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

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

#271

Post by dang »

laurent92 wrote: post #31

> foreign values Not even foreign values. Only subset of foreign values which are only shared by the Silicon Valley. Beyond that, half the US people disagree with Google/Apple/Twitter/Facebook’s non-neutral stance on politics, who weighed their full weight in censoring 50% of the political spectrum. I will not call it the pied piper because Uganda weighs nothing, but the GAFA’s politics are now visible as directly ha…

Please do not take HN threads further into ideological flamewar.

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25705107.

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

#272

Post by dang »

type0 wrote: post #256

It is often the form of american cultural imperialism that can be revolting to see, everything from calling other people names to that they're not https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=LatinX to other such bullshit claiming https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG5nqlMv48c

Please do not take HN threads further into ideological or nationalistic flamewar.

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

#273

Post by ad404b8a372f2b9 »

dang wrote: post #270
ad404b8a372f2b9 wrote: post #46

I wish there would be a societal awakening in Europe and people would boycott American services. Countries need to reclaim their digital sovereignty if they hope to preserve their culture. Back in college everyone I knew browsed reddit, 9gag, facebook, etc for hours every day. The european youth is getting raised by America and fed its political ideology one meme/discussion thread at a time. It took me a long while t…

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25705107 .

Why is that if I may ask? This was in direct response to the point on neo-imperialism and American foreign influence by the parent.

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

#274

Post by refurb »

I’m currently work from Asia so I follow the local and regional news quite closely.

What’s fascinating is that many countries are using the whole tech censorship to justify their own behavior. It’s a bit of “see, even the US agrees dangerous speech should be censored” or “do you want to end up like the US? this is why we have laws about speech”.

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

#275

Post by refurb »

tobylane wrote: post #27
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.

Deplatforming is a form of censorship.

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

#276

Post by refurb »

cygx wrote: post #201
potato wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Turns out all you need for a coup is about 70 lightly armed boomers and a few zip ties.

80 Cubans would be a better choice, but if circumstances are right, 70 people is plenty to make good on threats such as lynching the vice president. Just because they chose a bumbling buffoon as savior figure doesn't mean they can be dismissed as harmless.

Hard core seditionists who, when they entered the Speaker of the House’s office, decided the priority was taking selfies.

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

#277

Post by rvz »

MattGaiser wrote: post #101

Facebook and Twitter might do well to just ban politics entirely at this point. It costs them a lot to touch it.

> Facebook and Twitter might do well to just ban politics entirely at this point.

So your point is to have Facebook and Twitter policing and monitoring everyone's posts for discussions on general politics. Good luck with that.

You better have a definition and where to draw the line on which posts, images, text and speech that fit your definition of 'politics'.

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

#278

Post by dleslie »

stale2002 wrote: post #259
dleslie wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Private companies engage in censorship only when they have a controlling interest on a form of communication, and that is the sole purview of monopolies.

> and that is the sole purview of monopolies. No actually. According to the wikipedia definition on censorship, there is no requirement to be a monopoly, in order for a private business to engage in censorship. Instead, according to the actual definition of censorship, censorship is any sort of "suppression of speech, public communication, or other information", and private, non-monopolies can absolutely engage in ce…

A company cannot fully suppress communications if it does not control the communications medium. There is no company which has a total monopoly on any form of communications in the USA. Material is not effectively made unavailable without total suppression.

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

#279

Post by dleslie »

chr1 wrote: post #253
dleslie wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Freedom of Association is a fundamental freedom in many countries, for good reason. I'll happily avoid services that happily and stubbornly provide platforms to white nationalists and similar wretches, like Parler and Gab, and it certainly does not bother me that such platforms may not welcome me. Cults and similar certainly do use their ability to sever association to control their membership, but making that step a…

There is difference between association and between singling out someone and refusing service that would be at no additional cost to you. Twitter not only banned Trumps account, but also sci-hub account which is far from being a "wretch" and has contributed immensely to science. If we include social media service providers into "cancellation" wars the result will be too costly for the society, so we need better ways…

I fail to see the critical distinction between refusing to associate and refusing to engage with, or how the freedom of association can be upheld without the ability to refuse such engagement.

We must provide social media services with protected freedoms, or we risk impinging upon the freedoms of its users. Users must be free to choose social media which allows them to _not_ associate or communicate with those they do not wish to. Nor should we compel them to support speech that they do not wish to, for similar reasons.

If your concern is whether certain legal speech may be effectively completely deplatformed, then may I suggest the solution is federated social networking and not to impugn the freedom of association.

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

#280

Post by Synaesthesia »

jhanschoo wrote: post #267

Can someone with more familiarity with Ugandan politics comment? My understanding is that outside developed states, lawful democracy can be very brittle especially in states containing multiple nations and tribes, and when there is a long history where the people tend to put their own nation and tribe before the others in the same state, leading to conflict. The rationale and measure seems to be a better evil if the…

Uganda is ruled by a virtual military dictatorship. There is substantial democratic opposition which is suppressed by the govt. It's quite an oppressive country, you see soldiers in black patrolling the streets on trucks.
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