Perhaps someone should try and report apps from big national public service broadcasting stations (BBC, DR, NRK, SVT, etc). It shouldn't be hard to find some TV programmes on there that contains "sexual content and profanity".
Not long ago they had removed the childrens TV app from DR because of similar reasons. I think some of the reasons were that there was a character who "smokes" a licorice pipes, and another who is a pirate that fights with ninjas. DR got the app back on there after its removal being condemned by MPs and ministers.
They also reserve the right to selectively enforce those provisions so don't expect any of those to actually be banned. Maybe your reports can be used as evidence in some future anti-trust trial though.
Report the apps then report your reports to the Attorney General in your state? Might help. Even some Democratic AGs are signing onto antitrust suits against google.
My guess is that some user reported it, and send in that screenshot, which has led to the ban. It's very hard to make decisions on stuff like this just from a single screenshot.
There is obviously a structural problem with them owning the marketplace that they are competing in.
I think people believe there is no alternative. I always write on these types of cases that distributed protocols are an alternative. I just get buried with no explanation.
I am aware that in this case, it is just Google wrongly classify something that does not have explicit nudity as porn.
However, my question is, why are all major platforms banning pornographic content (video, novel, illustrations, etc.)? Or, why do we even sometimes view them as degenerating? Isn't the fact that PornHub is so successful a proof that we, as humans, do enjoy porn?
Also, this might not be true since I didn't do a research, but I really felt that almost everyone reading this comment have at least enjoyed some form of porn in their lives. If they are so prevalent, why are we banning them?
Edit: Although I do believe YouTube should allow porn and GitHub should allow open source erotic games, but I am mainly talking about Apple App Store or Google Play Store not allowing sexually explicit apps.
Its because google wants to give the apps to kids which they can not do if the apps show porn.
Its should however not include user generated content that has to be searched on these apps. Else a browser would have to be removed too.
Pardon my ignorance but I really don't know why kids should not be allowed to watch porn. I tried to look it up, but all results I looked at either claim it is ok for children to watch porn or just jump to teach you how to prevent your children from watching porn while assuming you already know why porn is harmful. Honestly, I doubt that there will be significant damage, especially if the people watching are already 16 or 17 years old.
However, that is not my expertise, so I can't say for sure that it is completely ok for teenager to watch porn.
Nevertheless, for the sake of this conversation, let's say, it is indeed really harmful for underage people to watch porn. Then, why don't Google or Apple just make a toggle? Or, since you already need an account to use Google Play or iOS App Store, just filter out all the porn apps when the users are deemed to be too young to properly enjoy porn. The fact that it is dangerous for a 6-year-old to drive a car does not mean cars should be banned for the entire humanity.
On the other hand, if watching porn for young people is indeed that harmful (enough for justifying banning them altogether on the largest 2 mobile app distribution platform), the future of humanity is already doomed, because they can already open up Google and search "porn" and start watching them.
ReclaimTheNet is an extremely biased source. Google’s decision looks unfair based on the information in this article, but I would rather suspend my judgment until other sources corroborate the content.
At this point, Google is beyond reason and is openly hypocritical. Open source? Yes. Open platforms? No. Even if they are competing against YouTube.
Netflix and Youtube has disgusting content if not the former is now worse than LBRY and Google still gave Netflix a pass. If LBRY had the same content as Netflix and YouTube, Google would choose to ban LBRY 10,000 over, with the same reason.
Google says it can't "allow sexual content". Netflix has hundreds, if not thousands of movies with explicit sexual content, strong and mature themes and even gore.
Utterly despicable and unacceptable. I can’t tell if this is an anti-competitive move (since one successful decentralized service might threaten the entire ecosystem of centralized platforms) or if it is some sort of Google internal political activism (since decentralization avoids the censorship and deplatforming performed by centralized providers like Google). Or maybe it’s both. But regardless it is unacceptable and I am happy to have discovered LBRY. More about it at https://itsfoss.com/lbry/
What other decentralized services are worth checking out?
> What other decentralized services are worth checking out?
You should definitely take a look into the Fediverse and PeerTube in particular. I personally wrote some articles to answer this particular question. I hope it helps :)
I am actually unable to install the raw apk. After changing the allowed source setting and getting through the warnings, it says it is installing but at the end just says "App not installed".
This is why we need to support open source hardware and mobile operating systems.
But the large companies work together to close the existing networks. So we also need things like mesh networks and alternative service providers.
But ultimately there has to be some democratic push to reclaim some long distance internet links for the people. Or build new ones.
This means that your device architecture or Android version wasn't compatible, and not that Google is censoring your free speech.
If you look into the logs you'll see why it was the case.
The only way Google polices APK installs is via Play Protect which warns you of APKs that aren't commonly installed/marked as harmful, with an option to bypass the warning. You can also disable that.
Not sure what all of the cellphone vendors who have forked Android "just in case Google become anti-competitive" are waiting for... this is clearly the moment.
Here are the content policies: https://play.google.com/about/developer-content-policy/
Perhaps someone should try and report apps from big national public service broadcasting stations (BBC, DR, NRK, SVT, etc). It shouldn't be hard to find some TV programmes on there that contains "sexual content and profanity".
Reporting is done here: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/cont...
Not long ago they had removed the childrens TV app from DR because of similar reasons. I think some of the reasons were that there was a character who "smokes" a licorice pipes, and another who is a pirate that fights with ninjas. DR got the app back on there after its removal being condemned by MPs and ministers.
It is annoyingly hard to find any good English articles about it but here is a Danish one https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/kultur/google-slettede-drs-app-til...
