiana — states that don’t have strong ties to a single party and often switch from one election to the next.

The methodology isn’t exactly bulletproof, as it’s a modest-sized sample (5,000) and it was run on Facebook (using ads targeted at each state), but the company behind the survey — an SMS marketing company called SimpleTexting — did manage to snag at least 100 responses from each state by asking the following question:

Recently the FBI has asked Apple to create software that would allow them to bypass security restrictions and access the iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino attackers.

The FBI says Apple should comply in the name of national security, however Apple is not cooperating, stating that it would set a precedent that could endanger the privacy and security of its users.

Do you side with the FBI, or do you side with Apple in regards to this matter?

Albeit slightly flawed, the results proved interesting and shows that the Apple vs FBI debate may be much more of a partisan conversation than previously thought.

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