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

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#791

Post by blake1 » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 2:14 PM UTC

vimy wrote: post #445

blake1 wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please provide a source for your claim that Democrats encouraged riots. To the best of my recollection, no one encouraged riots, except for extremist groups like the “boogaloo boys.” Certainly no mainstream political party encouraged violence this summer. I’d you want, I will provide a source that Republicans encouraged violence this year.

Two minute compilation video: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CJvHNANAIPq/?igshid=z8afgms2mds... This thread: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1346937852970483714.html Insane articles like this: - https://www.npr.org/2020/08/27/906729976/police-declare-port... - https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2020/08/27/906642178... - https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/blm-looting-prote... There's much more but I'm no…

The only one of these links which focuses on Democrats is the first one. Assuming the highly-edited video fairly represents the speakers’ contexts, they are calling for street demonstrations. If the events on the 6th had remained in the streets, we would be in a very different place. None of your links has anyone, much less a democrat, calling for the forcible occupation and disruption of a major part of the government.

I do think some of the rhetoric from some Democrats was unwisely heated over the summer. This week was different.

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#792

Post by krona » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 2:15 PM UTC

bentcorner wrote: post #256

krona wrote: post #35

Being stupid shouldn't mean you don't get to participate in society.

"participate in society" == "install a specific app on a smartphone"?

In a world where people legally can't congregate in private spaces with people outside their own household?

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#793

Post by syndacks » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 2:16 PM UTC

bobcallme wrote: post #736

syndacks wrote: post #444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First, this is strawman bullshit. Don't bring up app prices in a culture war. What you're witnessing is culture expressing itself, rooted in history, the law, the zeitgeist of the people. And right now the culture is drawing a line in the sand and saying, "don't do that (bigotry, racism, ignorance)". You are free to be on this side of the line or you can start a revolution. So far the good guys are winning. Not Dems…

Fuck you and everyone here. The fact that anyone could defend this decision is ridiculous. I'm tired of people defending censorship in the most brain dead of ways when it has never worked in the past and it most certainly will not work now. Censoring unpopular ideas only allows them to fester in the dark where they can't be brought to light or addressed in the open. This was never about "racism","bigotry" or "ignoran…

That Wikipedia article is about the rise of Nazism you idiot. Please try to tell me again we're not talking about bigotry or racism in this thread, or that the "patriots" you stand by aren't some of the lowest pieces of shit fighting for one last gasp of relevance in this brave new world.

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#794

Post by ptero » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 2:23 PM UTC

chrispeel wrote: post #725

ptero wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once a company is so big that its refusal to support a small business is a major hit, that company cannot operate in a wild west style. That's why most countries have anti-monopoly laws; and it's long past the time when those laws should have been applied to google.

In case you didn't notice, there are already anti-trust lawsuits against Google; I'm happy that such inspection of big tech is happening. Even so, that's a separate issue

When a company (or two) gets a near-monopoly on a distribution channel, bans are no longer a business issue. We banned X becomes much more important than "because of Y" part, which can always be made up and is pretty weak in the case of parler.

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#795

Post by FridgeSeal » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 2:27 PM UTC

SpaceRaccoon wrote: post #738

FridgeSeal wrote: post #571

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this not “the market” deciding it doesn’t want to entertain this business? As a society it’s totally reasonable for us to draw the line at intolerable behaviour, we’re not obliged to put up with platforms that enable hate and vitriol, just as we don’t tolerate violence in the street. If a business closes because nobody is interested in buying their products, or a club disbands because nobody is interested in joini…

> just as we don’t tolerate violence in the street. That's interesting: did you condemn the riots in the streets the past year? I have a hunch that you defended them. Looking forward to being proven wrong.

For the vast majority, the BLM protests (which I assume you are referring to?) set out to be-and were-peaceful. Leadership made a big deal about remaining peaceful. Things escalated most of the time when the _police_ instigated attacks. Given the racial tensions, and generally charged atmosphere I am absolutely not surprised rioting broke out. Lets remember that low-impact/low-disruption protests had been done prior, and were not met with attention or change they were ignored and sidelined. Cripple peoples ability to be heard and they will use increasingly forceful methods to be heard. This is _not_ a case of protestors rocking up to a street and beating on random pedestrians - which didn't happen and is the kind of "violence in the streets" I'm talking about. In my opinion some broken windows and torched stores are less important than peoples human rights - if in the course of a legitimate protest some shopfronts are destroyed, I don't have an issue with this. I do have an issue with people using a protest (which went to lengths to remain peaceful) as a cover/excuse to destroy things "just because" or to loot - this I absolutely condemn, as it does nobody any favours and takes away from the issue at hand.

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#796

Post by Can_Not » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 2:27 PM UTC

dilap wrote: post #667

throwaway314158 wrote: post #558

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If 100% of that medium is controlled and censored by two companies Except you can sideload on Android.

That's a good point actually. I'm on iPhone; is distributing software via side-loading on Android actually practicle, or is it such a pain that it becomes non-workable in practice?

It is practical actually, it's like downloading an exe or dmg with maybe an extra security hurdle (settings -> enable installing apps from $X). Plus you could make your own play store clone like F-droid and I think amazon made their own, too.

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#797

Post by xnx » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 2:34 PM 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…

This is a good point that isn't emphasized in this thread. A lot of people seem very upset about one mechanism of dissemination no longer being available, and treating it as though the content of the message boards are now illegal.

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#798

Post by OCASM » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 2:54 PM UTC

dang wrote: post #747

OCASM wrote: post #730

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless they're too scared of harrassment by the mob, specially a state-induced one: https://nitter.net/AOC/status/1347679332014161920#m

We've banned this account for continuing to do political flamewar after we specifically asked you not to. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25695444

So dissenting is now considered doing political flamewar? Ok.

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#799

Post by dmantis » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 3:19 PM UTC

FDSGSG wrote: post #655

SpaceRaccoon wrote: post #601

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

There is no hosting monopoly, there is no payment processing monopoly, there is no domain registration monopoly, there is no SSL CA monopoly.

Payment processings are monopolies. More precisely, oligopolies. See how easily Mastercard and Visa drop PornHub payments after the news paper article. It's not a court order or even a trial. There is mainly zero way of doing business without fully government controlled banking entry-points.

Yes, there are cryptocurrencies available, so if we can fully legalize it and promise that we don't touch anyone's private transactions (as well as businesses officially accepting crypto) - that would be an argument.

For better understanding how bad it is: it's non trivial to even accept worldwide payments for small business/individual in the internet if you are, say, from Ukraine, Russia, China or lots of other countries not processed by stripe/paypal for some political or legal reasons. Apart from that, there is a "free" market of two payment processors in the internet and two card processors =)

Re: Google suspending Parler from the Google Play store

#800

Post by bobcallme » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 3:22 PM UTC

syndacks wrote: post #793

bobcallme wrote: post #736

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fuck you and everyone here. The fact that anyone could defend this decision is ridiculous. I'm tired of people defending censorship in the most brain dead of ways when it has never worked in the past and it most certainly will not work now. Censoring unpopular ideas only allows them to fester in the dark where they can't be brought to light or addressed in the open. This was never about "racism","bigotry" or "ignoran…

That Wikipedia article is about the rise of Nazism you idiot. Please try to tell me again we're not talking about bigotry or racism in this thread, or that the "patriots" you stand by aren't some of the lowest pieces of shit fighting for one last gasp of relevance in this brave new world.

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