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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

#661

Post by eitland »

crazygringo wrote: post #554

The is the first I (as well as others here, apparently) had ever heard of the "fediverse". Wikipedia [1] helps me out with what it is technically... but can anyone who knows describe what its content is actually like? In terms of hate speech or illegal content... does that make up the vast majority of fediverse content, in the way that pirated media makes up the vast majority of torrents? (Even though torrents can al…

If anything the instances I have visited have been cleaner than twitter and Facebook. On Twitter and in Facebook comments I've seen some serious hate speech.

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

#662

Post by SkyBelow »

tshaddox wrote: post #346
djsumdog wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> everyone agrees that hate speech is bad but does everyone agree on what hate speech is? That's the danger. You can just claim any opinion you don't like is hate speech. You can say endorsing a particular candidate is hate speech and those people can justifiably be censored; their views invalid (and in some places; justifiably killed). It was once considered offensive, in many places a crime, to say homosexuality is…

Does everyone agree on what murder is? Of course not. Does that mean murder should be legal?

>Does that mean murder should be legal?

The forms which have little agreement? Probably.

For example, some say that meat is murder. I don't think we should be outlawing meat, and thus in the eyes of the ones making such a statement, I'm supporting some forms of murder remaining legal.

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

#663

Post by verylittlemeat »

gerbal wrote: post #237
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…

It sounds a lot like you are deliberately seeking bias-confirming right wing propaganda!

The guy in this thread being downvoted clearly has a political bias but the part of his argument advocating for access to the raw original length video is reasonable.

If youtube wants to disable comments, throw up warnings or blur out gore then fine but suppressing media from a highly politically charged situation is a mistake.

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

#664

Post by kube-system »

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?

Because it is illegal (and morally wrong) to treat people differently because of who they are, not what they say or do.

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

#665

Post by zucker42 »

ng12 wrote: post #43
humanistbot wrote: post #21

The rationale they gave is that hate speech appears on these apps, because some of the microblogging sites that can be accessed via Fediverse have this kind of content. Based on this rationale, I look forward to Google Play removing Chrome, Firefox, and all other web browsers from the store as well.

Well, we asked for this. We demanded Twitter and FB censor their content, we applauded Cloudflare* for deplatforming websites. Now those monopolies can use the precedent to control more of the web.

Who is "we"?

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

#666

Post by dependenttypes »

stale2002 wrote: post #597
skissane wrote: post #544

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The First Amendment's guarantee of free speech is worded as an absolute, there are no exceptions in the text. However, no functioning society could allow unlimited free speech. There are many exceptions to the First Amendment – fraud, perjury, defamation, death threats, "shouting fire in a crowded theatre", speech in violation of privacy or duties of confidentiality, etc. I don't think the original authors of the Fir…

Countries in Europe have some pretty huge restictions on speech that go far behind things like making death threats and fraud illegal. Even the line that you quoted demonstrates this when it says things like "for the protection of morals". I really do not want the government infringing on speech rights, due to something as overly broad as "morals".

> Countries in Europe have some pretty huge restictions on speech that go far behind things like making death threats and fraud illegal.

So does the US.

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

#667

Post by znpy »

humanistbot wrote: post #47

The rationale they gave is that hate speech appears on these apps, because some of the microblogging sites that can be accessed via Fediverse have this kind of content. Based on this rationale, I look forward to Google Play removing Chrome, Firefox, and all other web browsers from the store as well.

Don't forget Twitter and Facebook. Twitter/Facebook basically created hate speech, by the way.

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

#668

Post by nikitaga »

thelean12 wrote: post #626
jakelazaroff wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's bad faith to pretend that some random Fediverse server that allows unfettered hate speech has the same societal impact as the mountains of misinformation and bigotry that flourish on Twitter and Facebook, despite their half-hearted efforts to look like they're fighting it. Just look at the scale at which Facebook enables the distribution of right-wing propaganda: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/27/technology…

Have any of the Fediverse apps that were banned from the app store done anything to prevent the issues that you say Facebook and Twitter have? I'll take the simple banning of a harmful server on their app as a way to change my mind on this issue.

I personally don't know, but neither have Chrome or Firefox done anything to block hate speech websites, and they're allowed to exist just fine.

Twitter actually hosts the trashpile, they're more responsible for it than some app that just lets you access trashpiles on third party servers.

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

#669

Post by [deleted] »

tachyonbeam wrote: post #502
noworriesnate wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get what you're saying, but I don't think this is because Google cares about hate speech. Google is simply using hate speech as an excuse to get rid of apps that it doesn't like. Deciding which apps you like and which you don't isn't that hard of a line to draw.

Google is politically very very left. I'm guessing that someone at Google may have browsed these apps, decided they didn't like what they saw, and pressured to have the apps banned. Obviously they can't do that to large players like Facebook, but small apps, they can easily crush, and nobody's going to do anything about it. Image if Google decided to just block certain websites on Chrome, or if big tech got domain re…

[deleted]

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

#670

Post by ehsankia »

zelly wrote: post #522

Richard Stallman was right. The computer (smartphone) for millions of people has become a prison. The smartphone has been a tragedy for the human species. "Oh it doesn't matter they went after people I disagree with" Okay wise guy, what happens if the other side takes power? Think that's never happened historically? Then they'll come after you and I. How about we just not give this kind of power to anyone and let peo…

It has been shown time and time again that giving unrestricted uncensored access to billions will lead to the worst ideas proliferating. Look at QAnon and conspiracy theories running wild. Look anti-vaxxers and how America, one of the most advanced countries in the world, is now having Measles outbreaks after decades of having nearly 0 cases. Look at how simple things such as wearing a mask has become a controversial topic.

Yes, everyone would obviously prefer a fully open and uncensored platform, but the reality is that those are very easy for bad actors to take advantage of. So many things on the web is disappearing thanks to these bad actors. Public APIs are getting locked down, Catpchas everywhere, passwords and 2fa are getting increasingly more complicated, and so on.

If you really think every platform should be 100% open, you live in an idealistic universe that is not this one. The whole idea of "the solution to bad speech is more speech" simply does not work. It just doesn't.

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