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

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#601

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

valuearb wrote: post #554

SpaceRaccoon wrote: post #485

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Or Parlour can just distribute as a web app. Okay. Then hosting providers refuse to host. Payment processors refuse to process your payments for web services. Your domains are revoked. Your SSL certs are revoked. Where does this end? If they have the power to, and they've justified it this far, why wouldn't they keep going?

This isn’t possible without government control of the underlying components of the web, such as domain system. Otherwise private persons and companies can always create their own domain providers. Yet you seem to advocate more government control. You see the dichotomy in your thoughts?

Hasn't breaking up monopolies been a central tenet of ensuring a free market since forever? Suddenly you defend monopolies. Interesting, isn't it?

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#602

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

modriano wrote: post #446

djsumdog wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Are you at all worried about the possibility that America could have another civil war because a sufficiently large proportion of Americans are radicalized in uncensored, insufficiently moderated communities? Facebook's own research found “64% of all extremist group joins are due to our recommendation tools” and that most of the activity came from the platform’s “Groups You Should Join” and “Discover” algorithms: “Ou…

Actions like these where one side fully suppresses the other - one set of standards for themselves and another set of standards applied to people they oppose - are exactly the kind of actions that lead to civil war.

Comparing ~70 million Americans to paedophiles...

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#603

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

beirut_bootleg wrote: post #519

Darmody wrote: post #480

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if it was removed by him or by twitter. But still. Get on twitter and you'll see many similar comments and accounts that encouraged violence and defended rioters this whole past year. If you're going to be tough on people like that, don't cherry pick.

There is a moderation team that deals with these. It's on the users' to report them. You can't expect moderation to catch 100%. GP is the one who is cherry-picking.

Like this one https://twitter.com/rezaaslan/status/1307107507131875330 ?

Threatening with violence if Trump appointed a new SCOTUS. He has almost 300k followers. The tweet is not deleted and his account is untouched.

There are several more like him, with hundreds of thousands of followers. Some deleted the tweet but their accounts are still there.

But we could go even further. The VP-elect, Kamala Harris, asked for money to bail BLM/Antifa rioters. https://twitter.com/kamalaharris/status/1267555018128965643

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#604

Post by bun_at_work » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 2:01 AM UTC

ccleve wrote: post #551

andy_ppp wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m going to lend your neighbours a huge sound system so they can use their free speech to play the darkest industrial techno outside your door at 4am. I’m obviously joking, but would it be okay for me to use my platform this way? If not, why not?

No one is forcing you to listen to Parler.

No one is forcing you to install parler from the Play Store either.

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#605

Post by saithound » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 2:01 AM UTC

zapita wrote: post #438

saithound wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> These are private companies. So are Baidu and Tencent. Large companies are part of an industrial–congressional complex, with lobbying and political contributions on one side, political approval and threats of regulation on the other. Just because something is done by a private company, it doesn't mean that it's not the state or the government wielding its power. In the current political climate, and given how inter…

Trying to maintain a distinction between Twitter and the Trump administration is comical?

Thinking that Baidu banning photos of the Tiananmen Square protests is not the Chinese administration exercising its power, because the banning itself is done by a private company? Yeah, that would be comedy stuff.

In China as in the U.S., these are not local mom-and-pop stores exercising their rights to free association. These are large tech companies and business ventures that are deeply and inseparably intertwined with the state and the political parties (both of them), based on the granting of reciprocated privileges. They know full well that if they ban the wrong person (or refuse to ban the right person), they face being regulated out of existence the next day: indeed, seeing this threat, they're scrambling to align themselves with the incoming administration. Yes, they had deals with the previous administration too [1].

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/21/business/media/facebook-d...

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#606

Post by neaden » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 2:02 AM UTC

A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #590

neaden wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

You have lost a sense of perspective. People storming the capital was symbolic act ( with some violence ). Move by Google will likely have repercussions beyond that violence and that storm. Some of us horrified, because that song is always the same.

It was not a symbolic act, it literally happened. People literally died. By people who are literally neo Nazis who literally think I should be murdered, who literally had zip ties and the police are now finding literal pipe bombs. I assure you I am not the one who lost perspective.

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#607

Post by A4ET8a8uTh0 » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 2:02 AM UTC

bun_at_work wrote: post #468

rrose wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I seriously can't identify with this viewpoint. There's no censorship here- parler still exists, people are still free to share their (abhorrent) viewpoints there, Google is just choosing not to amplify the voices of people that have proven themselves capable of and prone to violence. All the pearl-clutching over free speech is totally overblown.

This is accurate. Just because you have to go directly to the website doesn't mean it's censored. Google, Apple, FB, Twitter, etc are not in the business of supporting outlier extremism in our society. Claiming censorship because they don't want to platform that stuff is ridiculous. Imagine a Jewish-owned store being forced to sell nazi paraphernalia because not selling it is censorship. The users of parler or gab ar…

Huh? Last time I checked, BLM app ( https://apps.apple.com/us/app/black-lives-matter/id955318790 ) is on Apple store and the group has, among other notable events, burning Kenosha done on their bucket list. Google, Apple, FB, Twitter et al have zero issues supporting violence as long it supports a given side.

I don't buy the analogy ( mostly because most analogies are crap ). Normal people try thought experiments and use the same situations and change one critical piece of information to see how it affects the model.

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#608

Post by agiroth » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 2:02 AM UTC

danijelb wrote: post #127

jpxw wrote: 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…

> Free speech != guaranteed access to a company providing access to a big audience

If that's what were happening you'd probably have a point, but it isn't. "Not deleting" something is not the same as providing the audience, nor amplifying.

And, by the way, yes free speech does imply some obligations on the rest of us. Speech is not free if you are not free to exercise it; "you're free to talk in a prison cell" type of thinking isn't productive because it avoids the entire conversation.

Free speech has absolutely nothing to do with the government, by the way. Just because one country wrote down something called "The 1st Amendment" doesn't mean that somehow free speech only exists in that country and only when the government gives it to you. Free speech is a natural right that we all have and nobody has the right to silence anyone else: The 1st is simply one aspect of that.

The fact that society at large has lost that value cannot be viewed as a good thing and all the people in this thread defending the silencing of millions because they disagree with them politically is beyond shameful.

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#609

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 2:03 AM UTC

BuyMyBitcoins wrote: post #476

JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can the bans (being de-platformed) be more horrific than the actual violence that's occurred?

This is going to sound incredibly cold and callous, but the comparison needs to be made. One woman was shot. 4 others died for medical reasons. One was a heart attack. One was a police officer. Tragic deaths, to be sure. And the photos really do feel horrific. But do single digit casualties justify all this? Gang violence and crime kills way more people and police officers on a daily basis. Are we really setting the…

[deleted]

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#610

Post by nathankunicki » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 2:04 AM UTC

djsumdog wrote: post #516

nathankunicki wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone can start a social media network. Twitter has competition in the form of the relatively-new Parler, which has welcomed controversial voices - and has gained significant traction among them. You can feel free to create your own too. Social media platforms existed before Twitter and Facebook, and eventually other platforms will succeed Twitter and Facebook. Can it be expensive to start a company from scratch? Ye…

It's cheap to start a social network. I run a Pleroma and a Mastodon server and you can find the links in my profile. But don't fool yourself into thinking my little instances have any sort of effect compared to the big mega-corps of Google/Facebook and Twitter.

I don't. Making something popular requires a tonne of work. Again, this has always been the case, even for traditional physical products. If you're going to make a competitor for something, expect an uphill battle.

As I said, there were social networks before Twitter, Facebook, and Parler, and there will be social networks afterwards.