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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

#271

Post by djsumdog »

GuB-42 wrote: post #186
thrownblown wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also banned all images from the Netflix film "Cuties" https://www.newsweek.com/4chan-bans-images-netflix-film-cuti...

It has been a while since I went to 4chan, but for /b/, besides very few exceptions like child porn, the rule was "no rules, it also applies to mods". So they can allow the worst kind of hate speech, porn and gore, but ban a harmless meme because mods find it annoying. So the only rationale from banning images from "Cuties" may be "because mods don't like it".

No, the rational for banning the Cuties content is because they see it as normalizing pedophilia and child abuse imagery.

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

#272

Post by oehpr »

gilrain wrote: post #92
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/

A reminder that Gab is not a gray area edgecase, but a purpose-built platform for conspiracies and hate speech.

I'm not deeply versed in Gab's history... But lets hypothetically say that Gab was not created for that purpose, but for precisely the purpose it claims it was created for:

To be an open platform for free speech, no censorship.

Wouldn't it have ended up in the exact same state it is now? Any service that guarantees no censorship is going to have the majority of its userbase be the runoff from other major websites. When voat was created, I 100% believed that they were not attempting to create extremist havens, but their userbase was all the people expelled from reddit for targeted harassment campaigns.

I hate this dynamic. We need a way to break this cycle, because right now it's actively killing competitors to existing social networks.

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

#273

Post by LudwigNagasena »

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.

> People agree to very sensible things. Like hate speech is bad and it’s not censorship if it’s not mandated by the government.

This doesn’t seem very sensible to me, I would even say it seems to be the opposite of sensible, probably because I am not American.

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

#274

Post by kaibee »

thelean12 wrote: post #258
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.

So google is taking down Discord and anything that provides an IRC like experience too then?

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

#275

Post by colpabar »

IntelMiner wrote: post #256
croes wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

doesn't it go both ways? if you flip both positions, it's also inconsistent.

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

#276

Post by thu2111 »

valvar wrote: post #177
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.

I really don't get that logic. Of course, everyone agrees that hate speech is bad (and so are a lot of things, but I digress). But how is it not censorship when one of the world's most powerful companies does it? Do they get a free pass because they are governed by shareholders and make a lot of money? I can see how it's not censorship if Bob does not want people to post things he disagrees with on his cat picture fo…

everyone agrees that hate speech is bad

The first amendment would like to differ!

Anyway it's meaningless to believe hate speech is bad, because hate speech is an undefined term. It just means something someone somewhere would like to punish someone else for saying.

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

#277

Post by eska »

I'm sure all the people who were for taking down certain Fediverse apps for hate speech from the F-droid app store won't have a problem with being taken down from the Play Store on the same grounds, right? After all, one can still download their apps somewhere else..

Serves you right.

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

#278

Post by vxNsr »

gerbal wrote: post #235
tinyhouse wrote: post #101

On a related topic. I was trying to search videos from the Wisconsin shooting of the 17 year old who shot and killed two people and injured one. Every video I clicked on was already taken down due to offensive content. I found it strange given that Youtube is full of videos of shooting incidents. Now, I do understand the families of the victims may want the videos taking down. But it seems to me the mob of people fla…

Right wing propagandists flooded twitter and reddit with deceptive edits, frame grabs, and narratives. I expect there are now multiple retaliatory take down campaigns by multiple groups and bot networks to try to preserve only videos that support their preferred narrative.

I mean the NYT has the videos and very clearly shows that he acted defensively each time. I was surprised by how clearly they were willing to show that considering their bias, I didn’t really read the content around the video, but that alone was interesting. Of course the title at the time made it sound like he was guilty so...

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

#279

Post by luckylion »

komali2 wrote: post #93
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/

That article was written with such blatantly bad faith language it had the opposite of the intended effect and made me start distrusting whatever Gab is (I had no idea before this thread) > F-Droid won’t tolerate oppression or harassment against marginalized groups. Because of this, it won’t package nor distribute apps that promote any of these things If this accurately describes Gab, I don't have sympathy for Yet An…

Gab is a platform, ergo the judgement is about what the users publish on that platform. It's the exact same point Google seems to be making: that platform hosts content we wouldn't host, ergo the app must not be on our app store.

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

#280

Post by silveraxe93 »

tenebrisalietum wrote: post #250
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.

Kindly take this as a devils advocate post before you reflexively downvote. It looks like letting people say anything they want on major social media platforms is only having one major positive effect: a few advertising companies are becoming very rich. The negative effects include: - incited violence (gang-oriented gun crime in Chicago is often fanned by social media posts for example) - bad medical decisions (vacci…

I think it's obvious that if less people speak their mind, we could have a smarter, happier humanity.

But I also think it's obvious that I shouldn't trust you to make the decision of who needs to shut up. And definitely not the government.

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