It is? They're both public companies. If they get caught having strongly denied something that's true, that's worse than no comment, and the inevitable stock market motion and shareholder lawsuits that will result.

I still haven't heard a compelling argument for that. The only plausible reasons I've heard for Apple and Amazon lying about that are because they're being pressured by the American and/or Chinese governments. And if that's what's going on they're really going the extra mile with these calls for retraction.

I don't really buy it, if they really wanted to gaslight Bloomberg they could do it more subtly and without putting themselves in such an awkward position if strong contradicting evidence came to light.