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Suspended from Google Play for listing supported subtitle formats

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Re: Suspended from Google Play for listing supported subtitle formats

#201

Post by Blikkentrekker »

jaspax wrote: post #167
bambax wrote: post #150

> Your app contains content that doesn't comply with the Sexual Content and Profanity policy. What the fuck is "profanity"? Are we a religious society? Why shouldn't we able to say "ass" (!) or show nipples?? The ban on porn is defensible outside of any moral framework because once you allow porn then all what's left is porn (although it would be useful to think about why that is). But "profanity"? Come on.

Religion's got nothing to do with it. Racial slurs are a subset of "profanity", and I wager that you support Google's desire to not have apps in their store which prominently feature racial slurs. Every culture has its "bad words" which are forbidden to use in polite company. (Of course the actual app in question is still completely innocent, because Google's vetting process is a trash fire.)

> Religion's got nothing to do with it. Racial slurs are a subset of "profanity", and I wager that you support Google's desire to not have apps in their store which prominently feature racial slurs.

I have no objection.

> Every culture has its "bad words" which are forbidden to use in polite company.

I'm not so sure that that is true.

I do not think there is but a single word in the Dutch language that cannot be featured even on children's programming. Some cultures have a concept of “taboo words”, and others seem to lack it.

Re: Suspended from Google Play for listing supported subtitle formats

#202

Post by Blikkentrekker »

tpmx wrote: post #170
ironmagma wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes we are a religious society. Our roots are in puritanism, in fact that's one of the main differentiators from the (Catholic-based) European countries from which we sprang.

"We"? Google is booking less than 50% of its revenue in the US.

The authoritarian shall always be more powerful than the libertarian, simply because he will leave with his wallet, if he find something that offends him, but the libertarian will not leave if he cannot find something that would offend the authoritarian.

Therefore, it is commercially more viable to keep the authoritarian happy.

Re: Suspended from Google Play for listing supported subtitle formats

#203

Post by handoflixue »

jaspax wrote: post #167
bambax wrote: post #150

> Your app contains content that doesn't comply with the Sexual Content and Profanity policy. What the fuck is "profanity"? Are we a religious society? Why shouldn't we able to say "ass" (!) or show nipples?? The ban on porn is defensible outside of any moral framework because once you allow porn then all what's left is porn (although it would be useful to think about why that is). But "profanity"? Come on.

Religion's got nothing to do with it. Racial slurs are a subset of "profanity", and I wager that you support Google's desire to not have apps in their store which prominently feature racial slurs. Every culture has its "bad words" which are forbidden to use in polite company. (Of course the actual app in question is still completely innocent, because Google's vetting process is a trash fire.)

It seems disingenuous to bring up racial slurs in the context of profanity. They're two very different categories, even if they are both subsets of "words that can get you in trouble." As you acknowledge, the app in question was blocked for profanity, not slurs.

As parent comment says, profanity seems to be mostly a religious issue. I can say "fuck" on TV, or in my novel, or even in my Hacker News comment. But I doubt I'd get away with such language in church, or a show I wanted to sell to a Puritanical USA audience.

None of that has anything to do with slurs, which are much more widely agreed as "wrong." You can reasonably expect a service or file extension that turned out to accidentally be a slur would get a lot more attention, unlike "ASS"

Re: Suspended from Google Play for listing supported subtitle formats

#204

Post by grishka »

int_19h wrote: post #30
Kim_Bruning wrote: post #2

I guess the Scunthorpe problem is still a thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scunthorpe_problem

A long time ago, I saw a guy unable to post on a corporate blog of his own team. Turned out that his name was flagged by a filter. What made this particularly egregious is that the name in question: "Hui" - wasn't even a swear word in either his own native language - Chinese - nor in English. But it closely resembles a Russian profanity. Turned out that the filter was "multilingual", and applied rules for all languag…

Why the hell would it even apply Russian filters to something that isn't written in Cyrillic? And this isn't the best English transliteration of that word either... That's really some dedication.

