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Ugandan government blocks Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and YouTube

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Re: Ugandan government blocks Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and YouTube

#91

Post by chr1 »

dleslie wrote: post #45
jedimastert wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not arguing for or against anything, but those views seem opposed to each other. Can you talk more about how you can allow for any form of de-platforming while also feeling strongly against censorship?

Censorship is the Government stating that person A must not communicate with person B. Deplatforming/cancelling is person C _asking_ person A not to communicate with person B, under threat of person C no longer communicating with person A.

Person C threatening to no longer communicate with person A, is different than person C threatening to do additional work to not conduct business with person A. This kind of weaponization of everyday business does not lead to anything good. And just like we would condemn shop owner refusing to sell to a customer based on race/hair color/ clothing style we need to condemn twitter refusing service to sci-hub, to Trump, or even to actual murderers like Xi/Putin/Aliyev.

Even your example of deplatforming is a very questionable practice, for instance it is often used by cults like Jehovah Witnesses to disallow followers talking with family members who leave the cult.

Re: Ugandan government blocks Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and YouTube

#92

Post by eunos »

digdigdag wrote: post #88
eunos wrote: post #83

Seems the great social media purge towards GOP personals really made many countries rethinking their information sovereignty. There's no way they would allow access to social media, the 21st century mass communication be controlled by some Silicon Valley companies located in the USA. Expect the indigenization also occurs in financial ecosystem, etc.

Did you even read the article? The reason the Ugandan government is blocking these apps is with the intent, as the article suggests, of stopping misinformation through "citizen journalism", not because the nation of Uganda suddenly had fears of Google or Apple moderating their nation's discourse. Furthermore, the article goes on to say that this kind of block has occurred before in 2016.

I am talking in a more general term. And also they do want ability impose sovereignty upon the narrative. That include the ability to prevent Silicon Valley companies propagate narrative that is not compatible with the sovereign.

Re: Ugandan government blocks Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and YouTube

#94

Post by Aerroon »

ad404b8a372f2b9 wrote: post #46

I wish there would be a societal awakening in Europe and people would boycott American services. Countries need to reclaim their digital sovereignty if they hope to preserve their culture. Back in college everyone I knew browsed reddit, 9gag, facebook, etc for hours every day. The european youth is getting raised by America and fed its political ideology one meme/discussion thread at a time. It took me a long while t…

I think the problem is language. English offers a far wider platform to engage people, but it also means that discussions/engagements will be dominated mostly by Americans. Computer use also favors using English. As a result, American influence is kind of inevitable. At the same time though, America also feels the influence from all those other cultures.

Re: Ugandan government blocks Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and YouTube

#95

Post by bmarquez »

laurent92 wrote: post #31

> foreign values Not even foreign values. Only subset of foreign values which are only shared by the Silicon Valley. Beyond that, half the US people disagree with Google/Apple/Twitter/Facebook’s non-neutral stance on politics, who weighed their full weight in censoring 50% of the political spectrum. I will not call it the pied piper because Uganda weighs nothing, but the GAFA’s politics are now visible as directly ha…

If I was the leader of a country, why would I let Silicon Valley companies potentially censor my speech?

Other authoritarian leaders are likely thinking "If Twitter can deplatform the President of the United States [which has more power than my smaller country], they have the power to deplatform me. Better reduce that risk and start blocking services to maintain control."

Not saying it's right, but I understand their point of view.

Re: Ugandan government blocks Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and YouTube

#96

Post by mullingitover »

cabalamat wrote: post #90
gameswithgo wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

left leaning calls to violence get banned on social media all the time, they just were not ever the president doing it so you don’t notice.

> left leaning calls to violence get banned on social media all the time Yes they do, but a lot less that right leaning calls do, because social media companies lean leftwards. For example, Parler was recently kicked off of Google App store, and Apple and Amazon have also threatened to kick Parler off their app store and hosting platform. This was because Parler leans right and some messages by some users encouraged…

> This was because Parler leans right and some messages by some users encouraged violence.

This had nothing to do with Parler's political leanings and everything to do with Parler's wildly inadequate content moderation combined with top users calling for the execution of public officials with impunity.

Facebook's userbase is very right-leaning and has arguably just as many calls for violence, but they at least have a fully staffed moderation team.

