Live data from Hacker News

Tusky has been removed from the Play Store

chaos.social

81–90 of 255 posts

Re: Tusky has been removed from the Play Store

#82
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just a matter of time

They will never bann chrome, but I am sure they wills start banning lesser known browsers that are not Chrome, Edge, and Firefox...

In some sense the Apple rules requiring you use webkit internally is already a Chrome and firefox ban on ios.

Re: Tusky has been removed from the Play Store

#84
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have strong feelings about mastodon or this specific app, but the credo of "It's a private company" is just lazy reasoning and thrown around blindly far too often. Being banned by big tech (whether apps, social media accounts, major payment processors for receiving donations) is in some cases almost equivalent to being shut down ; "it's a private company" : if the company has a monopoly and there's not a sign…

I'd argue that any other stance would acknowledge and justify their position as a utility provider and the Play Store as a public space. I don't want that. Instead, Google should be required to provide equal capabilities to third-party app stores as the Play Store now enjoys on Android. Like Microsoft was forced to accommodate for other browser vendors in Windows way back when. This is in contrast to ISPs, which I wh…

I do think that solution has a lot going for it. Probably even best to allow for multiple app stores from the very beginning. For example during setup of the device being prompted:

"There are various app stores to install software from. Each comes with their own form of app curation, and policies regarding payments, privacy, updates and more ; please select the app stores you would like to use. If you'd like to learn more, click here."

with a list of app stores given and 'Google Play' being pre-selected for example.

It's not something I've thought about a lot before, so I'm sure we could do better than that. But in principle that doesn't sound too bad.

Re: Tusky has been removed from the Play Store

#85
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There is a dozen apps, and most of these are opensource.

Not to count that the protocol and the federation are open.

Once again, “free speech” is not “spoon-feed you a way to reach millions of people in an eyeblink”, it's “don't prevent you from doing it”.

Re: Tusky has been removed from the Play Store

#86
post #23
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.

> 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. In this democracy, companies can only do what we, the people, allow them to do.

Don't know where you live but that's not the case in the U.S.

Re: Tusky has been removed from the Play Store

#89
post #51

If they ban a client for the content it can access, why don't they ban web browsers entirely ? Google Chrome allows access to illegal and hateful content too.

They should ban all devices, because at the end of the day you can circumvent any other ban.

Going one further, you can circumvent this ban too :)

Re: Tusky has been removed from the Play Store

#90
post #52

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

The dangers of building on a platform that is unregulated. You wouldn't build your brick and mortar store on a contract that allowed the landlord to kick you out at a whim without compensation.

This problem could be fixed with less regulation, not more. Without intellectual property there would be far more diversity and choice.
Post reply on HN