Element (Matrix chat app) suspended from the Google Play Store • Hacker News Board

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

#381

Post by eternalban » Sat, Jan 30, 2021, 9:12 AM UTC

Thorentis wrote: post #317

This is basically the last straw for me. The past week has made it perfectly clear that Big Tech will close the circle and protect their own. Anything that appears to be censorship resistant, that allows the little guy to get ahead and compete, or that allows individuals to have greater levels of privacy and freedom, will be shut down and de-platformed. As was predicted in 1948, "hate speech" has just become a smoke…

Wait until CBDCs roll out. Right now, it is your speech and communication. Tomorrow, it will be accessing your money. Then they will have their desired perfectly obedient population.

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

#382

Post by alangibson » Sat, Jan 30, 2021, 9:13 AM UTC

Something is being missed in these "Element isn't Parler because..." comments. Distinctions about client vs platform do not matter _at all_ to someone at Google headquarters. Content they find unacceptable is accessible, or it's not. Full stop.

The FAANGs now have a strong incentive to boot anything and anyone making objectionable content available in any way because that's the way public sentiment has shifted. It's really incredible to see how quickly the deplatforming chickens came home to roost. We're now shooting ourselves in the feet at Internet speed.

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

#383

Post by alangibson » Sat, Jan 30, 2021, 9:14 AM UTC

walrus01 wrote: post #278

uncoder0 wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Element and Parler are nothing alike. Element is a chat client. It's an empty piece of software for use with your own choice of server. Element is to a chat server, as Thunderbird is to an email server. It's basically a glorified IRC client. It contains no content of its own. Parler was basically a curated, centrally run, Facebook-message-board-replacement for neonazis, antisemites, qanon conspiracy theorists, and th…

Technical distinctions are irrelevant to someone at headquarters worried about having a regulatory probe inserted in their backside.

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

#384

Post by enriquto » Sat, Jan 30, 2021, 9:14 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…

> Element is a Matrix client just as Chrome is a Web browser, and just as it’s possible to view abusive material via Chrome, the same is true of Element.

> However, we abhor abuse, and on the default matrix.org server (...) we have a fairly strict terms of use (...) which we proactively enforce.

These two sentences are contradictory. Either you are a road or a road restaurant. You can't have it both ways.

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

#385

Post by cabirum » Sat, Jan 30, 2021, 9:14 AM UTC

Why, when an app is "suspended", Play Store shows 404 as if it never existed?

Can't Google display the app page with some status banner and a reason for suspension while disabling install button, or allow installing last known "approved" version?

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

#386

Post by aasasd » Sat, Jan 30, 2021, 9:14 AM UTC

Un1corn wrote: post #295

walrus01 wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how is this handled for SIP softphones that can run persistently in the background, in a direct SIP or SIP-over-TLS connection to a server? for instance: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.linphone&h... that's just a random example I thought of since I use it, but I can also think of a lot of other Android apps that I'm fairly sure aren't using any client-server communications mediated through google f…

I'm not sure how Linphone is doing it but all the apps I used that required to run in the background were required to show a notification at all time. This is a terrible UX, my notification center is useless because I always have those apps in there (KDEConnect and Syncthing for example)

Just FYI, you can set those notifications to be ‘silent’ (not displayed on the top) and to collapse into a thin line each—in the system's notification settings. The apps still keep running, however I haven't figured out whether this change affects the frequency with which the background service is called by the system, and thus synchronization delays.

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

#387

Post by danieldisu » Sat, Jan 30, 2021, 9:15 AM UTC

m12k wrote: post #309

avereveard wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

should have built your own phone with your own store - hn hivemind

Can we just please pass some legislation to break Google and Apple's app installation monopoly already? Sure, they built the phones, doesn't mean we can't demand more rights than they decide it's profitable to give us (or put another way, just because the king's ancestors founded the country doesn't mean we shouldn't demand freedom and democracy).

It's amazing that bureaucrats fined Microsoft for putting IE as default and keep allowing apple to do what they want. Europe should force these companies to allow users to install any software they want in their devices as long as it is legal...

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

#388

Post by rangoon626 » Sat, Jan 30, 2021, 9:15 AM UTC

kemonocode wrote: post #68

rangoon626 wrote: post #14

Bookmarking this one for when my friends chide me for “still” using iOS.

It's trivial to sideload apps on most Android devices. You can't sideload on iOS unless you jailbreak or spend some time and money on a developer account, and even then you're rather limited on what you can do.

Side loading is clunky.

If Android were really as free and open as everyone says it is, then there would be a method built into the os to download and install apps directly through the web browser, without hunting through settings and enabling it.

As it is, this is barely better than iOS, and I’m kind of disgusted that everyone thinks it’s fine and normal as a solution.

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

#389

Post by Arnavion » Sat, Jan 30, 2021, 9:16 AM UTC

enriquto wrote: post #384

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…

> Element is a Matrix client just as Chrome is a Web browser, and just as it’s possible to view abusive material via Chrome, the same is true of Element. > However, we abhor abuse, and on the default matrix.org server (...) we have a fairly strict terms of use (...) which we proactively enforce. These two sentences are contradictory. Either you are a road or a road restaurant. You can't have it both ways.

The first sentence is about Element.

The second sentence is about matrix.org

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

#390

Post by est31 » Sat, Jan 30, 2021, 9:16 AM UTC

eternalban wrote: post #381

Thorentis wrote: post #317

This is basically the last straw for me. The past week has made it perfectly clear that Big Tech will close the circle and protect their own. Anything that appears to be censorship resistant, that allows the little guy to get ahead and compete, or that allows individuals to have greater levels of privacy and freedom, will be shut down and de-platformed. As was predicted in 1948, "hate speech" has just become a smoke…

Wait until CBDCs roll out. Right now, it is your speech and communication. Tomorrow, it will be accessing your money. Then they will have their desired perfectly obedient population.

I've thought CBDCs ensure the opposite? Currently if you have an uninsured account at a bank, and the bank goes bankrupt, your money is gone. With CBDCs it seems to me that the money is truly yours instead of in a currency pegged to the fiat but that can always break.