Re: Ugandan government blocks Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and YouTube

#97

Post by tetrometal »

mullingitover wrote: post #70
laurent92 wrote: post #31

> foreign values Not even foreign values. Only subset of foreign values which are only shared by the Silicon Valley. Beyond that, half the US people disagree with Google/Apple/Twitter/Facebook’s non-neutral stance on politics, who weighed their full weight in censoring 50% of the political spectrum. I will not call it the pied piper because Uganda weighs nothing, but the GAFA’s politics are now visible as directly ha…

> while censoring the 50% rest of the political spectrum Let's be clear: moderating/banning the accounts of a man and his supporters who invited tens of thousands of people to the United States Capitol, spent hours lying to them about the results of the election, and then weaponized them in an attempt to overthrow the US government is not a case of Twitter crossing some sort of threshold into tyranny. A grave crime w…

Let's be very clear: Trump did not "incite" an "insurrection".

The dude was trying to hold a rally. Shit got out of hand much like in the George Floyd riots, but to a much lesser degree. In spite of the relative magnitudes of the death and destruction in those events, the insane leftist media has somehow decided to paint the George Floyd riots as understandable at worst and freaking obligatory at best. At the same time that they paint the capitol building riot as an historic tragedy.

It's absolutely batshit. It completely beggars belief that anyone can't or won't see it, yet here we are.

And THIS is the primary reason we're seeing division in the nation today. It's not the handful of radical racists. It's not Trump's stupid tweets. It's the completely irrational and insane reaction by the left to anything that is not within their narrow and ever-shrinking Overton window.

So go ahead, make excuses. Tell me you're the good guys and we're the bad guys. It doesn't matter anymore. As long as you continue blinding yourselves, this division will grow and eventually break this nation, probably sooner than later. Frankly, I don't care anymore, and neither does half of America.

Re: Ugandan government blocks Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and YouTube

#98

Post by cabalamat »

laurent92 wrote: post #31

> foreign values Not even foreign values. Only subset of foreign values which are only shared by the Silicon Valley. Beyond that, half the US people disagree with Google/Apple/Twitter/Facebook’s non-neutral stance on politics, who weighed their full weight in censoring 50% of the political spectrum. I will not call it the pied piper because Uganda weighs nothing, but the GAFA’s politics are now visible as directly ha…

Maybe Uganda (and other countries) will start thinking about replaceing US-run social media with home grown solutions.

Given that open source and federated replacements for Twitter[1], Instagram[2], Reddit[3], YouTube[4] etc exist, this would not be a massive undertaking.

1: Mastodon, https://mastodon.social/about

2: PixelFed, https://github.com/pixelfed/pixelfed

3: Lemmy, https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy

4: PeerTube, https://joinpeertube.org/en/

Re: Ugandan government blocks Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and YouTube

#99

Post by chr1 »

mimikatz wrote: post #9

If I ran was in charge of a government after watching them all ban Trump's ability to communicate at the same time, I too would think about banning them to protect myself.

Russia just recently introduced laws that would allow to fine Youtube and social networks if they hinder propagation of important information, so according to them not only banning their propagandists, but even removing them from suggestion lists is prohibited by law. Of course they probably don't have means to enforce this law, but it's an interesting strategy.

Re: Ugandan government blocks Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and YouTube

#100

Post by centimeter »

mullingitover wrote: post #70
laurent92 wrote: post #31

> foreign values Not even foreign values. Only subset of foreign values which are only shared by the Silicon Valley. Beyond that, half the US people disagree with Google/Apple/Twitter/Facebook’s non-neutral stance on politics, who weighed their full weight in censoring 50% of the political spectrum. I will not call it the pied piper because Uganda weighs nothing, but the GAFA’s politics are now visible as directly ha…

> while censoring the 50% rest of the political spectrum Let's be clear: moderating/banning the accounts of a man and his supporters who invited tens of thousands of people to the United States Capitol, spent hours lying to them about the results of the election, and then weaponized them in an attempt to overthrow the US government is not a case of Twitter crossing some sort of threshold into tyranny. A grave crime w…

Occupying a government building for a few hours to disrupt a ceremonial activity isn't an attempt to "overthrow the US government". The capitol isn't a game of Capture the Flag - you don't get power just by standing there. At most, the occupational of the capitol was equivalent to a sort of political panty raid. Silly, yes. Meaningful, no.

You have bought into a hysterical narrative, at least as fantastic as whatever insane narrative the QAnon people have bought into.

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