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Google is apparently taking down all/most Fediverse apps from the Play Store

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Re: Google is apparently taking down all/most Fediverse apps from the Play Store

#901

Post by myko »

bsder wrote: post #888
avivo wrote: post #506

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sort of decision by Google does make me rather uncomfortable (the entire situation is uncomfortable... https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/12/20691957/mastodon-decentr... ). But it's worth understanding why the situation may be a bit more complicated than is described above. What seems to be happening is not an absolute ban on Fediverse apps , but a ban on specific implementations that make it easy to join specific…

The problem I have isn't that Google bans these apps. The problem is the fact that Google banning these apps borders on state censorship because of the monopolistic position Google has. Busting up Google solves the correct problem.

That doesn't make sense. The apps can be made available outside of the play s tore. There's no state level censorship here.

Re: Google is apparently taking down all/most Fediverse apps from the Play Store

#902

Post by shadowgovt »

mansion7 wrote: post #897
DamnableNook wrote: post #777

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple is already doing that, they removed Pocket Casts and Castro In china . That is an important note that you left out to make Apple seem worse.

You say there making Apple seem worse, but "They're only censoring the Chinese" doesn't really make them seem any better

Different countries have different cultural norms and laws.

Re: Google is apparently taking down all/most Fediverse apps from the Play Store

#903

Post by StanislavPetrov »

avivo wrote: post #506
humanistbot wrote: post #47

The rationale they gave is that hate speech appears on these apps, because some of the microblogging sites that can be accessed via Fediverse have this kind of content. Based on this rationale, I look forward to Google Play removing Chrome, Firefox, and all other web browsers from the store as well.

This sort of decision by Google does make me rather uncomfortable (the entire situation is uncomfortable... https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/12/20691957/mastodon-decentr... ). But it's worth understanding why the situation may be a bit more complicated than is described above. What seems to be happening is not an absolute ban on Fediverse apps , but a ban on specific implementations that make it easy to join specific…

It wasn't that long ago when virtually everyone understood that "hatred" was completely subjective. Trying to remove all communication channels because of the potential for "hatred" means nothing but total silence.

Re: Google is apparently taking down all/most Fediverse apps from the Play Store

#904

Post by coldacid »

strken wrote: post #889
avivo wrote: post #506

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sort of decision by Google does make me rather uncomfortable (the entire situation is uncomfortable... https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/12/20691957/mastodon-decentr... ). But it's worth understanding why the situation may be a bit more complicated than is described above. What seems to be happening is not an absolute ban on Fediverse apps , but a ban on specific implementations that make it easy to join specific…

It concerns me that the company taking down the apps also owns my entire mobile OS from browser to network stack, as well as the DNS resolver, the search engine, and the email client I use.

We've gone from wild west to company towns.

Re: Google is apparently taking down all/most Fediverse apps from the Play Store

#905

Post by glenstein »

shadowgovt wrote: post #902
mansion7 wrote: post #897

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say there making Apple seem worse, but "They're only censoring the Chinese" doesn't really make them seem any better

Different countries have different cultural norms and laws.

And some of those norms and laws are different in the sense that they are objectively worse.

Re: Google is apparently taking down all/most Fediverse apps from the Play Store

#906

Post by triceratops »

chrisco255 wrote: post #866
betterunix2 wrote: post #709

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

[flagged]

> when they pretty much just stand for family, God, and loyalty to the country and ideals of individual freedom.

> You've flattened an extremely large diverse group of individuals into your caricature viewpoint.

I think you might've done that yourself.

Re: Google is apparently taking down all/most Fediverse apps from the Play Store

#907

Post by triceratops »

VLM wrote: post #629
rightbyte wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Historic revisionism as an subgroup of hate speech is a prime example of slippery slope and moving of definition. I would add "fake news" to hate speech.

"Fake News" is merely the 7% of journalists who identify as Republicans. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_bias_in_the_United_State... The problem is the political spectrum of journalists is wildly biased compared to the average citizen. This also apparently shows up with censorship of phone apps.

Why is that the case though? Do conservatives not like going into journalism? Or does become a journalist turn one away from conservatism?

Re: Google is apparently taking down all/most Fediverse apps from the Play Store

#908

Post by qzx_pierri »

I really wish people would just ignore hate speech online like we've been doing for forever. I'm so tired of Google & Twitter trying to be the "internet police". It's so infuriating. The internet feels too "safe" now.

Obviously a "KKK Members" app in the app store is absolutely unacceptable, or something overt like that, but to dig into the content of an otherwise harmless app? Cmon, man. We're adults. Let us see what we want to see.

Re: Google is apparently taking down all/most Fediverse apps from the Play Store

#909

Post by nkurz »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #489
godelski wrote: post #434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a hypothesis I came up with awhile ago and it seems to hold pretty true. If we talk about problems as O(n) where n is the causation distance[0] we've solved the vast majority of O(1) and O(0) problems. It makes sense that biologically we would be primed to think in this way because they are decent approximate solutions for small groups. But the world we live in now is much more complex and many events are cou…

I agree, I've been thinking along these lines for a while too; thank you for phrasing it so clearly. My current thinking led me to conclude that we don't have sufficiently good tools[0] for modelling O(n) problems with n > 2. Particularly when (what your simplification doesn't capture) there are feedback loops involved. Take this O(2) problem: x causes more y, y causes more z, z causes less y but much more x. Or in a…

> [0] - Or, if they exist, they aren't sufficiently well known outside some think tanks or some random academic papers.

Are you familiar with Judea Pearl's work regarding graphical analysis of causal problems? If not, he'd probably interest you. While he mostly falls in the category of "random academic papers" (and academic books), but he has also co-authored a very readable (and enjoyable) popular science book. A review of that book is here: http://bostonreview.net/science-nature/tim-maudlin-why-world. And a more technical overview of his graphical approach is here: https://www.timlrx.com/2018/08/09/applications-of-dags-in-ca....

Re: Google is apparently taking down all/most Fediverse apps from the Play Store

#910

Post by krapp »

qzx_pierri wrote: post #908

I really wish people would just ignore hate speech online like we've been doing for forever. I'm so tired of Google & Twitter trying to be the "internet police". It's so infuriating. The internet feels too "safe" now. Obviously a "KKK Members" app in the app store is absolutely unacceptable, or something overt like that, but to dig into the content of an otherwise harmless app? Cmon, man. We're adults. Let us see wha…

>Obviously a "KKK Members" app in the app store is absolutely unacceptable, or something overt like that

Why? if you want the internet to feel less "safe" and for people to simply ignore hate speech, why would this be unacceptable? It would certainly make the internet feel less safe for a lot of people, but maybe you're not one of those people, and those people can just ignore it as you said.

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