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

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

#571

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?

“Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past.”

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

#572

> We've had contact from Google confirming that the suspension is due to abusive content somewhere on Matrix If this takedown stands, this effectively means that all distributed message systems are banned from the Play store.

All browsers too. I've seen a lot of shit it that so called internet.

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

#573

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…

That's still weird though. By that logic, they should ban all web browsers, and mail clients… Content they find unacceptable is definitely accessible through those.

Banning all applications that enable access to non-moderated decentralized content is simply not compatible with a phone being a smart phone.

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

#574
post #551
post #513

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder why this hasn't been escalated to an anti-trust case yet.

[flagged]

A little polemical, but there's some truth here. We've become so fixated on left-right as the only dimension that whenever you advocate for something clearly in the centrist-ish public interest, all anyone wants to know is which side you're on so that they can reduce you to a caricature.

Which prompts the question, who is responsible for all this vitriol? What people or corporations are driving us further and further into these two filter bubbles?

Oh no.

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

#575
post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then how do you get instant messaging notifications?

I think I don't. Sometimes I get notifications, sometimes it may take hours for me to get the notification. I rarely use instant messaging for important things, and when I do, I make sure to check my phone often so I don't miss the messages. Is this stupid? Maybe, but I'm not going to install Google's closed source crap on a device that I carry almost everywhere. If that means I become a social pariah, then so be it.

"If that means I become a social pariah, then so be it."

Sounds heroic, but maybe does not help anyone? And if you really cannot tolerate closed source, than what kind of hardware do you use? As far as I know, they are allmost all closed and locked.

Pine64 is a fresh breeze, but they are also not free(nor stable) yet.

My workaround is simply, that I have a mobile, where I can remove the batterie, then I know, it is turned off.

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

#577
post #304

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.

People will surely point out the obvious differences between the takedown of Parler and Element and I'd agree that it's not exactly the same thing, since Parler is its own platform and Element is just a client. However, when looking on a bigger picture of the recent takedowns and trying to make sense of it, it does indeed seem to be connected. The only conclusion that seems rational to me is as follows: Everyone trie…

>Everyone tries to push their burden of moderation on people below them, because no one can actually keep up with it. And if the moderation is not enforced, they risk being taken down by someone above them. That would explain why everyone is so trigger happy when it comes to censorship. When the WallStreetBets people were taken down by Facebook and Discord, they didn't ban the individuals who were actually violating the policy, but the entire community.

There's a much simpler explanation: Google wants as much of your communication as possible to go through them or their partners, so they can monetise it. People using Parler or Matrix don't leak any information to Big Tech, so commercially it makes sense to deter people from using apps like that, and they'll use whatever excuse they can get away with.

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

#578
post #500

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is insane. This jeopardizes every email, xmpp, matrix, etc; basically any 3rd party application.

> This jeopardizes every email, xmpp, matrix, etc; basically any 3rd party application. Except of course Google's own applications. Gmail, Hangouts/Meet/whatever-it-currently-is, Chrome. Luckily it's not possible to display illegal content with Google's own apps /s I remember when my nephew got groomed on Google Plus, I was way to naive to think that this would not be occurring in Google's walled gardens. But in ther…

>Luckily it's not possible to display illegal content with Google's own apps /s

Perhaps one day they will make this argument to justify having to spy on everything you do with their software.

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

#579
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So let me ask you a question, how were they negatively impacting your mental wellbeing? I ask this genuinely, because I have a tendency to feel these tools only negatively impact people who use them in stress-creating ways. That, however, feels like victim blaming. There's a difference between a using a circular saw dangerously and a circular saw that is MADE with electrical failures that shock you. Let me give the e…

> I have a tendency to feel these tools only negatively impact people who use them in stress-creating ways I came to the same conclusion. It is much easier to blame some internet website (which is basically just some pixels on a screen) instead of figuring out internal psychological reasons for being addicted. If a person is looking for addictions, they will find them. If it won't be facebook, it will be porn, binge-…

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

#580

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We received a generic update at 05:31 UTC confirming that the app had been suspended due to abusive content (Sexual Content and Profanity: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answ... ); we're following up to explain how Matrix and Element works and get this resolved.

Could this be related to all the WSB shenanigans going on? Banning their chat groups makes them move to another, repeat?

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