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Google is apparently taking down all/most Fediverse apps from the Play Store

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Re: Google is apparently taking down all/most Fediverse apps from the Play Store

#251

Post by crocodiletears »

tinyhouse wrote: post #232
djsumdog wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's actually very disturbing considering the amount of misinformation over this incident, and that they're charging that kid for murder! Were you able to find the videos? They tell a pretty different story than the media narrative. Every person he shoots attacked him or had a gun. He doesn't shoot the kid behind them who had his hands up, or any other bystanders. He then walks with his hands up and turns himself i…

Yes, I found it eventually. Although the video doesn't show the first fatal shooting so we don't know how it all started.

Earlier footage indicates the first man shot was attempting to start a fight with the militiamen, but there's a gap in the timeline where nobody was filming before the fight broke out.

The NYT has a very good article on the subject (and I'm a man who's very critical of the NYT)

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/27/us/kyle-rittenhouse-kenos...

Re: Google is apparently taking down all/most Fediverse apps from the Play Store

#252

Post by felipeko »

Retric wrote: post #238
thomascgalvin wrote: post #169

> Like hate speech is bad and it’s not censorship if it’s not mandated by the government. To be fully accurate, this is absolutely censorship , but it's not a violation of anyone's First Amendment rights. People often conflate the two. We can argue about whether or not Google should ban certain opinions on their platform, or where the line should be drawn, but it is arguable that hey have the legal right to do so. An…

Censorship is allowed under the first amendment on obscenity or national security grounds. Private organizations just have more freedom in this area. EX: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FCC_v._Pacifica_Foundation

Is allowed under some interpretation of the first amendment. It is not allowed by the first amendement per se.

Re: Google is apparently taking down all/most Fediverse apps from the Play Store

#253

Post by stinkytaco »

croes wrote: post #206
thomascgalvin wrote: post #169

> Like hate speech is bad and it’s not censorship if it’s not mandated by the government. To be fully accurate, this is absolutely censorship , but it's not a violation of anyone's First Amendment rights. People often conflate the two. We can argue about whether or not Google should ban certain opinions on their platform, or where the line should be drawn, but it is arguable that hey have the legal right to do so. An…

That's a clever trick. Make the medium you want to censor a private property than it's legal.

It's the side effect of allowing a small number of largely unregulated companies to control so much of our communications. TV and radio using public right-of-ways like radio bands are much more tightly regulated to ensure "equal time". That's not the case for social media or mobile platforms and I suspect any attempt to regulate those would be met with a great deal of resistance. Not the least complaint would be that regulation has a history of keeping small players out, potentially further cementing the monopoly of a few companies. I don't know the answer to any of this, but I think it's something that will need to have an answer if our democracy is to survive.

Re: Google is apparently taking down all/most Fediverse apps from the Play Store

#254

Post by sildur »

mc32 wrote: post #95

It always starts like that. People agree to very sensible things. Like hate speech is bad and it’s not censorship if it’s not mandated by the government. Eventually the definition of hate or whatever it is that’s offensive is very removed from the original meaning, and now we all bear the brunt of the sensible people who with best intentions wanted to make things better.

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions"

Re: Google is apparently taking down all/most Fediverse apps from the Play Store

#255

Post by dageshi »

linuxftw wrote: post #199
throwaway189262 wrote: post #176

There's racist stuff all over Google's biggest properties. Racist results on Google, videos on youtube, sites hosted on GCP. Give me a break with your fake trashy virtue signalling Google. This is nothing more than a monopoly stomping out a platform it doesn't like. Probably because federation is a threat to Google's position as the central hub of the internet.

Indeed. The real story is federated applications undermine their search monopoly.

I really doubt google cares about federated applications at all. I suspect they're just trying to avoid a potential future shitstorm where they're accused of facilitating something nasty because they "approved" apps to be on the play store.

Re: Google is apparently taking down all/most Fediverse apps from the Play Store

#256

Post by IntelMiner »

croes wrote: post #206
thomascgalvin wrote: post #169

> Like hate speech is bad and it’s not censorship if it’s not mandated by the government. To be fully accurate, this is absolutely censorship , but it's not a violation of anyone's First Amendment rights. People often conflate the two. We can argue about whether or not Google should ban certain opinions on their platform, or where the line should be drawn, but it is arguable that hey have the legal right to do so. An…

That's a clever trick. Make the medium you want to censor a private property than it's legal.

And yet. There's a certain "side" that wants to have that both ways

Private companies can't censor "bad opinions"

But private companies can also arbitrarily refuse service for say, making a "gay wedding cake"

How is this disconnect rationalized?

Re: Google is apparently taking down all/most Fediverse apps from the Play Store

#257

Post by ffpip »

MYEUHD wrote: post #129
grahoho wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A reminder that F-Droid banned Gab from their store. https://reclaimthenet.org/f-droid-bans-gab-app/

Even if an app is banned from the F-droid main repository, its developers can distribute it through their own F-droid repository

Even if an app is banned from the play store, the developer can distribute it through f-droid. Even if an app is banned from the F-droid main repository, its developers can distribute it through their own F-droid repository Even if the app is banned from their own f-droid repository, the dev can distribute his source code and users can build the app with Android Studio. Even if Google bans your Android Studio account, you can use another compiler. Even if the internet bans you, you can mail the code via a handwritten letter to your users, who will copy the code line by line and build it using their own compiler.

Re: Google is apparently taking down all/most Fediverse apps from the Play Store

#258

Post by thelean12 »

jakelazaroff wrote: post #53

> Holy crap, google is apparently taking down all/most fediverse apps from google play on the grounds that that some servers in the fediverse engage in hate speech. Good thing you can't find any hate speech on Play Store–promoted corporate behemoths Twitter and Facebook!

This is a bad faith argument. Twitter and Facebook do a lot to take down hate speech from their platforms (with exceptions made for "public interest" cases like high level politicians).

Some servers on the fediverse specifically allow unfettered hate speech.

Re: Google is apparently taking down all/most Fediverse apps from the Play Store

#259

Post by wtfishackernews »

grahoho wrote: post #77
daniel-s wrote: post #18

A reminder that F-Droid [1] is a free software app store that can be used to download free/open source software, including Mastodon clients. [1] https://f-droid.org/

A reminder that F-Droid banned Gab from their store. https://reclaimthenet.org/f-droid-bans-gab-app/

good

Re: Google is apparently taking down all/most Fediverse apps from the Play Store

#260

Post by agentdrtran »

vorpalhex wrote: post #234
viro wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When your content is too cancerous for Reddit ...maybe the issue isn't Reddit.

Reddit recently dramatically revised their moderation policy and has generally been banning a lot of subs. Reddit very much wants to be a profitable business, and has no problem elimiting non-profitable subreddits. "When your content is too cancerous for church, maybe the issue isn't the church". Feel free to replace church with whatever is appropriate to your situation, but there have always been censors and there w…

This site listes Parler and Voat which have rampant, unchecked antisemitism and racism. I would love to see a non-censorious site that takes hate speech seriously but they don't seem to exist for some reason...
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