Google Explains Why It Banned the App For Gab, a Right-Wing Twitter Rival (arstechnica.com)

AmiMoJo shares a report from Ars Technica: When right-wing trolls and outright racists get kicked off of Twitter, they often move to Gab, a right-wing Twitter competitor. Gab was founded by Andrew Torba, who says it's devoted to unfettered free expression online. The site also hosts controversial right-wing figures like Milo Yiannopoulos, Andrew 'weev' Auernheimer and Andrew Anglin, editor of the neo-Nazi site Daily Stormer. On Thursday, Gab said that Google had banned its Android app from the Google Play Store for violating Google's ban on hate speech. The app's main competitor, Twitter, hosts accounts like the American Nazi Party, the Ku Klux Klan, and the virulently anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church, yet the Twitter app is still available on the Google Play store. Apple has long had more restrictive app store policies, and it originally rejected the Gab app for allowing pornographic content to be posted on the service -- despite the fact that hardcore pornography is readily available on Twitter. In an email to Ars, Google explained its decision to remove Gab from the Play Store: "In order to be on the Play Store, social networking apps need to demonstrate a sufficient level of moderation, including for content that encourages violence and advocates hate against groups of people. This is a long-standing rule and clearly stated in our developer policies. Developers always have the opportunity to appeal a suspension and may have their apps reinstated if they've addressed the policy violations and are compliant with our Developer Program Policies."

Comments

Re:To far

[Rockoon]

You forget that this is the search company that can't search a single 10-page document for what the company claims is in it.

Re:Because they've abandoned their claimed princip

[Jzanu]

I will, so don't try another putsch if you don't want to end up like your hero; dead by suicide after absolute defeat from the very people he claimed inferior.

Re:Because they've abandoned their claimed princip

[Kohath]

when did people forget that we must allow everyone to speak, including Marxists and Nazis, in order to explain to them why they are wrong (or to realize why we are wrong)?

The people in question never believed that. That stuff was just a sales pitch -- a pretend argument for use only when it was beneficial. They have power now, so shut up.

When did people forget that if people can't speak, their only solution will be to use violence?

Violence is their goal. Look what it got them this week.

Re: Because they've abandoned their claimed princi

[GameboyRMH]

We don't judge the wrongness of an ideology based solely on how many deaths it causes, that's why virtually nobody thinks communism is nearly as bad as nazism - going solely by the numbers, communism should be considered far worse.

Communism isn't a hateful ideology that supports racist ideas or advocates genocide. It ends up killing a great number of people anyway, but that's not intended. It's actually less hateful than capitalism which relies on classist victim-blaming for ideological support - communism constantly glorifies and praises the worker even as he suffers under the system, while capitalism constantly blames the worker not only for the entirety of his own plight but for a large share of the economy's ills. Both for the same reason, to prevent the workers from revolting against the horrific economic injustices these economic systems create. One butters them up and the other tells them to blame no-one but themselves.

Laissez-faire capitalism, if left in place long enough, will end up killing far more than communism ever did, when a majority of humanity is made unemployable through automation and there are killbots sitting around ready for orders.