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Tusky has been removed from the Play Store

chaos.social

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Re: Tusky has been removed from the Play Store

#31

Post by syshum »

whywhywhywhy wrote: post #21
jorvi wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It still blows my mind that Mastodon was explicitly made to escape the 'dictator companies' of closed social networks but that many of the apps made for Mastodon contain blacklists. I don't agree with the content of said blacklisted Mastodon instances and I agree that developers can do whatever they want with their app, but blacklists seem painfully obviously against the spirit of what Mastodon is supposed to represe…

Gotta keep in mind the concept of "Federation" isn't the same as "Anti-censorship" or "Free Speech". It's less escaping the censored and restricted megacorp service to freedom or free speech anarchy and more you're able to build your own service that fulfills your own needs and own preferred blend of moderation vs free speech and that service can interact with others own instances with their own rules. Same goes for…

The problem with that argument is that the developers of the application are making the choices not the people that are "building their own service"

This goes to the core of the debate, I am in favor of giving users the ability to block anyone they want, even the ability to subscribe to and distribute block lists

However it is step to far to hardcode or build in unchangeable block lists into the very foundation of the service.

Developers need to empower users to make their own choices, not treat users like they were children

Re: Tusky has been removed from the Play Store

#32

Post by matsemann »

Kinda ironic seeing Google Play's post today about "Boosting developer success on Google Play" [0] with quotes like "Helping developers build sustainable businesses", except that your business can be gone at any moment based on the whim of some Google employee or automated algorithm.

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26486737

Re: Tusky has been removed from the Play Store

#34

Post by jsmith99 »

syshum wrote: post #31
whywhywhywhy wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gotta keep in mind the concept of "Federation" isn't the same as "Anti-censorship" or "Free Speech". It's less escaping the censored and restricted megacorp service to freedom or free speech anarchy and more you're able to build your own service that fulfills your own needs and own preferred blend of moderation vs free speech and that service can interact with others own instances with their own rules. Same goes for…

The problem with that argument is that the developers of the application are making the choices not the people that are "building their own service" This goes to the core of the debate, I am in favor of giving users the ability to block anyone they want, even the ability to subscribe to and distribute block lists However it is step to far to hardcode or build in unchangeable block lists into the very foundation of th…

Free speech! Free software! But only for people with some programming skills, it seems. (Or at least enough to fork the app on GitHub)

Re: Tusky has been removed from the Play Store

#35

Post by luckylion »

shakow wrote: post #27
jorvi wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It still blows my mind that Mastodon was explicitly made to escape the 'dictator companies' of closed social networks but that many of the apps made for Mastodon contain blacklists. I don't agree with the content of said blacklisted Mastodon instances and I agree that developers can do whatever they want with their app, but blacklists seem painfully obviously against the spirit of what Mastodon is supposed to represe…

The thing is that Mastodon and other libre platforms mantra is not to ensure that everyone express themselves, but that everyone can do so. I am, personally, totally fine with that: I don't wish to have ideas I hold in contempt sneak into my feed. But the key difference with “dictator companies” is that I decide what I don't see and whom I enclose with.

> But the key difference with “dictator companies” is that I decide what I don't see and whom I enclose with.

But you don't. The app decides for you and blocks what you shall not see.

Re: Tusky has been removed from the Play Store

#37

Post by derpthebert »

fwn wrote: post #13
commoner wrote: post #8

For free and open source Android apps, F-Droid is a more reliable app store than Google Play. The F-Droid link for Tusky is: https://f-droid.org/packages/com.keylesspalace.tusky/

Here is a relevant blog post f-droid published in 2019 on Tusky and Fedilab: https://f-droid.org/en/2019/07/16/statement.html They do seem to ague in favor of free software. .. at least as long as app developers do not advertise shunned instances. Power-statements like "sometimes, staying neutral isn’t an option" suggest that they are probably not an ally of those wanting to leave it to the user to decide what hosts…

f-droid banned Gab. So they cannot be trusted to run an impartial service.

Re: Tusky has been removed from the Play Store

#38

Post by mansion7 »

rvz wrote: post #2

You know what I am going to say... Google Play is owned by Google and is a private platform. They can remove, ban, suspend any app or app update they want when it breaks their policies. That is tough.

Keeping in mind that those who set the policies are the same people who were literally crying in the hallways at work after the 2016 election

And outright saying "WE lost"

When Google, YouTube, et al make decisions that appear to be careless, biased, or downright baffling, remembering this piece of data often provides valuable clarity, context, and insight

Re: Tusky has been removed from the Play Store

#39

Post by sschueller »

fwn wrote: post #13
commoner wrote: post #8

For free and open source Android apps, F-Droid is a more reliable app store than Google Play. The F-Droid link for Tusky is: https://f-droid.org/packages/com.keylesspalace.tusky/

Here is a relevant blog post f-droid published in 2019 on Tusky and Fedilab: https://f-droid.org/en/2019/07/16/statement.html They do seem to ague in favor of free software. .. at least as long as app developers do not advertise shunned instances. Power-statements like "sometimes, staying neutral isn’t an option" suggest that they are probably not an ally of those wanting to leave it to the user to decide what hosts…

They do still control what is in their main repository. However (big however) anyone can run a repository that works in f-droid. You can't do that with the play store.
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