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

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#591

Post by djsumdog » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 1:58 AM UTC

Pils wrote: post #395

djsumdog wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have Wal-Mart, Target, Wal-greens, CVS, BestBuy, MicroCenter, tons of mom-and-pop stores (until all the world leaders drove all of them to bankruptcy due to COVID) Say you had two stores: Walmarket and Toget. That's it. That's all you got. Toget stops telling a brand of ice cream and you literally cannot sell it anywhere else other than Toget and Walmarket because someone would have to drive 2 hours out of their…

> You have Android, iOS and PinePhones. I mean, Parler is a CRUD app. You are posting a comment on another CRUD app that doesn't even have an official mobile app client!

How do you do notifications from a CRUD app on a mobile device if you can't have a native app on the device?

Let's not kid ourselves. People rarely use the browser for something they really like on mobile if there is a native app. The experience is very different.

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#592

Post by chrispeel » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 1:58 AM UTC

freedomben wrote: post #539

chrispeel wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nonsense. The better analogy is that the newspaper has banned certain people who have written articles inciting violence. Or maybe an even better analogy: the movie theater has taken the microphone away from the person telling those in the crowded movie theater to start punching each other.

Do you think only Trump himself has been affected by this? Even just on topic for this forum they're talking about an app used by thousands (or more, I honestly have no idea since I don't use Parler) of people. Do you think all of those people have incited violence? What about Parler itself? All inciting violence?

They can side load Parler. All the stupid violence-inciting peeps can still talk to each other and incite violence, just not so easily

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#593

Post by mlindner » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 1:59 AM UTC

marrone12 wrote: post #29

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.

Reddit seems to have just as much illegal content. All of this just seems like empty virtue signaling by tech companies way too late to actually change anything.

Yes and virtue signalling that will only drive a large segment of public opinion highly against them. I'm completely against Trump but doing a mass political purge of everything associated him will only prove a lot of the things his rabid followers say about social media platforms as true. I'm just hoping it won't be followed by employee retribution for holding political views that agreed with the president. We don't need more division in this country.

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#594

Post by brigandish » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 1:59 AM UTC

Barrin92 wrote: post #471

neaden wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

>I can't imagine the world this is the world of techbro-ism with people making 200k per year living in sheltered neighbourhoods, more concerned about their online speech than having a boot on their neck. It's actually completely in line with the audience of this site the literally most upvoted comment is some random rant about the 'great purge' let that sink in.

Did the “literal neo Nazis” prevail? How many of them were there?

“No” and “not many” are the answers so the comparison with widespread attacks on millions of people’s hard won freedoms are (or should be) definitely more of a concern to wider society.

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#595

Post by malwarebytess » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 1:59 AM UTC

wvenable wrote: post #166

bpodgursky wrote: post #26

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.

Once one take more than a surface level look at what you have said one realize it doesn't actually add up. Google blocks websites for all kinds of reasons, a whole lot in fact. It's especially evident if one has been using google since the beginning.

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#596

Post by Izkata » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 1:59 AM UTC

d3nj4l wrote: post #542

Izkata wrote: post #506

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Samsung does (or at least did) lock down their Android phones like that. They had to be rooted to get third-party APKs installed.

Do you have a source? I can’t find any myself. I (and others in my family) have owned several Samsung phones and have always been able to install APKs, so this would be news to me.

Did, then. My first smartphone was a Galaxy S in 2010, which was locked down like that.

Edit: Maybe it was AT&T, not Samsung, but if so that's a broader scope anyway - and my current AT&T Android phone isn't locked down.

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#597

Post by valuearb » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 2:00 AM UTC

Blikkentrekker wrote: post #422

valuearb wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Nope.

Censorship: the suppression or prohibition of any parts of books, films, news, etc. that are considered obscene, politically unacceptable, or a threat to security.

A private business not distributing a product because it doesn’t represent their or their customers values isn’t censorship, it’s a marketing decision.

If Walmart decides to stop carrying Coke because of its sugar content, is that “censorship”?

If a girl decides not to date you, is that censorship of your free speech rights to bore her?

The advocates for Parlours right of distribution don’t actually believe in individual rights, or they would argue it has to be imposed on the App Stores.

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#598

Post by soupson » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 2:00 AM UTC

criddell wrote: post #578

soupson wrote: post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The website is still accessible, right?

Until they get booted from their ISP or can’t get DDOS protection.

That's not the service Google or Apple have ever offered Parler.

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#599

Post by bun_at_work » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 2:00 AM UTC

danijelb wrote: post #281

ng12 wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google and Apple have a duopoly. In the wake of 2016 we collectively agreed that Big Tech has the ability to influence elections, now is the time to think about how to protect our democracy. My take is simple: either treat social media conglomerates like we do telecom or break them up like we did AT&T.

I agree with breaking up companies which are monopolies/duopolies. But why do you think that those broken up companies wouldn't behave the same in this case (ban Trump, Parler, etc). If that's what the majority of users want, then such decisions increase their profit. If there was 5 mobile OS/store companies today, I'm pretty sure the same would happen on all 5.

If that's what the majority of their users want, why shouldn't they ban those services? What better proxy is there for what they should do? Aren't they beholden to their users and shareholders? Is the suggestion that all platforms have to cater to the most vocal minority? That doesn't seem like a good strategy.

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#600

Post by ardit33 » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 2:00 AM UTC

dragonwriter wrote: post #470

ardit33 wrote: post #409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am... I am democrat, but I feel this is deeply disturbing. I can see how apple doesn't like parler in its app store, and they have every right to remove it. It is a private company, and it shouldn't be forced to host apps that promote violence/whatever they feel is wrong. But, the fact that you can't download an app, or side-load an app, on any iphone without it being on the app store, makes this decision very worr…

> Tim Cook and apple are being the arbiter of all speech/content Well, yeah, Apple sells curated experiences. And people choose whether or not to buy those curated experiences. > and this is very similar to autocratic countries No, it's not.

You are not getting the point. I am fine with apple removing any app it doesn't like from their app store, as long as you can sideload an app to iphones (like you can do with Android). The fact that you can't sideload, it makes it worrying as one exec has all the power on what you do with your phone.