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Google removes ICE-spotting app following Apple's ICEBlock crackdown

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Re: Google removes ICE-spotting app following Apple's ICEBlock crackdown

#131

Post by K0balt »

howieburger wrote: post #66
K0balt wrote: post #20

I’d say this is a perfect candidate for a web app / PWA.

Government will just hijack the domain as they have with torrents and other things they don't like Am working on a mobile app that requires in person keygen/sharing via Bluetooth, syncs selected data between devices once keys exchanged and new local IP is shared (over something like Signal; discovery is hard/expensive so I am going with a low tech manual option to notify peers how to reconnect) Flood the field with a…

While I’m down with the spirit of your idea, What keeps your app from being banned on the App Store as well?

As an unbannable alternative, Make the web app trivially hostable, and use IPFS as a data backend maybe?

Re: Google removes ICE-spotting app following Apple's ICEBlock crackdown

#132

Post by davidw »

nerdponx wrote: post #125
davidw wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, Jimmy Kimmel won and Apple is way more powerful with far deeper pockets. This admin isn't all powerful, as much as they try and project that image. Apple and I think Google have a pretty big reservoir of good will among the public at large. These folks won't be in power forever, but the cowardice of people like Tim Cook will always be remembered.

It looks OK on the surface, but it gets worse the more you look into the details. It doesn't really matter that the administration keeps losing in federal court, because the justice department doesn't really care and keeps doing the thing they were told to stop doing anyway, because there's nobody to enforce the ruling. The executive branch is being actively purged of anyone and anything that is not aligned with and…

It's all very bad, for sure, but doomerism is capitulation.

https://www.liberalcurrents.com/democrats-must-embrace-war-m...

> This is the thing: dooming is itself a liberation from the burden of choice. If everything is ruined forever, if your allies have already forsaken you, if the battle is already lost, you aren't responsible for your choices. They can't affect the outcome. You're free. Dooming is another escape from the burden of war mindset. Clausewitz knew this as well: "As a rule, most men would rather believe bad news than good,"

Re: Google removes ICE-spotting app following Apple's ICEBlock crackdown

#133

Post by nerdponx »

davidw wrote: post #132
nerdponx wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks OK on the surface, but it gets worse the more you look into the details. It doesn't really matter that the administration keeps losing in federal court, because the justice department doesn't really care and keeps doing the thing they were told to stop doing anyway, because there's nobody to enforce the ruling. The executive branch is being actively purged of anyone and anything that is not aligned with and…

It's all very bad, for sure, but doomerism is capitulation. https://www.liberalcurrents.com/democrats-must-embrace-war-m... > This is the thing: dooming is itself a liberation from the burden of choice. If everything is ruined forever, if your allies have already forsaken you, if the battle is already lost, you aren't responsible for your choices. They can't affect the outcome. You're free. Dooming is another escape…

I never said all is lost so give up. I just said that it's bad and even worse than it might seem. Trying to pretend it's not as bad as it is, is also capitulation.

Re: Google removes ICE-spotting app following Apple's ICEBlock crackdown

#134

Post by [deleted] »

Amezarak wrote: post #21
nsxwolf wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many times are we going to re-litigate this? Until there’s a law requiring side loading options, you have the web. Everyone here was totally fine with the “gay cure” apps being pulled.

Most people also seemed to celebrate Parler and Gab being pulled/denied. It was perfectly obvious that the same logic could be used to do things like this, but many people seem to be totally surprised or oblivious.

[deleted]

Re: Google removes ICE-spotting app following Apple's ICEBlock crackdown

#135

Post by nsxwolf »

93po wrote: post #109
nsxwolf wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many times are we going to re-litigate this? Until there’s a law requiring side loading options, you have the web. Everyone here was totally fine with the “gay cure” apps being pulled.

there's a difference between not allowing very harmful hatespeech and saying something like "I saw a cop at this address" yes, the web exists, and while it's not functionally preventing all possible phone access to the app, it's increasing the barrier to entry in a way that meaningfully massively reduces its use

“I saw an abortion provider at this address”

Re: Google removes ICE-spotting app following Apple's ICEBlock crackdown

#136

Post by K0balt »

GoblinSlayer wrote: post #49
K0balt wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people are still under the impression that they live in a democratic republic under a constitutional doctrine of permissive freedom and the rule of law.

