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Taliban App's Publication Points To Holes In Google's App Review Process (techcrunch.com)
An anonymous reader writes: A propaganda app developed by the Taliban was live on the Google Play store for two days before being removed, raising questions about Google's app review process, which includes a combination of human editors and algorithms. According to a Taliban spokesperson speaking with Bloomberg, the app was "part of our advanced technological efforts to make more global audience." Its creation signaled how the group was expanding its use of technology to reach a wider audience. When the app was first removed two days after it went live, the Taliban claimed it was due to "technical issues." In actuality, Google removed the app itself, as it was in violation of its policy that bans apps promoting hate speech, violence and illegal activities. The app's publication is a high-profile example of a failure in Google's app review process, and one that raises questions about how thorough its human reviewers are with the apps they test. The company announced last March that it had actually begun using algorithms along with an internal team of reviewers to analyze apps for policy violations prior to publishing. It said apps would be reviewed by this team, hands-on, before the apps go live on Google Play. Since Google relies heavily on its community of users and developers to flag apps for additional review, some apps are bound to fall through the cracks, leaving Google to reactively ban them instead of prohibit their publication in the first place. It's fair to say Google's review process isn't perfect and could use some tweaking.
Two days of a bad app being available doesn't seem like the end of the world to me. They caught it, removed it, all done. If that's the price for not having a walled garden I think it's worth paying.
Why not instead use it and feed them tons and tons of bogus data?
Let them waste their time responding to spam instead of hurting people.
It's a walled garden. It just has slightly different walls.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Last time I looked, the Taliban were a political faction in the war-torn country of Afghanistan. Back when they conquered Kabul - after ~20 years of continous war between local militia - they were welcome by the population as bringers of peace. Sure, their medieval opinions and the the many restrictions they imposed on individual freedom decreased their popularity in the years to follow, but their rule was not really unlike that of "US friends" like Saudi Arabia.
The Taliban are not "Al Quaida" or "ISIS", they actually were supported for years financially and by delivering weapons from the US. I understand that later on, the US disliked them because of differences on the handling of terror suspects based in Afghanistan. But what part of this actually reasoning to remove an App or theirs? If preaching a radical interpretation of Islam is "hate speech", I suppose all Apps published by Saudi Arabia etc. are banned, too? Or if having been an US-opponent in some war is reason enough for App bans, all Japanese, Italian and German Apps are banned, too?
Moron. Do you know what the Taliban would do to a person like you if they had their way? They would cut your head off, literally. They consider you an infidel. It is nice to sit in your suburban house and wax romantically about politics, but the Taliban would literally cut your head off if they were allowed to.
I sure don't sympathize with the Taliban, and your assertion might be right that if I relocated to a Taliban-ruled region without keeping my opinions to myself I would end under the sword of some deathsman. But that wouldn't be any different in Saudi Arabia. So it seems arbitrary to me why a "Taliban App" would be defined "evil" per se, while Apps from other medieval factions are "ok".
Whether the Taliban actually "tolerated & protected terrorists" while they were in power in Afghanistan is still a matter of dispute. Even western sources wrote that the Taliban indicated willingness to prosecute Osama & friends, but under their jurisdiction. The US insisted that they had to hand over the suspects to the US immediately, long before there was evidence presented connecting Osama to the 9/11 acts of terror. The Taliban standpoint on the terror suspects looked like a welcome pretense to quickly start a war against this "no-longer-our-bad-guys" group - which didn't even result in capturing Osama, who took shelter in yet another of those "friend"-countries ruled by religious fundamentalists.
... while Apps from other medieval factions are "ok".
Could you please post a link the specific app(s) that you are complaining about? Does Saudi Arabia actually have an app that advocates beheading infidels?
The problem I have with this news is that there is no mention of any particular content of this App that the ban is reasoned with. If Google was imposing consistent rules to ban religious fundamentalism - fine with me. Start banning the historic scriptures of basically every large religion, all of which are clearly calling for violence against non-believers of their faith. Yet, there are dozens of Apps which convey, for example, hate messages like: "[W]hen the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance of them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord . . . (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9)." or “[H]e that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36).
Such search the Google Play Store to yield numerous hits of Apps that convey instructions like: "So when you meet in battle those who disbelieve, then smite the necks until when you have overcome them, then make (them) prisoners, and afterwards either set them free as a favor or let them ransom (themselves) until the war terminates” (Koran 47:4).
A major and significant difference between the two literatures you're trying to compare is that Jesus tells his followers "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth...If a man strikes you on one cheek turn to him the other cheek also. If a soldier from an oppressive, totalitarian regime forces you to be a pack-slave for a mile, instead be his slave for two miles...Vengeance is mine, says the Lord God almighty."
Jesus teaches that wrath, vengeance, destruction, etc. on unbelievers is the sole province of God (and Jesus) to execute, whereas radical islam says that they, the believers, should make war on and destroy their enemies personally. That's the difference between calling the cops because your roommate is selling something they shouldn't be selling, versus taking your entrepreneurial roommate out back and breaking his kneecaps. It's a big difference.