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Spanish Court Orders Google To Delete App Used For Catalan Independence Vote (reuters.com)
From a report: Catalonia's High Court on Friday ordered Google to delete an application that it said Catalan separatists were using to spread information about a disputed independence vote this Sunday. The court said the "On Votar 1-Oct" application on the Google Play smartphone app store opposed an order in September from Spain's Constitutional Court to suspend the referendum while it determined its legality. The court also ordered Google to block any future applications developed by the gmail address "Onvotar1oct@gmail.com', according to a written ruling. Nobody at Google in Spain was immediately available to comment.
Can we get this app on the blockchain already?
Only apps can app apps, and this app lets modern app appers app apps while apping other apps!
Apps!
Gotta love how Spain is celebrating Franco's 125th BDay.
. . . the Spanish Inquisition!
Their main weapons are fear, surprise, and a Catalonia's High Court order for Google to delete an application!
Yes, "High" Court, indeed.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Why an app? Just make a web site.
Nobody at Google in Spain was immediately available to comment.
That's like saying "I sent an email to some random address and in the last 5' nobody answered"?
Seems like someone trying to disguise irresponsible reporting...
Google (Alphabet), facebook, Yahoo! etc .... are all gonna have to grow up and realize the World is a very complicated place and is nothing like the little bubbles they live in.
So....suck it up and be prepared because it's gonna get worse.
And .... Google has become Evil. Sergey Brin and Larry Page ((Drs. Frankensteins)), your monster is on the loose.
One of the unavoidable pitfalls of being a global company is that you have to follow the laws of each and every country you do business in. In the end, you have to follow the most restrictive rules in order to avoid sanctions in any part of the globe.
Once Google gave into one countries demands (say like China), they no longer have a leg to stand on when the next country comes along with it's demands. Just the latest round for Google and just the next round for other global tech companies like Facebook and Twitter who now face EU sanctions.
Namely, that whenever news comes out of Europe about anything tech-internet, it almost always is about court actions, fines, and the like. Hardly ever does something appear about a European startup, or how such-and-such out of Europe is transforming an industry, or how the Europeans are taking over something. I saw article this morning about a French company that was apparently pretty good at machine vision...and how Apple was buying them.
https://youtu.be/jKVnur5DkdI
Am I the only one that thinks the timing of part of Spain wanting to break away and become a (tiny little) independent country is rather.. susupicious? Especially considering how much chaos Russia has been covertly fomenting pretty much everywhere it can, to try to destabilize NATO countries? They influenced the U.S. election, they influenced the BREXIT vote, who's to say they aren't influencing Catalonians as well?
For anyone else who may have been confused by the wording in "(the app) opposed an order in September from Spain's Constitutional Court to suspend the referendum while it determined its legality," the legality in question is in regards to the referendum, not the app. The fight over the app is just an extension over the fight in Spain over whether Catalonia is legally allowed to have a referendum for a vote of independence from Spain.
A big splash screen for Spain reading
Dear Spain,
Google services have to be suspended due to the Catalan vote for independence. Please check in again on (voteday+1), the day after it's held.
Yours,
Google
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
...and I was on the fence about secession, this shit would make me 100% for it.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
So...are you a good corporate citizen, or a corporate tool?
Are you about freedom and open expression? Or are you going to toe the line when it might cost you some of your $billion$?
-Styopa
For those of you who are challenged by URL de-obfuscators: Yes, that's a goatse link.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
It's the weekend. They can take their time and pull the app on Monday, problem solved.
Admittedly it doesn't say if the court order said by when they had to do it and no undue delay would be legal, but some time for checking the request is not unreasonable.
There is indeed a clear bias in the selection of articles on Slashdot.
Complying within next working day seems completely reasonable to me, never mind that the point is moot by then
Imagine how ape-shit US citizens would be, if California was engaging in an Independence vote right now?
... to a very extreme extent.
Just to mention one recent example: There's an online translator that dwarfs the likes of Google's or Microsoft's translators made by a relatively small German company - and even though EU press covered this comprehensively, a site like Slashdot did not even mention this.
I doubt a court would see it that way, especially as for a company like google they have people manning systems 24/7.
This kinds of censorship is out of place on the 21st century Europe. If they won't let Turkey join the EU, maybe they should kick Spain out.