Apple FBI Case Simplified By John Oliver Encryption Video

If you weren't already convinced one way or the other about the Apple FBI encryption case, today "Last Week Tonight" will do that job for you. John Oliver tackles encryption, showing how the situation has played out so far and how absurd everything has been. In this Last Week Tonight, like all Last Week Tonight episodes, Oliver not only takes the case and makes it all simple enough for any person to understand, he drops the mic at the end as well.

Sit yourself down and plug in your headphones – this is an 18 minute feature you're going to want to tune in for. In it, Oliver lays in to the situation at hand. Not just one side of the argument or the other – he takes all possibilities and drops a series of truth bombs directly in your face. You will KNOW what's up.

The key quote from Tim Cook's interview on this subject last month is pulled and shared by Oliver to make certain Apple's position is clear right off the bat.

SEE: Apple FBI case timeline (to catch you right up)

"No-one, I don't believe, would want a master key built that would turn hundreds of millions of locks. Even if that key were in the possession of the person that you trust the most. That key could be stolen." – Tim Cook

Immediately following, Oliver shows a clip of the NYPD's John Miller, showing a perfect example of what's wrong with the FBI and their ally's approach to this situation.

They're either dumb, or they're acting dumb.

"What the government is asking Tim Cook is, you designed it, you can design your way out of it for this one time... If you figure out the formula and crack open this phone to the point at which we can then try codes against it, you can tear that formula up, toss it in a fireplace, and throw it away." – NYPD's John Miller

No, Mr. Miller. In no way, shape, or form does that make any sense. You cannot possibly be that uninformed about how technology works.

Once you write a "formula" as Miller says, you can't just toss it in a fireplace. You don't just then delete the code and expect it to disappear. It's out there. It's in the universe. Once any sort of code is on the internet, the chances that it'll disappear from every computer in existence are so small that they're statistically nonexistent.

For more information on this subject, behold our collection of news bits and exploratory guides released over the past several weeks.