Tusky has been removed from the Play Store • Hacker News Board

Re: Tusky has been removed from the Play Store

#211

Post by DocTomoe » Wed, Mar 17, 2021, 3:46 PM UTC

barbacoa wrote: post #168

DocTomoe wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh? Do you have some more information on the Firefox bias blocking?

I believe GP is referring to: https://blog.mozilla.org/firefox/firefox-b-tch-to-boss-exten... Basically a bad word filter. But to GP's point the way things are going don't be surprised if extensions like these are someday set to default on.

Sure ... but society would adapt and make replacement words as derogatory as the words they replaced. The euphemism treadmill is a well-observed phenomenon.

I am glad my immediate worry about active suppression of information is not yet necessary.

Re: Tusky has been removed from the Play Store

#212

Post by tomjen3 » Wed, Mar 17, 2021, 3:51 PM UTC

Robotbeat wrote: post #136

cbradford wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a framework for this that was created over 100 years ago when the same problem happened with railroads. They did they same thing and used their monopoly power to discriminate on who could ship goods by rail. Society said that was wrong and we have the idea of a common carrier that must treat all customers the same. We should declare all app stores to be the same, common carries that may not discriminate. Bot…

I get this concern, but the hate speech bit is not BS. People using platforms to plan insurrections or other violence are not gonna be protected, whether by private companies or the government.

If they do something illegal, prosecute them in the court of law.

If they spread lies, sue them.

Don't have a third-party ban them arbitrarily with no recourse.

Re: Tusky has been removed from the Play Store

#213

Post by barbacoa » Wed, Mar 17, 2021, 3:55 PM UTC

DocTomoe wrote: post #211

barbacoa wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe GP is referring to: https://blog.mozilla.org/firefox/firefox-b-tch-to-boss-exten... Basically a bad word filter. But to GP's point the way things are going don't be surprised if extensions like these are someday set to default on.

Sure ... but society would adapt and make replacement words as derogatory as the words they replaced. The euphemism treadmill is a well-observed phenomenon. I am glad my immediate worry about active suppression of information is not yet necessary.

Idiot, imbecile, and moron used to be medical terms. Then they got associated with being derogatory and people started using retarded as the new PC term. Not that long ago I got chastised for saying someone who sustained brain damage was now mentally retarded.

Re: Tusky has been removed from the Play Store

#214

Post by MCage » Wed, Mar 17, 2021, 3:56 PM UTC

vincnetas wrote: post #120

oblio wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We'll need a legal framework for removing apps in this case.

Court order. You cant remove app just because you dont like it. App should violate laws to be removed.

Unfortunately, they can. The publishers/developers agreed to the "terms and conditions" when signing up. The policy strikes that get you kicked out are not enforced consistently, but I'm sure from a legal point of view there's little you can do when your app is banned.

Re: Tusky has been removed from the Play Store

#215

Post by syshum » Wed, Mar 17, 2021, 3:57 PM UTC

jakelazaroff wrote: post #111

syshum wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is fine, just do not market it as a "Free Speech" service / tool / platform like the fediverse try's to do. The entire marketing of the fediverse software is freedom from censorship. if you want to build "Authoritarianverse" and place yourself as emperor for life, then you are free do to do just be open with your marketing so people know to avoid your software

I don’t actually think that’s accurate. I don’t see the term “free speech” or any obvious variation on https://tusky.app or even on https://joinmastodon.org . As I understand it, their main goal is escaping corporate control, and any freedom from censorship they provide is incidental. See too Mastodon’s “server covenant”, which seeks to quarantine instances that allow hateful content: https://joinmastodon.org/covenan…

Right on the home page of mastodon "Follow friends and discover new ones among more than 4.4M people. Publish anything you want:"

Clearly that is a false statement if they are imposing their view of what "correct" speech is.

They both also license their code under GPL, even though they violate Freedom 0 of the core freedom model the GPL is designed to protect

The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (freedom 0).

>> escaping corporate control

Which is doubly ironic since they have adopted the same exact policies that many are fleeing Big Tech to avoid. The Silicon Valley Authoritarian left Speech codes

Re: Tusky has been removed from the Play Store

#216

Post by MCage » Wed, Mar 17, 2021, 4:00 PM UTC

matsemann wrote: post #32

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

My hypothesis is that Google does not care about anything other than its own interest, and simply has to make small steps to get enough PR on their side to prevent further regulation. (Just like the plan for Chrome to eliminate cookies).

Re: Tusky has been removed from the Play Store

#217

Post by thedevelopnik » Wed, Mar 17, 2021, 4:07 PM UTC

monkeybutton wrote: post #142

TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People love to talk about great the web of the 90's was, and I miss it myself, but what made it work was "the price of admission" which elevated the level of both the posters (who had to understand how to make, and pay for, a web site), and the readers (who had to pay for an internet connection, and understand how to configure the connection). I think categorizing social media services as common carriers is half of i…

Does anyone remember the Something Awful forums? One thing that set them apart was charging $10 for an account. People balked at the idea of paying to post on an internet forum but it kept out the spam and crap other forums were inundated with. Edit: I doubt perma-banning via CC number would be as effective a tool now that things like Apple Pay and virtual credit card numbers exist.

They’re still around, And it’s still 10bux!

I literally owe many of the major changes in my life to the SA Forums and people I met through them, and yeah, the quality of posts there is high due to the moderation and cost.

Even the creator got perma-banned recently when it was discovered he was a serial abuser who had been using the forums as part of his abuse.

Re: Tusky has been removed from the Play Store

#218

Post by qwerty456127 » Wed, Mar 17, 2021, 4:10 PM UTC

Fortunately that's Google - whoever really knows what they are doing are still free to sideload the app.

Re: Tusky has been removed from the Play Store

#219

Post by neltnerb » Wed, Mar 17, 2021, 4:18 PM UTC

jhugo wrote: post #58

swiley wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't sign up "for the app." The app speaks a standard protocol and you sign up on an external service (like qoto.org or mstdn.social.)

OK, so how do I know what the external service is doing with my personal information? And, separately, how do I know whether the app collects personal information itself (it's effectively in the transmission path between me and the external service) and where it transmits it if it does?

I'm not a mastadon developer or anything, but what floated up for me about this was:

Accounts never get fully deleted from a Masto instance

TL;DR: Choose your mastodon instance wisely.

Never use your legal name as your nickname and associated email addresses.

VPN is advised too.

(not my work, credit/details https://rage.love/@iantila/105900906491530648)

Re: Tusky has been removed from the Play Store

#220

Post by thescriptkiddie » Wed, Mar 17, 2021, 4:30 PM UTC

nine_k wrote: post #179

soundnote wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the same reasons Khamenei can tweet that an entire country is a malign tumor and needs to be removed and eradicated and Twitter is still in the stores. For the same reasons silly places like Parler get nuked on Jan 6th pretenses when most of the planning happened on Facebook but Facebook's still there. Power's power, and Lenin's question of who/whom is always relevant.

Twitter can ban a US president but not an Iran president? I think it's not about just formal power, but also about political affiliation.

Twitter did not ban Trump until his term was nearly over and public opinion was firmly against him. That's like coming out against the Vietnam war during the evacuation of Saigon.