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Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

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Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#111

The company I work for has forbidden the use of Google and their services such as GCP etc. due to how they treat their Play Store developers and other customer, in particular that there never seems to be any human being that you can talk to and find out what you need to do to fix the situation. We do not want the same to occur to our servers or if there is an overflow from Play Store ban to GCP etc. The business risk…

Smartphone app development is a poor investment. Just build a good website.

Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#112
post #59

For those not from South Africa, this app is primarily for people to be able to get notifications or look up when their area will be affected by a "planned power outage", or as Eskom (our state owned power utility) refers to it, "load shedding". "Load shedding" is enacted whenever they have a power production capacity issue where different areas take turns without power so as to not let the power grid collapse. This…

OMG. This is as bad or even worse than Texas or California...

There is no comparison.

Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#113
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you haven’t already, check the time / date / timezone on the device that is generating the codes. Facebook uses TOTP for this, which is time-based. If the time on your device is wrong, the codes will be wrong. I would expect this problem to pop up more frequently this time of year due to errors relating to daylight saving time.

DST has nothing to do with TOTP. The TOTP spec specifies that unix time has to be used as the time source, which does not have DST.

That doesn't matter, DST-related events can still break TOTP.

Example: Device is set to the wrong timezone. It’s nearby, but the difference between the two timezones is that one has DST and one doesn’t. DST comes along, either the time changes by an hour when it isn’t supposed to, or it doesn’t change when it is supposed to. The most visible thing that looks broken to the user is not the timezone, but the time. So they adjust the time. The user-visible clock is now “correct” for the next six months as far as the user sees, but the system clock – including UNIX timestamps – is incorrect by an hour. This results in broken TOTP.

Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Did something recently happen to Eskom to make them incompetent? The African National Congress.

Ah yes because the Nationalist Party was so much better during the good old days of apartheid when corruption ran at an all-time high. It does not matter who holds it. Unchecked power always corrupts.

Did an equal amount of "load shedding" happen during the "good old days"?

Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah yes because the Nationalist Party was so much better during the good old days of apartheid when corruption ran at an all-time high. It does not matter who holds it. Unchecked power always corrupts.

I imagine it's difficult to address problems with the government if, whenever anyone does so, someone brings up the former government. Bring up slavery in Dubai, and people start talking about the transatlantic slave trade and European colonialism. It gives people of the present a free pass to behave reprehensibly, because other people in the past behaved reprehensibly

You should read the comments.

1. It was a throwaway. 2. The reply was... “It does not matter who holds it. Unchecked power always corrupts.”

The problem with the ANC is the same issue as The Nationalist. Without strong opposition and even a stronger free press, unchecked power always leads to corruption.

Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When the giants banned that app after the incidents in 6 January in US, you see a lot of comment like "free markets" and build your own platform from scratch including banks, ISPs and hosting. P.S. I am not from US so I am not in a blue or red camp, I just don't like it when some big corporation can lock you out of your account, decide what books you can read, what apps you can install or brick your application/devic…

I'm fine with banning apps that permit organizing violent insurrection in response to independently certified elections. That isn't the case here however and I expect some resolution will come.

Still claiming it was a “violent insurrection”, even when experts have been clear this wasn’t one (https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/01/06/why-this-wasnt-a-coup-c...)? A handful of people stormed the Capitol, and nearly none of them were there to stage an “insurrection”. Most were just there as protesters who got carried away. There were also tens of thousands more in DC participating in rallies and protests without ever having stormed the Capitol as well.

Also, this was far from the only time protesters invaded the Capitol. It was the only time so much attention was given to it by news media and social media alike, however. I’m sure you spoke up when hundreds stormed the Capitol during Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings, where hundreds were arrested, correct (https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/405500-212-protesters-to...)?

As for Parler - with millions of users, almost 100% of content being completely fine, and with more of the riot being planned on Facebook, banning Parler was simply an ideological power move by left biased tech companies who have no respect for free speech principles.

Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah yes because the Nationalist Party was so much better during the good old days of apartheid when corruption ran at an all-time high. It does not matter who holds it. Unchecked power always corrupts.

I imagine it's difficult to address problems with the government if, whenever anyone does so, someone brings up the former government. Bring up slavery in Dubai, and people start talking about the transatlantic slave trade and European colonialism. It gives people of the present a free pass to behave reprehensibly, because other people in the past behaved reprehensibly

The general term for what you describe is "whataboutism". It is a rhetorical technique that allows one to defend the indefensible. First popularized by Russia, the technique has become a favorite among ~40% of Americans.

It's a favorite technique to defend the abuse of power. "Yes, I abused my power, but so does everyone with power," is a cynical, unfalsifiable and worryingly effective argument.

Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#119
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OMG. This is as bad or even worse than Texas or California...

It is far worse, but South Africa has an inept and corrupt government, I wonder what the excuse is for Texas?

I suspect the truth is, in the narrow domain of electric power distribution, Texas too has an inept government that’s beholden to certain vested interests in the garb of “free markets”.

This is a state that has fetishized “light touch regulation” so much that it, for most of the state, has its own grid to avoid dealing with Federal authorities. And repeatedly failed to take action to get power companies to winterize their equipment even though cold snaps in Texas are not unheard of — they’ve had disruption in 1989 and 2011, in addition to other near misses.

Let’s not even get into the wisdom of a market that allows Griddy to offer wholesale prices without caps to retail customers.

Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#120
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean that thing which google controls 90% of the rendering engines for? [Yes, they have much less power, but its not exactly independence either]

Let's not go into hypotheticals about what might happen if google started... what, inserting spyware, basically, into their own open source browser engine?

Chrome and even Firefox have already begun political policing of their browsers (https://reclaimthenet.org/google-chrome-web-store-bans-disse...). The next step seems like it’ll be forced curation of the web or blocking of IP addresses, since they’re already knocking on that door.
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