Breaking News: Google Has Removed Gab's Android App from the Google Play Store(twitter.com)
twitter.com
Breaking News: Google Has Removed Gab's Android App from the Google Play Store
https://twitter.com/getongab/status/898314927697416192
7 comments
I think we are at a really worrying time. We need to speak up for free speech. Actions like this are a form of censorship. A small number of corporations should not get to decide what software we use. Time and time again we've seen big companies up to no good. Why the hell should we trust that they have our best interests at heart? Facism can come from either side.
Hmm, this seems like it could be seen as anti competitive, especially if similar sites which allow similar content (read, most large social media sites) can get their apps onto the Play Store. Would Google remove Twitter or Facebook for the same stuff?
Personally, I doubt they would, and that opens up a can of worms where:
1. The rules clearly don't apply the same to popular apps as they do to less popular ones (which admittedly also seems to be true of Google's search engine with websites in general).
2. Newer competitors to large social sites would have to be stricter on their content to get accepted onto the Google Play Store, or what not.
Feels very unfair to people running competitors to the large social media sites, since Google have proved they're willing to unfairly punish them for the exact same stuff a larger service would get away with.
Personally, I doubt they would, and that opens up a can of worms where:
1. The rules clearly don't apply the same to popular apps as they do to less popular ones (which admittedly also seems to be true of Google's search engine with websites in general).
2. Newer competitors to large social sites would have to be stricter on their content to get accepted onto the Google Play Store, or what not.
Feels very unfair to people running competitors to the large social media sites, since Google have proved they're willing to unfairly punish them for the exact same stuff a larger service would get away with.
Presumably removed due to "hate speech" of the users. Will they be removing Twitter next?
The ability of tech mega-corps to throw their weight around and decide which services prevail and which ones don't is pretty impressive.
Given the breakneck speed of no-platforming, I fully expect to see (within the next three months) Google's DNS to refuse to resolve sites on an ideological blacklist, and then various ISPs will follow suit. After all, "it's their own private service."
Given the breakneck speed of no-platforming, I fully expect to see (within the next three months) Google's DNS to refuse to resolve sites on an ideological blacklist, and then various ISPs will follow suit. After all, "it's their own private service."
Could get hit by anti-trust. IANAL of course.
Have other Twitter Clones been banned ?
Good. If you want to preach hate, you are free to make your own platform to do so.
Good.