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

techjaja.com

321–330 of 394 posts

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

#321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not from the U.S.A.. I merely noticed that much of the censorship and cultural policing on large platforms such as GitHub , or even the new Linux code of conduct seems to be mostly applicable to situations that pertain to the U.S.A. exclusively.

Yes. And it’s beyond ridiculous when these are imported and translated literally to be used as propaganda tools in countries with very different issues. Like the European ramifications of Qanon or some versions of identity politics...

Or, of course, how with Google AdSense the entire world must live under the U.S.A.'s notedly quaint aversion to nudity, because allowing it on a website will severely reduce advertisement revenue.

It's quite interesting how many international websites would forbid me from posting scenes from Dutch television programming because the adult U.S.A.-man is apparently more damaged by nudity than the præpubertal Dutchman.

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

#322
post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Trump said one sentence that "be peaceful go home" but wrapped it in two sentences "the election was stolen" why shouldn't we assume he means the thing he says more often and ignore stuff he says less often? And he repeated "it was stolen" many times before, too. To point that out is not a censorship.

It's crazy to me that you think the media should make that decision for us instead of just presenting the facts.

It's impossible to present all facts, out there happens a lot more stuff than would fit in any media. Media must curate or summarize it either way. If they're any good they clearly separate facts and commentary.

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

#323
post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course I'm serious. Don't think that we don't notice you conveniently ignoring being called out for your deception. Your reputation is decreasing monotonically. Nothing in the lines you posted gives me pause, or suggests anything remotely like "invade the capitol building". To suggest otherwise is simply speculative conspiracy that frankly sounds like the QAnon crap I have to combat from the right. You're all so t…

We've banned this account for using the site primarily (exclusively?) for political flamewar. That's not allowed because it destroys the curious conversation this site exists for. Yes, we ban accounts that do it regardless of their ideological flavor. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...

Then I hope you are also banning their adversary.

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

#324
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It's 0% decentralized. Banning the president on Signal would not be hard.

Signal is not a social platform. It's meant for 1:1 or small groups communication (there is a hard limit of members in conversation) as if people met in real life. We can't compare it. Trump would not be able to use it the same way as social platforms, the same way he can't go and talk to every person.

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

#325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an interesting point I had not yet considered that most private internet censorship seems to relate to some political issue or moral value that primarily plays in the U.S.A.. That, and of course financially complying with pressure from the Chinese government to be tough on whatever independence movement it struggle with now — Catalonia was of course free to chant it's independence.

It's American Privilege, pure and simple. Anything tech is pretty much American and so the rest of the world gets dragged into their bullshit.

I find that there is quite a bit of technology that isn't, but that also seems to be less interested in moral police.

GNOME is of the U.S.A. and well known for its livid codes of conduct; KDE is of German origins, and seems to be more lax in this.

Even with Linux, Linus, a Finn living in the U.S.A., has long resisted it and even referenced this difference between Finnish and U.S.A. culture, but eventually relented.

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

#326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. And it’s beyond ridiculous when these are imported and translated literally to be used as propaganda tools in countries with very different issues. Like the European ramifications of Qanon or some versions of identity politics...

Or, of course, how with Google AdSense the entire world must live under the U.S.A.'s notedly quaint aversion to nudity, because allowing it on a website will severely reduce advertisement revenue. It's quite interesting how many international websites would forbid me from posting scenes from Dutch television programming because the adult U.S.A.-man is apparently more damaged by nudity than the præpubertal Dutchman.

Yes, that as well, along with the fetishisation of violence. Even more horrifying is how this is being internalised as “how we should behave” in non-US countries.

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

#327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was the narrative before Brexit, and yet that didn't ultimately stop it. Game theory rarely helps when the actors aren't perfectly rational, which they aren't.

From the perspective of an "irrational actor": Brexit was much more about not liking the political policies of the EU than about cutting the UK off from the rest of the world.

Not really, it was UK Conservative voters tirning out to vote against Labor. The actual Brexit thing is a red herring. Populism needs leaders, leaders need vague enemies, the EU was perfect.

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

#328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I remember when building an Android app back in 2012-2014, that if it had in-app purchases, it seemed to have to go through the Play Store. I wonder if banning the Play Store will hinder apps that rely on in-app payments. Anybody know?

Third party apps can handle payment however they want (e.g. gambling apps) but I would expect apps downloaded from the play store not to work if they are connect via play services

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

#329
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russia just recently introduced laws that would allow to fine Youtube and social networks if they hinder propagation of important information, so according to them not only banning their propagandists, but even removing them from suggestion lists is prohibited by law. Of course they probably don't have means to enforce this law, but it's an interesting strategy.

Of course they can enforce it. They fine them if they not do so, and if they not be willing to pay the fine, then they are blocked. Russia will certainly be a large enough market that they will consider it a financial loss large enough that they might implement this for Russia's version.

Russia already have tried to ban Telegram, but due to help from AWS it turned out that the whole internet needs to be banned, so eventually they gave up. Not saying that Youtube will choose the confrontation the way Telegram did, but it doesn't depend on Russian government alone.

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

#330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Now of course most of the governments that would do this would be authoritarian Would they be? Consider what just happened in the USA: All of the major social media companies blocked a significant portion of the population because of the attempted subversion of democracy in the country. Now imagine if some similar subversion were attempted in another country, say Ecuador? Would these social media companies be as wi…

> All of the major social media companies blocked a significant portion of the population because of the attempted subversion of democracy in the country. Where did this happen? Because I saw some specific tags blocked calling for a VP to be killed blocked (vs some generic "kill all humans" hyperbole)... and specific account blocked after its owner triggered an attack on the Capitol that resulted in 5 casualties (and…

What I'm talking about isn't so narrow as liberals or conservatives; it's about social cohesion and the censorship that's necessary in order to preserve it. We've been living charmed lives up until now because the ability to broadcast to large audiences has only been within the capabilities of a select few media outlets that were vetted and controlled to varying degrees by the government to make sure they didn't sow too much discord. And this is healthy, because a divided nation loses its international competitiveness and in the worst case risks collapse.

We're now in the unprecedented situation where individual people can out-broadcast even nation states with the help of social media companies, most of which have their head offices in the USA, limiting their dependency upon and reachability from other governments of the world. It's a decent situation all around because having such companies headquartered in a repressive regime would have damaging effects worldwide. But we still run into some problems:

1. Their morals are local, but their reach is international. This has caused a lot of friction in the past, and that friction will only increase going forward.

2. They're being pressured to bow to local "truths" or risk being banned in a number of nations. These "truths" generally come to light from local issues, and while they can be easy to decypher in autocratic regimes, they absolutely will NOT be so easy to arbitrate in functioning democracies. We'll eventually reach the point where every social media company will need a team of sociologists and political strategists in order to figure out what's behind every government's complaints over what's being broadcast by their citizens, and how best to respond (making them higher arbiters of truth than even the government). The national self-determination issues alone are staggering.

The endgame of this is increased government regulation and increased pressure for a single national "truth", which must be defended vigorously in order to keep the government functional. The increased conflict between these American companies and local governments will increase to the point where eventually the companies will win and essentially set the policy of truth worldwide, which leaves us in a very centralized and fragile state when it comes to corruption, especially since companies - unlike governments - have only profit as a motive, and do not answer to the people.

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