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Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

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341–350 of 880 posts

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#341

Wow, is this the great purge? I don’t support certain people, but man I don’t think this is going to end well. This censorship just seems crazy to me.

If wal-mart stops selling a brand of ice cream, is that censorship? Is it censorship that wal-mart doesn't sell playboy in their store? If not, then why is the removal of an app from the app store censorship? The world wide web still exists. Parler is still on the internet. Seems like there should be some acknowledgement that there's a difference between refusing to actively participate in distributing content and ce…

I think a better analogy is saying, oh, you've banned newspapers, but who cares, you can still talk to people in person.

Which is to say, it's true, & that's a good thing, but that doesn't mean that the censorship itself isn't bad.

The most effective, most powerful communication medium that exists right now is native apps for social networks on smartphones. If 100% of that medium is controlled and censored by two companies, that means those two companies exert a massive influence on what kinds of communication society as a whole will have.

If you believe in the general principle of free speech (not just strict legal interpretations of say the 1A), that's not a good thing.

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#342
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You realise that it’s possible for entities outside of the government to censor things, right? That word isn’t only applicable to state actions, and nor should it be.

Real censorship means that the government prosecutes you for speech, no matter where or how or to whom are you saying it. That was happening in parts of Europe from 1945 to 1990. This what is happening in USA right now is nowhere near that. It's just free market. If you're banned from a certain platform you can reach your audience in another way. No one is censoring your speech. It's just a certain company not wantin…

Censorship has a very simple definition, and it can be conducted by private companies. From Wikipedia:

“Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information, on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient." Censorship can be conducted by governments, private institutions, and other controlling bodies.”

“Real” censorship is just censorship, and that’s the definition.

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Real censorship means that the government prosecutes you for speech, no matter where or how or to whom are you saying it. That was happening in parts of Europe from 1945 to 1990. This what is happening in USA right now is nowhere near that. It's just free market. If you're banned from a certain platform you can reach your audience in another way. No one is censoring your speech. It's just a certain company not wantin…

> This what is happening in USA right now is nowhere near that It's going to happen. These platforms are so large they encompass a signification amount of the communication market .. and I don't say that lightly. Look at how Facebook has literally gobbled up all its competition and now is pushing policies that make WhatsApp and Oculus useless without handing over full control of all your accounts and devices? These c…

the solution to this, obviously, is to break up monopolistic companies, not to force them to be mouthpieces for fascists.

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#344

Wow, is this the great purge? I don’t support certain people, but man I don’t think this is going to end well. This censorship just seems crazy to me.

It’s not censorship, private businesses have the right to decide what they sell in their stores.

Parlour can still distribute itself as a web app, no problem.

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#345
post #129
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe, but it’s also possible that these are all responses to the events of Wednesday, and responses to other’s responses to Wednesday.

Or to the results of Tuesday's runoff election in Georgia, which gave Democrats complete control of the legislature.

Tuesday’s election was called on Wednesday, which is part of the events I was referencing.

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#346

Wow, is this the great purge? I don’t support certain people, but man I don’t think this is going to end well. This censorship just seems crazy to me.

This is it, the great purge.

Be sure to pick up on of my official, Trump-endorsed anti-purge kits! Available for a limited time on Wetsy (etsy for the incontinent).

The kit contains zip ties, 9mm ammo, GI Joe halloween costume and an extra large tub of spray tan. Remember, social media can't censor us if we all look and dress and talk exactly the same. Stay vigilant heroes!

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#347

Wow, is this the great purge? I don’t support certain people, but man I don’t think this is going to end well. This censorship just seems crazy to me.

The purge has been happening for years. I hate how people on HN is praising this. There are literally few alternatives for the average person apart from Google and eyeProducts. I have a PinePhone, but what percentage of America can truly put in the effort to use one? If you cannot install an run your own software on a device, you do not own the device. You cannot praise the removal of Gab or Parlor now and complain l…

Nonsense

This is the free market in action. No one is forcing Google or Twitter or FB to do anything; I think they've been very restrained. The libertarians should be happy that it's commercial companies shutting Parler down and not govt. It's only when the president incites violence in an attempt retain power that these commercial entities acted.

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#348
post #150
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's almost like there was some sort of catalyst event that occurred very recently that would provoke such a response. /s

I'm curious why so many Democrats were allowed to encourage the BLM riots (more than 25 dead, $2 billion in property damage) without so much as a peep from Google, Twitter, Facebook or any other tech giant. Kamala Harris said "they should not stop" and helped with a bail fund for the people who were involved with them. I think protest is a fundamental requirement of democracy, and as Chris Cuomo himself reminded us:…

I'm curious why you think Democrats encouraged riots at BLM protests. Perhaps you're thinking of the the agents provocateur that were white supremacist: https://www.startribune.com/police-umbrella-man-was-a-white-...

Do you have any evidence to back up your claim where any Democratic official agitated for violence in those protests?

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Real censorship means that the government prosecutes you for speech, no matter where or how or to whom are you saying it. That was happening in parts of Europe from 1945 to 1990. This what is happening in USA right now is nowhere near that. It's just free market. If you're banned from a certain platform you can reach your audience in another way. No one is censoring your speech. It's just a certain company not wantin…

Taking this to its logical conclusion, if you used the “login with X” feature (X being Apple, Google, Facebook), and you suddenly find yourself deplatformed, what are the knock-on consequences? I don’t have a huge problem deplatforming itself. I do have serious problems when it suddenly cuts you off from other unrelated websites or paid-for assets. These knock-on effects aren’t immediately obvious and can be quite se…

In my opinion, the solution needs to be a guarantee of transfering your account to another provider. We can do it with phone numbers, we can do it with banks (at least in Europe). I don't see a reason why we couldn't apply the same on social media and auth providers.

Banned from "login with apple"? I should have a right to transfer my account to "login with google/facebook/my own server" and it should work. The same way I can call my friend when he transfers his phone number to another phone network.

Trump banned from Twitter? He should be able to transfer his account to Parler and I should still see his tweets in my Twitter feed, be able to retweet it to my followers, interact with it, etc. Twitter wouldn't be able to influence tweets from Parler so it would show in timeline. But they could decide to not display it in proprietary parts of their system (search, trending topics, whatever)

This way we would prevent echo chambers and deplatforming, while simultaneously allowing companies to maintain their freedom to moderate their own space.

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#350

How long will Chrome hold out as a neutral pipe for websites? Does anyone here think it's unthinkable that Google would block parler.com on Chrome? It seemed unthinkable a couple years ago, but at this point I would put even money on Chrome having a "radical" website blacklist within a year.

Google one company but the different parts have different roles. With Google Play, they're the publisher . Google doesn't need to block websites because they have nothing to do with them.

>Google doesn't need to block websites because they have nothing to do with them

https://images.techhive.com/images/idge/imported/imageapi/20...

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