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Google Asks Android Developers To Show Sensitivity To Disasters and Atrocity
Mark Wilson writes: Today Google revealed an updated version of its Google Play Developer Program Policies. There aren't actually all that many changes or additions, but those that are present are quite interesting. Google is clamping down on the problem of impersonation, making it clearer that it is not permissible to mislead users by imitating other apps, making false claims, or suggesting endorsements that do not exist. One of the more intriguing changes to the document sees Google calling on developers to show sensitivity to evens such as natural disasters, war, and death. Any apps or other content that attempt to benefit by exploiting such events are explicitly banned.
...punch the-equiavlent-of-bin-laden apps?
Based on the amount of anti-bin-laden crap that was around the office after Sept 11, there's clearly a market for anti-bogeyman propaganda.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Sure, they can restrict it. But we, using our freedom of speech, are saying they shouldn't.
Wonder what the public key field is for?
Not really.
They can put whatever restrictions they like on the Play store. It's theirs, after all.
If you want to distribute some app that Google doesn't like for some reason, put it up on another repository like F-Droid.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
maybe i'm behind the news curve but...
is it still the case that a lonely developer can release an app he or she slaved over lovingly for months, only to see it ripped off and released by someone else who games the ranking system and reaps all the profits?
that seems to be the real threat to their app ecosystem
https://play.google.com/about/...
doesn't seem strong enough to me
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Take for examples, the Islamic State
To the people who got their head cut off by the IS terrorists, it's atrocity
But to people outside of the affected zone, the islamic barbarism might be used to parodize the so-called 'religion of peace'
What Google is saying is that we must be sensitive to atrocities ... does it mean that we can no longer parodying the so-called 'peaceful feature' of islam?
I also have a problem understanding those:
Google Play Developer Program Policies:
[...]
* Hate Speech: We don't allow content advocating against groups of people based on their race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, nationality, veteran status, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
* Sensitive Events: We don't allow content which may be deemed as capitalizing on or lacking reasonable sensitivity towards a natural disaster, atrocity, conflict, death, or other tragic event.
[...]
Can a fellow Slashdoter make them more clear?
Antisthenes: "Wisdom begins by examining the words/names." - excuse my English, i am (slightly...) better with my Greek!
That's why this is going to be a tough sell. Android developers are used to disasters and atrocity, having developed android applications.
Honestly, Google, what was the Android team smoking? When working on a Blackberry port feels like a breath of fresh air, you know you've made some serious mistakes.
Required reading for internet skeptics
Google did tha yesterday. Where were you?
Translation: Don't be an asshole
Why do Millennials tend to be such sissies? Why do they care so much about "hurt feelings" and "safe spaces" and all sorts of wimpy stuff like that?
Why do we have a whole generation of people who can't put up with even the smallest bit of criticism, and who can't tolerate anything that's even slightly negative?
Why do these Millennials so badly crave to suppress anything and oppress everyone who they have labelled as "offensive"?
Why do we have millions upon millions of 20- and 30-year-olds, who should be well into adulthood, acting like toddlers?
Is it because they're a product of the Baby Boomers, who have typically fucked up each and every thing they've tried to do?
What defines an asshole? (besides the glitter and smell)
If you write a game that involves knocking down houses in Nepal that survived the recent earthquake, you're an asshole. Don't expect it to last long before being removed.
If you write a game called "Kill the Gays", you're an asshole. Don't expected it to last either.
Wow you are a fucking moron. Google's street view has infringed on millions of Americans and they're being sued for it. Nobody had the opportunity to opt-out, and good for them to stand up against big brother Google.
They'll probably use this to ban some app that's helping to get materials and supplies into disaster areas using the pricing mechanism. Whenever a disaster happens, demand for goods skyrockets past supply, prices rise to guide allocation and outsiders desire to risk capital and safety to get supplies in, seeking profit. Then State actors castigate them, threaten to imprison them (dog-whistle: "price gougers"), and so the supply dries up again. Every economist recognizes how this works, but politicians seek to dismiss economics reflexively.
I thought Google was smarter, though.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Translation: Don't be an asshole
I believe they actually phrase it "Don't be evil."
If you write a game called "Kill the Gays", you're an asshole. Don't expected it to last either.
My game titled "Arab homosexuals trying to save themselves from murderous Muslims killing them in Syria and Iraq in 2015 Anno Domini" is o.k.?
" [...] * Hate Speech: We don't allow content advocating against groups of people based on their race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, nationality, veteran status, sexual orientation, or gender identity. * Sensitive Events: We don't allow content which may be deemed as capitalizing on or lacking reasonable sensitivity towards a natural disaster, atrocity, conflict, death, or other tragic event. [...]"!
Antisthenes: "Wisdom begins by examining the words/names." - excuse my English, i am (slightly...) better with my Greek!
And in a surprise related development, Google has now banned Google.