It's just a monopoly.

Governments are universally based in having a relative monopoly of coercive force. It would be fascinating to explore alternatives, where the coercion was based in algorithms, AI, or other systems relatively free from perverse incentives. Perhaps an effective system of government without coercive force might even be explored, if someone could figure out a strong enough incentive alignment to make that work(doubt).

The principal obstacle to fair, enduring, and prosperous governance is that the built in perverse incentives are much, much stronger than the aligned incentives, and only are held in check by the ratio of coercive power of the perverse vs aligned incentive holders.

When a population becomes to compliant, obedient, or distracted in the presence of a strongly misaligned state, disaster always follows.

Fascinatingly, we can presently watch this unfold in real time on a global scale.

Re: Google removes ICE-spotting app following Apple's ICEBlock crackdown

#137

Post by GoblinSlayer »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #88
craftkiller wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> laundry Keep an old android phone in a drawer somewhere. Take it out when you do laundry. > mark student attendance If your workplace requires you to use an app then your workplace can issue you a phone that you keep at work. I don't use my personal devices for anything work-related and you shouldn't either.

I can't practically carry around two different phones all day at work, especially given how big they are now. (It's not like I work at a desk, I'm constantly running between different classrooms and other spaces.) The "work" phone would end up being the one I had on my person most of the time. ...but frankly, I am such a geek that it doesn't really matter for me . I have a tiny 11-inch laptop that I usually keep some…

Put them in a sac? You don't need the phones to be attached straight to your body, they only need to be within 40m from you.

Re: Google removes ICE-spotting app following Apple's ICEBlock crackdown

#138

Post by 93po »

nsxwolf wrote: post #135
93po wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there's a difference between not allowing very harmful hatespeech and saying something like "I saw a cop at this address" yes, the web exists, and while it's not functionally preventing all possible phone access to the app, it's increasing the barrier to entry in a way that meaningfully massively reduces its use

“I saw an abortion provider at this address”

the difference is there is an implicit call to violence there and it's private people, not representatives of the government.

the idea behind the ICE agent tracking is to avoid them. you don't need to avoid abortion providers, they're not sneaking up on people on the street and giving them abortions.

someone doesnt need ICE tracking apps to attack ICE agents, they're wearing vests with giant "ICE" text on them. that someone allegedly misused the app in this way is like saying we need to ban knives because someone used one to stab someone else

Re: Google removes ICE-spotting app following Apple's ICEBlock crackdown

#139

Post by xracy »

jayGlow wrote: post #126
xracy wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gosh, was I asleep and missed a new terrorist attack on ICE agents? How did you know they were ICE agents, did they identify themselves?

there was one a few weeks ago, with a shooter targeting an ice facility. https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/09/24/dhs-issues-statement-tar...

You mean the guy who only hit people in ICE custody? [1] And didn't hit any ICE agents?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Dallas_ICE_facility_shoot...

Re: Google removes ICE-spotting app following Apple's ICEBlock crackdown

#140

Post by myko »

mindslight wrote: post #110
myko wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a long winded way of ignoring the fact that this is government coercion, something the 1st amendment was designed to prevent. What you're talking about is _not_ something the 1st amendment was designed to prevent.

No, I am most definitely not ignoring or downplaying that. > What you're talking about is _not_ something the 1st amendment was designed to prevent. Yes, in fact I explicitly acknowledged it as a "shortcoming of its implementation". What I'm taking issue with is your whitewashing corporate censorship as "exercising the first amendment" in your first comment.

> What I'm taking issue with is your whitewashing corporate censorship as "exercising the first amendment" in your first comment.

It read more as equivocating completely different things, one of which is much more serious. The fact is "corporate censorship" is not a 1st amendment issue.

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