They also reserve the right to selectively enforce those provisions so don't expect any of those to actually be banned. Maybe your reports can be used as evidence in some future anti-trust trial though.
Report the apps then report your reports to the Attorney General in your state? Might help. Even some Democratic AGs are signing onto antitrust suits against google.
> big national public service broadcasting stations (BBC, DR, NRK, SVT, etc)
Found the Scandinavian, I think! Because it's Google, NPR/PBS or even just Netflix would probably work even more efficiently.
Really, because of spoof "nudity"?
I mean, YT is full of actual nudity and more. So, when are they going to suspend themselves?
Unlike Apple they can't even feign not being anti-competitive.
Nudity can be allowed, if it's for educational purposes, there's a difference between content containing nudity and sexually gratifying content.
Details are here: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answ...
My guess is that some user reported it, and send in that screenshot, which has led to the ban. It's very hard to make decisions on stuff like this just from a single screenshot.
There is obviously a structural problem with them owning the marketplace that they are competing in.
I think people believe there is no alternative. I always write on these types of cases that distributed protocols are an alternative. I just get buried with no explanation.
I am aware that in this case, it is just Google wrongly classify something that does not have explicit nudity as porn.
However, my question is, why are all major platforms banning pornographic content (video, novel, illustrations, etc.)? Or, why do we even sometimes view them as degenerating? Isn't the fact that PornHub is so successful a proof that we, as humans, do enjoy porn?
Also, this might not be true since I didn't do a research, but I really felt that almost everyone reading this comment have at least enjoyed some form of porn in their lives. If they are so prevalent, why are we banning them?
Edit: Although I do believe YouTube should allow porn and GitHub should allow open source erotic games, but I am mainly talking about Apple App Store or Google Play Store not allowing sexually explicit apps.
Its because google wants to give the apps to kids which they can not do if the apps show porn. Its should however not include user generated content that has to be searched on these apps. Else a browser would have to be removed too.
Pardon my ignorance but I really don't know why kids should not be allowed to watch porn. I tried to look it up, but all results I looked at either claim it is ok for children to watch porn or just jump to teach you how to prevent your children from watching porn while assuming you already know why porn is harmful. Honestly, I doubt that there will be significant damage, especially if the people watching are already 16 or 17 years old.
However, that is not my expertise, so I can't say for sure that it is completely ok for teenager to watch porn.
Nevertheless, for the sake of this conversation, let's say, it is indeed really harmful for underage people to watch porn. Then, why don't Google or Apple just make a toggle? Or, since you already need an account to use Google Play or iOS App Store, just filter out all the porn apps when the users are deemed to be too young to properly enjoy porn. The fact that it is dangerous for a 6-year-old to drive a car does not mean cars should be banned for the entire humanity.
On the other hand, if watching porn for young people is indeed that harmful (enough for justifying banning them altogether on the largest 2 mobile app distribution platform), the future of humanity is already doomed, because they can already open up Google and search "porn" and start watching them.
5 replies →
ReclaimTheNet is an extremely biased source. Google’s decision looks unfair based on the information in this article, but I would rather suspend my judgment until other sources corroborate the content.
At this point, Google is beyond reason and is openly hypocritical. Open source? Yes. Open platforms? No. Even if they are competing against YouTube.
Netflix and Youtube has disgusting content if not the former is now worse than LBRY and Google still gave Netflix a pass. If LBRY had the same content as Netflix and YouTube, Google would choose to ban LBRY 10,000 over, with the same reason.
> Netflix and Youtube has disgusting content
What?
Google says it can't "allow sexual content". Netflix has hundreds, if not thousands of movies with explicit sexual content, strong and mature themes and even gore.
Cuties.
4 replies →
Utterly despicable and unacceptable. I can’t tell if this is an anti-competitive move (since one successful decentralized service might threaten the entire ecosystem of centralized platforms) or if it is some sort of Google internal political activism (since decentralization avoids the censorship and deplatforming performed by centralized providers like Google). Or maybe it’s both. But regardless it is unacceptable and I am happy to have discovered LBRY. More about it at https://itsfoss.com/lbry/
What other decentralized services are worth checking out?
> What other decentralized services are worth checking out?
You should definitely take a look into the Fediverse and PeerTube in particular. I personally wrote some articles to answer this particular question. I hope it helps :)
https://torresjrjr.com/archive/2020-07-20-what-is-the-fedive... BRIEF
https://torresjrjr.com/archive/2020-07-19-guide-to-the-fediv... LENGTHY
Thank you Google for giving this story life and thus letting me know about LBRY.
I am actually unable to install the raw apk. After changing the allowed source setting and getting through the warnings, it says it is installing but at the end just says "App not installed".
This is why we need to support open source hardware and mobile operating systems.
But the large companies work together to close the existing networks. So we also need things like mesh networks and alternative service providers.
But ultimately there has to be some democratic push to reclaim some long distance internet links for the people. Or build new ones.
This means that your device architecture or Android version wasn't compatible, and not that Google is censoring your free speech. If you look into the logs you'll see why it was the case.
The only way Google polices APK installs is via Play Protect which warns you of APKs that aren't commonly installed/marked as harmful, with an option to bypass the warning. You can also disable that.
I'm hoping the 120KB/s speed I'm getting while downloading the client is because they're getting swamped by new users.
Not sure what all of the cellphone vendors who have forked Android "just in case Google become anti-competitive" are waiting for... this is clearly the moment.
Well, check the Android licensing model. All Google services included or Huawei who are currently struggling.
I note that dailymotion, liveleak And niconico all have apps on android. So I don’t think they are deliberately blocking all competitors to YouTube.
Someone should point out how much pornography is viewed through Chrome and Safari.