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Google bans Podcast Addict app over non-approved Covid-19 content

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Re: Google bans Podcast Addict app over non-approved Covid-19 content

#101

Post by encom »

mschuster91 wrote: post #64
enos_feedler wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This actually feels like an intentional move by Google to NOT get split up. Don’t worry government, we got your back! We’ll ban things that aren’t approved by you!

No, it's a service to public health to take down crap . People spreading "covid19 is fake" propaganda are literally getting themselves, their parents and friends killed . Freedom of speech also comes with responsibility - the responsibility of not endangering others with your speech. Similar as inciting hatred and screaming "fire" in a crowded restaurant will earn you jail time, people should be happy it's only their…

>"fire" in a crowded restaurant

I'm so sick of hearing this "argument" against free speech. Yelling fire is not free speech. Never has been. Inciting hatred is however, and since you're inciting hatred yourself, with wanting innocent people to die or throw them in jail, I hope you live in a country that has free speech laws, or you might be looking at jail time yourself.

Re: Google bans Podcast Addict app over non-approved Covid-19 content

#102

Post by Barrin92 »

One of the few paid apps I use extensively. Completely ridiculous given that their own damn podcast app shows everyone the same podcasts.

Not to mention that you can literally post an RSS feed into pretty much every podcast app, it's an open ecosystem. Jesus.

Can Google actually put people with some degree of sensibliity in charge of these decisions? This reminds me of Amazon deleting 1984 from people's Kindles.

Re: Google bans Podcast Addict app over non-approved Covid-19 content

#103

Post by thu2111 »

gundmc wrote: post #79
lord_erasmus wrote: post #61

In most of these stories featuring Google abusing their power to remove apps, it's usually a matter of some automated tool gone wrong and the problem is solved a couple of days later. But this time it's different, they are actually asking developers to censor themselves if they are not affiliated with a gov.

What makes you think this is something other than another (awful) high profile case of automation gone wrong?

The tool is clearly implementing the policy as described. It's just a policy that's stupid, arrogant and naive.

Re: Google bans Podcast Addict app over non-approved Covid-19 content

#105

Post by jml7c5 »

switch007 wrote: post #52
bbarn wrote: post #13

COVID-19 is the terrorism of this generation. It's the anything goes, doesn't matter how fair, as long as it's because COVID.

I agree. It’s badly affected air travel and who knows what changes will result (or what contracts for pointless bio-security theatre have been made) In the UK, a 300+ page law was basically pre-written and enacted very quickly, reminiscent of the early anti terrorism law. We have set up a bio security unit, currently headed by the security services. UK has a “threat level” system for coronavirus similar to the terror…

>In the UK, a 300+ page law was basically pre-written and enacted very quickly, reminiscent of the early anti terrorism law.

I'm leery of what you may be trying to imply here. This isn't some conspiracy thing, is it?

Re: Google bans Podcast Addict app over non-approved Covid-19 content

#107

Post by marvin »

encom wrote: post #93
yuvalr1 wrote: post #80

This is once again an example for how freedom of speech is becoming more and more controlled by tech companies. I'm a little worried about this phenomenon. Google is not constructed by journalists. Freedom of speech might not be first priority for Google.

Just think about how extremely dystopian it is, to punish someone for relaying information that is not approved by the government. The slope is getting slippier every day.

Someone on HN suggested an amendment to the rule that private companies are not obliged to follow any freedom of speech principles when they grow to a size where they are closer to a carrier than a service. I think it's time to seriously consider something like that.

Re: Google bans Podcast Addict app over non-approved Covid-19 content

#108

Post by thu2111 »

Tepix wrote: post #81
weiming wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except in this case it's not the government, but private corporations taking some kind of political stance. Google in particular has been very "active," not to forget also: https://www.businessinsider.com/youtube-will-ban-anything-ag... ("video that 'goes against' WHO guidance on the pandemic will be blocked")

There is a lot of pressure on the large tech companies to stop spreading misinformation. This is one of their measures.

In the USA? The pressure comes entirely from their straight-from-college activist workforce, with nothing to do and no vision to aim for they've degenerated into constant virtue signalling of the form "we are so intelligent, we must use our intelligence to save the world from bad people/republicans".

Google didn't used to be like this. Remember the glory days of organising the world's information, to make it universally accessible? Apparently Google have forgotten. Back when most people who worked there were adults there wasn't any internal pressure to censor stuff because they understood where that path would lead. But a foolish choice to keep hiring indefinitely, just because they could, meant they ran out of adults to hire a long time ago and were forced to rely far more heavily on sucking up the flow of new grads. They go from one university-like environment in which results hardly matter to another, working on the long tail of me-too products nobody cares about, searching for meaning. And they find it in "doing good" and "fighting evil", as they see it, which given the academic "never criticise a fellow professor" mindset they've been steeped in translates naturally to deleting anything that implicitly or otherwise criticises academics (sorry, experts).

Re: Google bans Podcast Addict app over non-approved Covid-19 content

#109

Post by rndgermandude »

mschuster91 wrote: post #64
enos_feedler wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This actually feels like an intentional move by Google to NOT get split up. Don’t worry government, we got your back! We’ll ban things that aren’t approved by you!

No, it's a service to public health to take down crap . People spreading "covid19 is fake" propaganda are literally getting themselves, their parents and friends killed . Freedom of speech also comes with responsibility - the responsibility of not endangering others with your speech. Similar as inciting hatred and screaming "fire" in a crowded restaurant will earn you jail time, people should be happy it's only their…

You do realize that google's policy isn't just targeting the "corona is fake news" crowd, right? The wording says any app "referencing COVID-19" not published/endorsed by the government or a public health organization got to go.

If google applied this consistently it should have to ban the following apps: Google Chrome[1], Firefox[1], Opera[1], Google[2], Google News[3], Google Podcast[2], Netflix[4], Youtube[3], Play Store[2, 3], any news/journalism organization (including CNN, PBS, NYTimes, BBC (uk), ARD/ZDF (de)), reddit[3], twitter[3], facebook[3], and plenty plenty more.

But at least Jair Bolsonaro is still free to put out fake news apps if he wants because he is head of the government...

[1] Allows access to sites such as google[2].

[2] Allows access to "fake news". And it has a covid warning section linking to (thereby endorsing) non-approved sources such as wikipedia.

[3] Displays/Links to a lot of non-government approved journalism and "journalism".

[3] e.g. https://www.netflix.com/de-en/title/81273378

Re: Google bans Podcast Addict app over non-approved Covid-19 content

#110

Post by newswasboring »

sdan wrote: post #2

Original link: https://reclaimthenet.org/google-play-suspends-podcast-addic... Weird that Apple does this proxying... not going to open up that News app.

weirder because the website being proxy-ed is all about privacy protections. I am pretty sure I just submitted data I did not intend to to apple.
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