Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store • Hacker News Board

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#421

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 1:29 AM UTC

roenxi wrote: post #355

mumblemumble wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's all pretty complicated, but one obvious mitigating factor is the ends being pursued by each movement. Rioting aside, BLM is ultimately pushing for justice and equality. There's also a question of blame - many would argue that most of the BLM rioting was provoked by a disproportionate police response. This movement, on the other hand, is quite transparently rooted in white supremacy, and had an explicit goal of t…

You're allowing the BLM supporters to characterise their motivations, and the Trump opponents to characterise the motivations of this protest. That isn't fair. Someone who turns up in a Viking hat, tattoos and a spear isn't looking for a fight. A person looking for a fight wears a mask, armour, carries a gun and probably camouflage.

[deleted]

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#422

Post by Blikkentrekker » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 1:29 AM UTC

valuearb wrote: post #344

post_break wrote: post #4

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.

Then it's still censorship; private businesses simply have the right to censor.

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#423

Post by lambdaphagy » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 1:30 AM UTC

auslegung wrote: post #38

jpxw wrote: post #13

With this and Trump’s Twitter ban, it seems there’s a level of co-ordination at play here that should be worrying to people who care about freedom of speech. And before someone tells me that the First Amendment doesn’t apply to private companies, I’m not making a legal point here, I’m making a moral one. This is not healthy.

You’re right, there absolutely is a level of coordination. Whenever people historically have stormed the capital building, everyone coordinates to ban them from their platforms. But I agree, this is not the way forward to a healthy, united country

I don't think that's actually true. Weather Underground, for example, bombed the Capitol in 1971. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/03/02/a-...)

One of the group's leaders, Bill Ayers, lives unremorsefully in a tony neighborhood in Chicago where he went on to have an influential academic career, dedicating books to political assassins, and mentoring future presidents. This caused a minor kerfluffle when the details resurfaced to public light in 2008, but it was clearly, in the end, no obstacle to Obama's election.

One might raise a similar point about a figure like Oscar Lopez Rivera who, while he never bombed the Capitol, definitely did bomb about 100 other locations around the country and was rewarded for his efforts by an NYC ticker tape parade once he was released from prison. Lin Manuel Miranda's admiration for Rivera has hardly proved a stumbling block for his wildly successful career.

And that's just one end of the frequency-severity spectrum. Mobs break into the Capitol and interrupt proceedings with perhaps surprising regularity, as with the Kavanaugh hearings for example.

In any case, it seems that bombing the Capitol or doing widespread domestic terrorism is only selectively an impediment to a later life of comfort in the US.

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#424

Post by Barrin92 » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 1:30 AM UTC

djsumdog wrote: post #327

nathankunicki wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Newspapers and magazines have always had a choice who or what to print in their papers. TV and radio stations have always had a choice who or what to air. Why shouldn't social media companies have the same liberties?

But it's different. There was a time when anyone could start a newspaper. There was a time when people had FM transmitters in their backyard. It became more expensive and the FCC started slicing up FM spectrum so everyone wouldn't trample over each other. Media was once free and then collapse to be owned by ABC, NBC, CBS and a few dozen newspapers. This was originally about network neutrality, but it applies to what…

>But it's different. There was a time when anyone could start a newspaper

starting a newspaper is significantly more costly and difficult than starting a social media app. You're confusing the fact that websites like Parler are so toxic that nobody wants to do business with them with the inability of actually starting it, which anyone with a laptop can do on a weekend.

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#425

Post by blisterpeanuts » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 1:30 AM UTC

slg wrote: post #340

blisterpeanuts wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wherein 100 people spilling over a barrier into a government building (and one of them getting shot to death) is somehow worse than the aforementioned billions in property damage and assaults on cops, smashed police cars, passersby attacked, stores looted, fires set... in 12 different cities around the nation?

>100 people spilling over a barrier into a government building This isn't a fair representation of what happened and it reveals your bias. For one example, it appears a police officer was murdered with a fire extinguisher. We don't even have to get to what might have happened if the politicians weren't able to get out in time.

You are correct; a police officer was reportedly struck over the head with a fire extinguisher, and he later died of the injury. I really, really want them to find who did that.

I also think the guy who shot that unarmed woman has no business wearing a uniform and carrying a weapon.

And if it wasn't 100 people spilling over a barrier (actually, the police pulled the barriers away and literally waved them in - explain that one to me) and entering a government building and disrupting an important session... then what was it?

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#426

Post by chordalkeyboard » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 1:30 AM UTC

Gene_Parmesan wrote: post #318

djsumdog wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Why this assumption that you need a smartphone? That's patently silly. Your life and liberty do not depend on you owning a smartphone. This is an app on an app store. Do I think it's a great precedent to set? Not really, despite my political beliefs being heavily progressive. But this overblown reaction is bananas. Like, my life is proceeding just fine without either WhatsApp or Oculus products. Or a Facebook account…

> Why this assumption that you need a smartphone?

I got my first smartphone in 2019 because I watched the world around me gradually change to the point where an Apple or Android phone was expected and became inconvenient not to have.

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#427

Post by bsan3 » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 1:30 AM UTC

Time to move past arm chair theories. We are facing a armed threat to the country. Any outlet promoting or allowing promotion of fictional narratives need to be muzzled .. at least temporarily until we have a transition of power. Then we can start sorting out the mess.

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#428

Post by kats » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 1:30 AM UTC

It's a terrible decision. These used to be apolitical platforms. They're way too big to abruptly change and force a particular political view (far left) onto everyone else. Congress should break them up until there are 6 or 7 competing app stores the way we have multiple cable news stations.

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#429

Post by driverdan » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 1:30 AM UTC

jedberg wrote: post #18

guscost wrote: post #2

Here is my suggestion for Parler’s new moderation plan, which is what at least Apple is demanding: 1. Illegal content is not allowed. That’s it.

What does illegal content look like? What jurisdiction? Does Parler need to hire a lawyer to make content decisions? When Trump says "we need to fight hard!", is that illegal? What if he says, "Go back to the Capitol and start shooting!"? Is that illegal? FWIW that was our policy at reddit for a long time too. There is a whole lot of nuance to it that is really hard to deal with.

I'm downvoting you because you know the answer to those questions. You know exactly what speech is protected by the 1st and what isn't. Parler is not removing illegal speech, therefore their apps are being taken down. It's pretty simple.

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#430

Post by wnevets » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 1:30 AM UTC

goldenkey wrote: post #373

wnevets wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your first tweet is actually from a trump supporter, his timeline is filled with #stopthesteal and other non sense. Weird choice. https://twitter.com/CustomsFatman

Not sure how that matters, the content of the tweet still invokes violence.

You dont think a trump supporter tweeting "Let's just execute all right wing conservatives and get it over with!" as a reply to someone else (another trump supporter) matters?

Its almost as if you just searched for the phrase execute all conservatives but didn't actually read any of them.