Done. You need me more than I need you.
Uber usually turns off surge pricing in extreme situations. Say they didn't for some occasion - will Google kick them off?
Are you kidding? You aren't forced to have anything to do with Google. It is their company, they can restrict whatever they want.
Do mobile app developers get to chose where their customers come from? Between the Apple store and Google you can say it is all free will and App store vendors can do what they want with their own software and infrastructure yet they have effectively become gatekeepers of execution and if they don't like what your doing you can expect an audience of crickets.
All I will say is enjoy your kings and monopolies people. If your not willing to defend the right of assholes to be themselves without censorship then don't be surprised when one day you too get fucked over by the same system.
Taking down games or apps which are clearly intended to be hateful, I'm not sure I even have an example probably because I've never gone looking for them... a confederate flag app that drops the n-bomb when you rub the stars the right way? dunno what an example would be. But OK, I can see that.
Sticks and stones. Freedom isn't about agreeing with nice people.
Sticks and stones. Freedom isn't about agreeing with nice people.
Right, it's about being able to do business with who you choose, and not who you don't. Oh wait, is that a different narrative? Silly me. I think Google has an absolute right to kick whatever they want off their app store. I think they're stupid dicks if they kick stuff off on the basis that its success is predicated upon the suffering of others, because down that road lies... nothing. But they're a public company subjected to massive scrutiny everywhere in the world, so I understand that they have some unfortunate choices to make.
Like I said before, something designed just to be offensive, I see why they don't want to be involved with it. They're not preventing you from sideloading it, like Apple is; most Android phones have a vendor-approved way to enable sideloading. To me, that makes it OK to kick stuff off your store because you don't want to deal with it, even if it's douchebag-OK.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
It's great that you assume being a pussy who do not want to "offend" anyone, but I'm not. From time to time, I have to offend people. I have to offend Muslims and other religious people. I have to offend black or Asian people. I have to offend feminists. I have to offend parents. From time to time, I even have to offend white atheist males who do not have kids (although those do not count, since everyone think it's okay to offend them). In fact, I don't know a single group I won't offend at one time of another. You know why? Because I'm not a fucked up pussy who's stupid enough to believe we can all spend our lives riding ponies under a nice perpetual rainbow.
If you're easily offended, fuck you. The more politically correct assholes like you or Google will force me to be like them, the less I'll be.
You are not *wrong*, Billy. You're just an asshole.
I feel the need. The need to provide a competing to Google play store site where any and all activities will be allowed.
Google has their right to control their private property, which is what their site is. Other people may have different opinions on their own sites. Of course the phone or tablet has to be unjailed from Google prison.
You can't handle the truth.
Barney the Dinosaur fucked it up for a whole generation. Thank god he's dead so the cancer doesn't spread.
Ever see a bunch of cops grabbing guns and ammunition and hurrying to their cars? I have. It wasn't a riot or other incident. It was the day when it was announced that the shooting range just received purple Barney silhouette targets. All of a sudden everyone seemed to need some time on the practice range. Ever see grown men singing a Barney song in unison while firing their weapons. I have, its unforgettable. Guys had to put their gun down and step back from the firing line to take a laugh break. Sadly it was before cellphones with cameras.
Well, its the hippies, not necessarily baby boomers in general.
Ever heard of Umm Qirfa?
Never heard of the name?
Read this link --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Read how that old noble woman was killed
Read who was the one ordering the murder of that old lady
Extremism?
Comparing to the extreme cruel way that old noble lady was murdered, the beheadings carried by the ISIL assholes become lame and mild mannered
You don't even know what islam is!
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Disasters and atrocity... exactly describes Android Lollipop on Nexus 7.
They can fucking prescribe sensitivity when they stop rendering perfectly good customer owned equipment nearly unusable. How could they ever have released such a miserable crock of shit?
Fortunately I can still play Stalag 1 on the C64 emulator.
Conservative porn, is that porn with Sarah palin as actor?
So pretty much all the news companies are banned?
It's called SimCity
Isn't that a horror movie?
I think he meant the development API
My biggest complaint about Google's play store is that they do not require each app developer to explain in the app description why their app needs access to a particular data element or service on the device and what it is going to do with the access. A flash light does not need internet access or access to my contact list etc. If the app is asking for more access than I believe is necessary then I do not install it. I believe a lot of people would not install apps if they actually knew what they were doing with their information.
You mean like putting a comment bubble over the word "At[***]"?
Support my political activism on Patreon.
So if you are discussing flags, what does that make you?
So many rules! What are you apple?
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
It's called SimCity
Hate to break it to you but Sim City is fictional.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
By "unjailed" you mean changing a setting?
It's under Settings/Security and it's called "Unknown Sources"
I wonder, would Google let APK sell an .apk? Harassment and stalking are kind of a no-go in their microcosm.
Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!