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Firefox bans free speech commenting plugin Dissenter from its extensions gallery

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Re: Firefox bans free speech commenting plugin Dissenter from its extensions gallery

#51

Post by toomuchtodo »

evgen wrote: post #27
toomuchtodo wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is protected by constitutional rights in the country Mozilla’s nexus exists in. It’s not necessary for a bloated non profit to remove access to an extension for political reasons (versus technical deficiencies). Free speech is useless if you’re not willing to defend that which you find most disagreeable.

> Which is protected by constitutional rights in the country Mozilla’s nexus exists in. Good thing it is not the government telling Mozilla to remove the plugin then, otherwise there might be an actual problem here. What makes free speech useless is pretending that someone else has a responsibility to promote your message or provide you with access to a printing press. Neither are true. This does not even appear to b…

Militant leftists wanting to outlaw certain speech are no different then the alt right. It’s not as if more reason is necessary for regulating tech. You want to be the new commons, you get the responsibility of the commons along with it. Can’t have it both ways.

Note we heavily regulate private companies in many US industries when we deem it necessary.

Re: Firefox bans free speech commenting plugin Dissenter from its extensions gallery

#52

Post by yhoneycomb »

writepub wrote: post #48
netsharc wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> Ah, gotta love Nazis screaming "you have to tolerate my intolerance!". Wow! Just casually name-calling someone a Nazi, because of a difference of opinion is just so damn 2019. Here's a quick thought experiment for you - name ONE conservative who you DO NOT consider a Nazi. Just one. And then maybe you'll realize that the problem isn't that the opposing philosophy is actual Nazism, it's that you've been trained to o…

this is exactly the kind of thing a nazi would say

Re: Firefox bans free speech commenting plugin Dissenter from its extensions gallery

#53

Post by flukus »

What's the status of third party, unauthorized firefox extensions these days, didn't they ban them or make them a pain in the arse to use several years ago?

They might not have to host it, but if they make it hard/impossible for others to host and use it then they're certainly violating the first of the four freedoms of free software: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html

Re: Firefox bans free speech commenting plugin Dissenter from its extensions gallery

#54

Post by writepub »

yhoneycomb wrote: post #52
writepub wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ah, gotta love Nazis screaming "you have to tolerate my intolerance!". Wow! Just casually name-calling someone a Nazi, because of a difference of opinion is just so damn 2019. Here's a quick thought experiment for you - name ONE conservative who you DO NOT consider a Nazi. Just one. And then maybe you'll realize that the problem isn't that the opposing philosophy is actual Nazism, it's that you've been trained to o…

this is exactly the kind of thing a nazi would say

Like "yhoneycomb" is the exact kind of ID Hitler would choose.

Re: Firefox bans free speech commenting plugin Dissenter from its extensions gallery

#55

Post by cheez »

jjulius wrote: post #31
cheez wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dissenter was created by a person or group of people who have thoughts and opinions that deserve to be protected.

They're free to voice those thoughts wherever they can, just as Mozilla is free to opt not to host their app if they find said thoughts and opinions to be offensive. Freedom of speech doesn't mean freedom from consequences of said speech. If Mozilla received enough complaints about the speech being promoted via the app, then it is within their right to choose not to host it. How is that such a hard concept for so man…

Lucky for you your opinions are mainstream.

Re: Firefox bans free speech commenting plugin Dissenter from its extensions gallery

#56

Post by mymindstorm »

0815test wrote: post #43
peterhadlaw wrote: post #15

It's stuff like this that makes it a far cry to call Mozilla "open" and "free"

Dissenters is a commercial platform, Mozilla are simply under no obligation to promote it or give it a spotlight under addons.mozilla.org. Unless you can point to a similar addon from some alt-left site that they have approved, there's no reason to suspect that this was a political decision.

Firefox requires that extension files be signed by Mozilla if you want to install a .xpi file from a website. They don't have to be given a spotlight, but this effectively makes it impossible for anyone who doesn't know how to manually compile and install the extension to even use it.

Re: Firefox bans free speech commenting plugin Dissenter from its extensions gallery

#57

Post by mymindstorm »

javagram wrote: post #40
evgen wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does the removal of the extension from the extension gallery prevent people from using the extension or just limit its exposure? If the latter then there is not censorship but simply Mozilla deciding the cost is not worth the bother. No one has any particular right to be promoted by Mozilla.

As far as i can see from the article, Mozilla is still agreeing to sign the addon, just not to list it in the AMO site. The article lists an 8 step process and claims users would have to follow that on each restart of Firefox to enable the addon. I’m not sure if that’s true, as the guidelines I can see on other websites seem to suggest self hosting addons shouldn’t have that problem.

If Mozilla won't sign it, you have to install it manually. [0]

[0]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/Dis...

Re: Firefox bans free speech commenting plugin Dissenter from its extensions gallery

#58

Post by Karunamon »

mymindstorm wrote: post #56
0815test wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dissenters is a commercial platform, Mozilla are simply under no obligation to promote it or give it a spotlight under addons.mozilla.org. Unless you can point to a similar addon from some alt-left site that they have approved, there's no reason to suspect that this was a political decision.

Firefox requires that extension files be signed by Mozilla if you want to install a .xpi file from a website. They don't have to be given a spotlight, but this effectively makes it impossible for anyone who doesn't know how to manually compile and install the extension to even use it.

No compilation necessary. You just download the addon source, flip on the "debug plugins" option, and point it at the manifest file.

Still a pain in the ass.

Re: Firefox bans free speech commenting plugin Dissenter from its extensions gallery

#59

Post by Karunamon »

This is censorship, pure and simple. Gab, and Dissenter itself for that matter, are apolitical entitles whose stated goal is to allow any speech so long as it doesn't violate law. Say whatever you want, regardless of your political leanings. Admirable.

Mozilla has made their stance on such a goal clear. I don't believe for a hot second that this wasn't a politically-motivated decision, and it really puts the lie to their claims of protecting "a free and open web".

"Free and open" is diametrically opposed to blocking an addon whose sole purpose is to allow access to a third party web service.

Re: Firefox bans free speech commenting plugin Dissenter from its extensions gallery

#60

Post by kayfox »

netsharc wrote: post #46
kayfox wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you have to create a special message board that is the only place where you can say what you want to, perhaps you should think about what you are saying. Such was discussing LGBT issues before the 2000s.

[flagged]

I was talking from personal experience as a LGBT person.
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