Element (Matrix chat app) suspended from the Google Play Store

Post by ttt0 » Sat, Jan 30, 2021, 6:55 AM UTC

cma wrote: post #236

2pEXgD0fZ5cF wrote: post #13

Is this google starting to test the waters when it comes to arbitrarily kicking out software they personally don't like? (open source, decentralized, privacy oriented etc.) I might of course be exaggerating a bit here, keep that in mind. - Element and Matrix are growing but still not equipped to fight back at large against this, so it is unlikely to create too much negative press - If Google starts to catch too much…

Seems like the first step to kicking out competing web browsers, if the browsers don't moderate what you browse.

Post by paulcarroty » Sat, Jan 30, 2021, 6:58 AM UTC

Arathorn wrote: post #3

So we got notified by the developer console at 21:45 UTC that the app had been suspended, but still haven’t had an email to explain why - it’s 02:24 now. Our assumption that this is due to someone reporting abusive content in Matrix to Google, and Element catching the blame — although this is currently speculation. To be clear: Element is a Matrix client just as Chrome is a Web browser, and just as it’s possible to v…

Post by AnthonyMouse » Sat, Jan 30, 2021, 6:58 AM UTC

simonh wrote: post #123

userbinator wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people already know that you can get apps directly as .apks, but the majority of them have been conditioned by corporate "propaganda" that they'll be almost certainly getting malware that way. The term "sideloading" was invented to ostracise and discourage the practice of acquiring software independently --- which was the norm up until Apple and its walled garden appeared. But now, perhaps when sufficiently…

Ok, that's some historical revisionism I've not see before. The term sideloading was invented by an internet storage service company to refer to copying files between remote storage buckets without having to do an upload or download. The term then got adopted by the community for copying MP3 files to a player from your computer.

Post by dathinab » Sat, Jan 30, 2021, 7:00 AM UTC

koalp wrote: post #105

Sunspark wrote: post #36

I wonder if France will have something to say to Google about this in the EU.. France uses Matrix. Google's powerful, but they're not a legislative body.

They use their own matrix client : tchap. They also use their own app store (not sure what it's based on) Therefore, French ministry that use matrix may not be affected

Post by tmpz22 » Sat, Jan 30, 2021, 7:01 AM UTC

uncoder0 wrote: post #240

Arathorn wrote: post #3

So we got notified by the developer console at 21:45 UTC that the app had been suspended, but still haven’t had an email to explain why - it’s 02:24 now. Our assumption that this is due to someone reporting abusive content in Matrix to Google, and Element catching the blame — although this is currently speculation. To be clear: Element is a Matrix client just as Chrome is a Web browser, and just as it’s possible to v…

You, like Parler, have been targeted by the powers that be. You may have nothing else in common other than that but, you're in the same boat it seems.