Ugandan government blocks Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and YouTube • Hacker News Board

Re: Ugandan government blocks Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and YouTube

#21

Post by BlueTemplar » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 10:10 PM UTC

andrewzah wrote: post #15

mimikatz wrote: post #9

If I ran was in charge of a government after watching them all ban Trump's ability to communicate at the same time, I too would think about banning them to protect myself.

Or maybe you could do some introspection and think about what would have to lead up to you being banned? Every politician on twitter has been fine except for 1 particular individual. Nevermind that 1 individual -chose- to use twitter as their primary base of operations, instead of the usual channels.

Weren't others banned at the same time as Trump?

Re: Ugandan government blocks Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and YouTube

#22

Post by tathougies » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 10:10 PM UTC

madhadron wrote: post #17

mimikatz wrote: post #9

If I ran was in charge of a government after watching them all ban Trump's ability to communicate at the same time, I too would think about banning them to protect myself.

Trump has a press office and a whole press corps that shows up to listen to what he might want to say to them daily.

And then pick and choose sound bites to report to form a narrative.

Re: Ugandan government blocks Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and YouTube

#23

Post by nevi-me » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 10:12 PM UTC

tester756 wrote: post #10

ilaksh wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. Censoring everyone and even further shutting down a critical infrastructure like app stores during an election means you have to wonder if that government is doing more harm than good.

how's "app store" critical infrastructure? internet access should be enough

Apps and updates to apps. If much of the internet is crippled already, targeting app stores and YouTube could be seen to be limiting options effectively for users.

With app stores blocked, what prevents the government from blocking messaging apps next, as they won't have ways of providing updates to users? I'm referring to Telegram and what they've previously done to try circumvent blocking techniques.

Re: Ugandan government blocks Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and YouTube

#24

Post by ivnubinas » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 10:12 PM UTC

andrewzah wrote: post #15

mimikatz wrote: post #9

If I ran was in charge of a government after watching them all ban Trump's ability to communicate at the same time, I too would think about banning them to protect myself.

Or maybe you could do some introspection and think about what would have to lead up to you being banned? Every politician on twitter has been fine except for 1 particular individual. Nevermind that 1 individual -chose- to use twitter as their primary base of operations, instead of the usual channels.

> Or maybe you could do some introspection and think about what would have to lead up to you being banned?

Having the wrong party affiliation?

Re: Ugandan government blocks Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and YouTube

#25

Post by frenchy » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 10:12 PM UTC

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #11

tester756 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how's "app store" critical infrastructure? internet access should be enough

"The internet" is both browser based web pages as well as various mobile phone based apps.

While you might consider software that runs on the internet to be part of the internet itself, not being able to run some of the software doesn't mean you can't access the internet.

A little bit less pedantically though, while this is certainly a blow to internet freedom, and not a good thing, I think most of us would agree (at least in the long-term) that access to the web is more important to freedom that a collection of proprietary apps.

Re: Ugandan government blocks Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and YouTube

#26

Post by erentz » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 10:15 PM UTC

madhadron wrote: post #17

mimikatz wrote: post #9

If I ran was in charge of a government after watching them all ban Trump's ability to communicate at the same time, I too would think about banning them to protect myself.

Trump has a press office and a whole press corps that shows up to listen to what he might want to say to them daily.

Right. A serious percentage of people think the only way the president can communicate is via Twitter and there’s been this right wing persecution complex building for a few years now that they believe they are constantly being censored. Despite the fact that right wing news and pundits get a lot more shares on social media. It’s all part of the weird twisted mass delusion that we find ourselves dealing with.

Re: Ugandan government blocks Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and YouTube

#27

Post by tobylane » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 10:16 PM UTC

ilaksh wrote: post #3

What Trump was doing was extreme, but stories like might make you think twice about enthusiasm for censorship.

What if I’m enthusiastically against censorship and enthusiastically for deplatforming in cases like Trump? Which makes me strongly dislike the news in the post.

Re: Ugandan government blocks Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and YouTube

#28

Post by nostromo » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 10:17 PM UTC

johndevor wrote: post #16

Time to decentralize everything

It’s not fully decentralized, but I’d love to see Signal take on some Twitter and Facebook use cases.

Re: Ugandan government blocks Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and YouTube

#29

Post by bilbo0s » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 10:17 PM UTC

vbezhenar wrote: post #7

mc32 wrote: post #4

Given how given to certain narratives some of these services are, I’m not surprised and I would predict more governments will do similar things pre-election. Now of course most of the governments that would do this would be authoritarian and would look to control their own narrative, I think this illustrates how unbalanced and agenda-driven these media and social graph services have become who bring in foreign values…

Some governments can force *Store to ban whatever they want. Some can't, so they have to resort to banning stores.

Only going from what I've observed on the continent, (especially in the EAC), but I think it's a bit deeper than that right now.

Today, right across Africa, governments are studying the possibilities of restricting foreign internet services. Both as a way of controlling the information their populations get to view, but also as a means of addressing high youth unemployment among educated workers by giving their domestic internet firms the room to take root. This is actually an interesting sideshow in the more global tendency towards balkanization. But take my word for it, young startup type guys from Entebbe-Kampala, (and, with AfCFTA, even places like Dar and Nairobi), will be very active trying to press their advantage.

The political side of this shutdown is predictable, but the interesting action is the long game. I think these kinds of shutdowns are dry runs for the sort of internet world African leaders are quietly pressing for in their future.

Re: Ugandan government blocks Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and YouTube

#30

Post by tobylane » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 10:18 PM UTC

tathougies wrote: post #22

madhadron wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trump has a press office and a whole press corps that shows up to listen to what he might want to say to them daily.

And then pick and choose sound bites to report to form a narrative.

That could be analysed. What’s the average length of clip of Trump/WH talking on the various news networks and total per hour on the subject. It’s measuring the quantitative part.