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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

#751

Post by ethanwillis »

gamblor956 wrote: post #391
vxNsr wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Followup reporting indicates that he was not asked to guard the business that he was "protecting", that the business asked him and others not to get involved and they did anyway, and that he instigated the altercation with the men chasing him in the video. It's not self-defense when you start the fight.

Here's an interview with a reporter who was on scene and rendered aid to the first victim. He gives a minute by minute recount of what happened from his perspective.

The instigation that led to the second set of altercations isn't entirely clear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGb3Qv4_gZI

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

#752

Post by augustt »

john_moscow wrote: post #469
augustt wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any evidence at all that self-improvement is under attack, or are these all euphemisms for something else? Maybe "pick friends based on shared values" means "I wouldn't let my kids play with kids from the other side of the tracks", which should indeed get some pushback.

Here's one for you [0]. That's an infographic from the Smithsonian museum that attributed Enlightenment-age values, like individualism, family structure, and work ethic to "whiteness" and implied that it should be opposed. They removed it after pushback (search archive.org for more). That's the tip of the iceberg though. There's a whole industry of wrapping this narrative into struggle session-like training while cha…

I don't see anything that indicates these values should be opposed. I've seen controversy over this before and to be honest it mostly seems to be people projecting their own idea of what the left thinks - that "white values" implies they are not "black values" and that all whiteness = bad. Then they conclude from a decent summary of dominant values in America something like /r/conservative's take: "#DefundSmithsonian ... We are paying for white genocide with our tax dollars."

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

#753

Post by BurningFrog »

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?

There is a huge number of bakeries. What one doesn't want to do, others will.

Google is arguably in a monopolist situation. If they block your app or opinion, you're silenced.

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

#754

Post by NationalPark »

djsumdog wrote: post #442
jmull wrote: post #419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Dude pulls the gun and it bringing it around to shoot the kid. But the kid had already pointed his own gun and actually already shot someone. If seeing someone pulling a gun and starting to point it at you is justification to shoot in self defense, then the guy who got shot was acting in self-defense, according to you. I guess the only thing he did wrong was not shoot quicker than the kid. How can your self-defense…

> actually already shot someone This is the issue. There is ZERO video of this (only the aftermath). We don't know why that first guy got shot in the head, or if it was this kid that did it (forensics will show) and that guy he shot had a criminal records. It could have been a self defense shot too. His ability to control himself after the two he shot on video goes to enforce that idea. The kid had zero record. It's…

Self defense is an affirmative defense, so the onus is on him to prove that he was acting in self defense, not the other way around.

Anyway, it's a lot more complicated than this. I expect the prosecution to make the argument that he deliberately travelled to the event with an illegal weapon to provoke a situation where he could justify attacking someone in "self defense". That's still murder, even if he was in a genuinely threatening situation. And while Wisconsin has no duty to retreat laws, juries can consider opportunities to retreat when deciding if an act of self defense was actually necessary.

This is also clearly not community policing, since he obviously travelled from Illinois to aggressively confront a community he is not a member of.

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

#755

Post by john_moscow »

failuser wrote: post #654
john_moscow wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I can tell you what's bugging me personally about this. There's a growing divide in our society between the "equal opportunity" and "equal outcome" camps. And while the "equal opportunity" people mostly have the "just let me grill" attitude, "equal outcomers" are pushing increasingly harder, while doing their best to silence any opposing voices. It's now getting to a point where raising one's kids to be proud o…

Soviet Union was never about equal outcome. It was proclaimed, but worked around in every way possible. Jews were limited in access to education, ex-nobility was limited in rights, the party members were given all kinds of preferential treatment and nomenklatura living in relative luxury while the peasants were starving. Hey, even the city dwellers were privileged compared to peasants who were tied to the land and re…

>It was proclaimed, but worked around in every way possible.

It always does. Each time someone proclaims equity, they carve out some sort of exception for themselves and their family. Like the mayor of Chicago that mysteriously had heavy police presence around her home, while ordering them to stand down everywhere else.

[0] https://chicago.suntimes.com/city-hall/2020/8/20/21377608/li...

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

#756

Post by RonanTheGrey »

richiebful1 wrote: post #479
notyourday wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great. Google should become liable for all the illegal content that slips through, all the way to the officers and directors of the company. I think we as the society agree that child porn and child sexual abuse is a criminally punishable offense. A platform in a possession of it clearly is in a possession and distribution of child pornography, hence officers and directors should be charged under those statues.

Are you saying that a platform (be it Facebook, Twitter, etc.) shouldn't be allowed to moderate content at all if they want safe harbor protections?

Yes.

They want it both ways and what we're seeing is the outcome. The solution is simple - don't have it both ways.

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

#757

Post by RonanTheGrey »

amanaplanacanal wrote: post #404
kikokikokiko wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Google wants to be viewed as a safe harbor, so Google should behave as one and stop deciding what is "hateful". What you/Google/government consider hateful can be what I or the people in Belarus consider the truth. This trend of "censorship for your own good" needs to stop.

I believe all platforms do moderation of some sort. It sounds like what you are proposing is that nobody be allowed to do any moderation. How do you think that would work?

The only moderate for removal of illegal content.

The rest is up to the users.

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

#758

Post by bastardoperator »

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…

We don't even have to argue about it. Folks agree to a legal binding contract that can likely be altered at any time for any reason and I'm willing to bet verbiage about yanking apps for any reason is well defined too.

Decided to look, pretty clear.

"Google may make changes to this Agreement at any time with notice to Developer"

and

"Google may terminate this Agreement with You immediately upon written notice"

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

#759

Post by jimbokun »

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…

"but it's not a violation of anyone's First Amendment rights."

True. But while technically correct, it is becoming a more and more academic distinction.

Facebook-Apple-Google-Twitter, and maybe a few other tech behemoths, probably have greater ability to censor people and content than most governments throughout history. It's also true, in theory, democratically elected governments could reign them in. But it's also true they have unprecedented power to manipulate public opinion, if they chose to do so, to get people elected or legislation passed or blocked.

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

#760

Post by novaRom »

heavyset_go wrote: post #708
mqus wrote: post #445

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope that this teaches more people that there are other, sometimes better app stores in android.

Hopefully it will. Although, Google engages in anticompetitive behavior by hindering 3rd party apps' abilities to autoupgrade, install in the background or batch install apps. Those intentional limitations mean that F-Droid will never have feature parity with the Play Store.

Hopefully Epic Games with their antitrust lawsuits against Google and Apple will succeed and we'll see some positive changes.

For now, the best everyone can do is to promote F-Droid. Many users never heard about YouTube without ads, so getting NewPipe might be a good motivation to try F-Droid.

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