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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

#91

Post by Amezarak »

myko wrote: post #83
Amezarak wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The difference is the government's hands in such actions

We've had multiple leaks and reports that the government was directly involved in these censorship cases prior to January 20, 2025. So no, that's not the difference.

On this very forum, people (not you) argued it was perfectly acceptable because the government was only "asking", not requiring.

Unfortunately, the civil libertarians have been drowned out for years by people who believed that it was right to do whatever it took to shut down right-wingers/misinformation/disinformation/hate speech/Russian propaganda/conspiracy theorists/Hunter laptop posters/whatever. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, they are shocked and outraged, even as they built the tools, institutions, mechanisms, and political support used to do this.

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

#92

Post by pmdr »

So... we're building the most secure devices ever, so secure that only two megacorps have final say on what we can and can't install on said devices (if we want a usable device). Browsers are heading the same way, we sure enjoy our Manifest V3 security.

The CEOs were all there at the inauguration. Is anyone really surprised that they're taking orders from this administration?

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

#93

Post by fallinghawks »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #26

From: https://onefoottsunami.com/2025/10/03/iceblock-blocked/ > Gosh, it’s almost like Apple serving as the exclusive gatekeeper for what software can be installed on the iPhone (and iPad, and Apple TV, and Apple Watch, and Vision Pro) is a bad thing that creates a single point of failure which can be abused by increasingly authoritarian governments. Apple should not be able to decide which apps their customers are a…

Google has been clamping down over the past year or two on sideloading too. I used to be able to install games restricted to Japan if they were uploaded to apkpure, but every one lately gets stopped either by Play Services or the Play Store under the claim of "safety" and can't be worked around.

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

#94

Post by howieburger »

EdiX wrote: post #44

Hopefully this will give people pause the next time they think about linking to https://xkcd.com/1357/ .

I am all for letting low effort labor exploiters create low effort comics. Same as I am for my having no obligation to support them directly by reading their comics.

Entertainers are a kind of contemporary secular faith healer and tribal shaman, imo.

To mix metaphors, stopped clocks who can be right and worth listening to only in very specific situations.

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

#95

Post by mindslight »

myko wrote: post #85
EdiX wrote: post #44

Hopefully this will give people pause the next time they think about linking to https://xkcd.com/1357/ .

Why would it? The key difference is businesses / people making choices and the government coercing businesses / people to make choices the government wants. One is a first amendment violation, one is exercising the first amendment.

A company with significant coercive power (through sticky market effects) is much better thought of as a governmentesque censoring entity rather than some mere group of individuals exercising their individual speech. What you're describing is not a virtue of the first amendment, but rather a shortcoming of its implementation and a subsequent failure to properly regulate corporations/LLCs/etc. OP is right - people's ready embrace of corpo-authoritarianism when it lined up with their social mores set the stage for where we are at now. That comic has always been a low point of Munroe's.

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

#96

Post by craftkiller »

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…

> how big they are now

Request that your work phone be this: https://www.unihertz.com/products/jelly-star

If all it is doing is taking attendance then you don't need a large phone.

> normal people shouldn't have to do this!

I agree, but this is what's happening. Google and Apple are taking away the freedom, it's time to put up or shut up.

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

#97

Post by atmavatar »

craftkiller wrote: post #80
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know how I would live my life without access to mainstream mobile apps. I have to use an app to pay for the laundry machine in my apartment building. At school—I'm a teacher nowadays—we use an app to mark student attendance during fire drills. Freedom of speech should not require living in the woods secluded from society. It is the responsibility of all of us— especially major institutions—to work to preserve…

> 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.

Reminder: the moment you start using your phone for work-related material, your workplace has the right to access and remove data from your phone.

Never, ever use your personal phone for work stuff.

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

#98

Post by craftkiller »

atmavatar wrote: post #97
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.

Reminder: the moment you start using your phone for work-related material, your workplace has the right to access and remove data from your phone. Never, ever use your personal phone for work stuff.

On top of that, someone brings a lawsuit against your company? Well your personal phone that you used for work is now being impounded as evidence. Both inconvenient and invasive.

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

#100

Post by Zak »

EdiX wrote: post #44

Hopefully this will give people pause the next time they think about linking to https://xkcd.com/1357/ .

XKCD's point stands as long as nobody has a monopoly on an important medium. Apple and Google effectively do have a duopoly on mobile app distribution, and mobile apps are an important medium for speech in 2025.
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