Re: Suspended from Google Play for listing supported subtitle formats

#205

Post by mumblemumble »

Blikkentrekker wrote: post #145
mumblemumble wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends somewhat. There are very strict rules around sex on broadcast TV, but those rules largely do not apply to cable TV or internet streaming.

The rules might not apply, but the subject matter is avoided all the same for commercial reasons, since the audience finds it very sensitive. The rules, of course, exist as a reflexion of the sensibilities of the people. It's similar to how in Germany anything related to the Third Reich is treated with the utmost sensitivity, with many rules; these rules exist as the people willed it so. The end result was that the v…

Several very popular US shows come to mind: Weeds, Game of Thrones, Orange is the New Black, just to take the first three that come to mind.

I admittedly don't watch a whole lot of TV, so I may be off base here, but my impression is that, here in the USA, on TV, onscreen depictions of rape are more common than onscreen depictions of positive sexual activity.

Re: Suspended from Google Play for listing supported subtitle formats

#206

Post by bubblicious »

heavyset_go wrote: post #139

Google and Apple have kept a stranglehold on the mobile application distribution market for over a decade now. It's time to break them up, or require them to allow other mobile app distributors on their platforms. Surely other companies can be more efficient with the 30% cut or less that Google takes, without forcing users to put up with the poor service that's exemplified by the article in the OP.

> Surely other companies can be more efficient with the 30% cut or less that Google takes, without forcing users to put up with the poor service that's exemplified by the article in the OP.

The fact that no other actor has done that speaks to the fact that it's probably not as straightforward as you might think. Go one step further and take any product in killedbygoogle.com and see how many other actors have benefited from recreating and living off a better version of any of those services... I'm curious how you think that breaking down Google or Apple would help us the end users in this case? Surely a smaller company with less assets/employees will spend even less time doing manual reviews for the same amount of apps.

Meanwhile while HN seems focused on gov to put pressure on big tech to break, I keep getting reminders that my family of 5 using video conferencing for school/work is about to hit its monthly data cap of 1.2TB imposed by Comcast in the middle of the pandemic...

Re: Suspended from Google Play for listing supported subtitle formats

#207

Post by grishka »

heavyset_go wrote: post #159
yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I literally own a pinephone so dont misunderstand me as disagreeing, but you could always just stay on Android and use F-Droid.

Google put limits in Android such that the Play Store is the only app distribution method that can implement background installation of apps, batch installations of apps and automatic upgrading. F-Droid provides those features only if you're able to root your phone, which manufacturers actively try to stop users from doing. Also, rooting your phone opens it up to vulnerabilities and exploits.

If you have root and/or install an alternative store as a privileged system app, it will be able to install apps in the background just like Play Store.

Re: Suspended from Google Play for listing supported subtitle formats

#208

Post by tpmx »

Blikkentrekker wrote: post #202
tpmx wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"We"? Google is booking less than 50% of its revenue in the US.

The authoritarian shall always be more powerful than the libertarian, simply because he will leave with his wallet, if he find something that offends him, but the libertarian will not leave if he cannot find something that would offend the authoritarian. Therefore, it is commercially more viable to keep the authoritarian happy.

That is unfortunately true, and the reason for so much injustice. Thanks for that succinct way of describing this.

Re: Suspended from Google Play for listing supported subtitle formats

#210

Post by protomyth »

bambax wrote: post #150

> Your app contains content that doesn't comply with the Sexual Content and Profanity policy. What the fuck is "profanity"? Are we a religious society? Why shouldn't we able to say "ass" (!) or show nipples?? The ban on porn is defensible outside of any moral framework because once you allow porn then all what's left is porn (although it would be useful to think about why that is). But "profanity"? Come on.

Well, speaking of religion or at least Christianity, the word "ass" is used quite a bit in the Bible.

[edit]The dangers of such filters can be observed at this link http://bash.org/?178890 [/edit]

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