Apple CEO Tim Cook will appear on ABC's World News Tonight with David Muir on February 24 at 6:30 PM Eastern Time. In the interview, he explains Apple's position against a court order to create new software that would help the FBI access the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters last December.

Portions of the interview are already available.

Tim Cook said:

I think safety of the public is incredibly important -- safety of our kids, safety of our family is very important. The protection of people's data is incredibly important, and so the trade-off here is we know that doing this could expose people to incredible vulnerabilities.

The interview will also be shown on ABC's Nightline at 12:35 AM.

Apple intends to put up a vigorous defense in this matter which could affect the privacy of Americans for all time.