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Google Boots Open Source Anti-Censorship Tool From Chrome Store (torrentfreak.com)
Google has removed the open-source Ahoy! extension from the Chrome store with little explanation. The tool facilitated access to more than 1,700 blocked sites in Portugal by routing traffic through its own proxies. TorrentFreak reports: After servicing 100,000 users last December, Ahoy! grew to almost 185,000 users this year. However, progress and indeed the project itself is now under threat after arbitrary action by Google. "Google decided to remove us from Chrome's Web Store without any justification," team member Henrique Mouta informs TF. "We always make sure our code is high quality, secure and 100% free (as in beer and as in freedom). All the source code is open source. And we're pretty sure we never broke any of the Google's marketplace rules."
Henrique says he's tried to reach out to Google but finding someone to help has proven impossible. Even re-submitting Ahoy! to Google from scratch hasn't helped the situation. "I tried and resubmitted the plugin but it was refused after a few hours and without any justification," Henrique says. "Google never reached us or notified us about the removal from Chrome Web Store. We never got a single email justifying what happened, why have we been removed from the store, or/and what are we breaching and how can we fix it." TorrentFreak reached out to Google asking why this anti-censorship tool has been removed from its Chrome store. Despite multiple requests, the search giant failed to respond to us or the Ahoy! team. Thankfully, the Ahoy! extension is still available on Firefox.
Henrique says he's tried to reach out to Google but finding someone to help has proven impossible. Even re-submitting Ahoy! to Google from scratch hasn't helped the situation. "I tried and resubmitted the plugin but it was refused after a few hours and without any justification," Henrique says. "Google never reached us or notified us about the removal from Chrome Web Store. We never got a single email justifying what happened, why have we been removed from the store, or/and what are we breaching and how can we fix it." TorrentFreak reached out to Google asking why this anti-censorship tool has been removed from its Chrome store. Despite multiple requests, the search giant failed to respond to us or the Ahoy! team. Thankfully, the Ahoy! extension is still available on Firefox.
They've gone to full-on evil
i dont want to use it to download any illegal material, i use chromium on Linux, and i want to know if google can access my browser extensions without my explicit permission because if google deletes it, then watching something disappear from my browser extension list will prove google accesses my browser without my explicit permission
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
Google conspired with Apple and Facebook to silence Alex Jones. Google is pushing https everywhere to eliminate anonymous publishing. Why are you surprised.
Can't have the Chinese government thinking Google supports routing around censorship, now can we?
They need to grow to new markets in order to keep revenue up and the stock up. Greed.
Opera turbo mode, VPNs and Tor could all effectively be said to do the same thing. What's not legit about it? Are you saying we should never try to route around censorship?
This is why these things were an awful idea. We knew this would happen, platforms kicking off people for.. no reason at all.
Boycott this garbage, App Store, Play Store, Microsoft Store, it's all bullshit. Don't support it, don't publish to it, don't buy from it. The only thing these corporate entities understand is profit/loss. So seriously, vote with your wallet, don't buy anything from any of these sites.
Only a united front vs. these abominations will yield results. We all have to take a stand and say 'no.' Even you folks publishing and making money, stop, for the greater good. Go back to the old school software distribution, do it yourself. Building a website to host your app is cheap and easy, there's no excuse. If you can develop an app, you're definitely smart enough to set up a cloud based server.
Lately Google has been actively courting regimes who are heavy on censorship.
"Foreign authoritarian regimes"?
Maybe, at least partially.
Have you heard what the US FBI, for instance, has been saying lately about things like the widespread use of strong encryption? I don't think it would be a stretch to assume US TLAs would frown upon this type of anonymizing tool for the same sort of reasons they currently object to the widespread use of strong encryption.
When you start talking about authoritarian regimes, don't leave out the US government which is one of the largest and most intrusive.
Big Brother insists you not obstruct your Telescreen, Comrade!
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
Everyone wanted a walled garden cause it was "easier"
This was entirely predictable and dismissed by those who said things like this would never happen.
Bing?
Run by Microsoft, which is just as evil and anti-free speech as Google
Baidu?
The definition of censorship -- might as well use Google.
Yandex?
If you like your search results slanted to Russia's ideology. Like Baidu, it is alright for the comrades but not for lovers of freedom.
Ecosia?
Powered by Bing, claims to be CO2 neutral, but Bing is powered by oil so not really CO2 neutral.
DuckDuckGo or StartPage?
For those not wanting to run Bing or Google these two are everyone's favorite. However, they are merely front ends for Google, but they do not let your queries become linked to your IP address or personal info.
Twitter?
Surely you jest. The master of double standards and censorship. Besides, like FB, they are dying because people are getting tired of their heavy handed and biased ways.
CCSearch?
Just another layer of snooping and 3rd party sales of your info. Logs on your searches kept for a period of time. Just use Google if you don't mind being spied upon.
Wiki.com?
A search engine which searches only Wiki's. Wikis themselves are heavily slanted and filtered to fit a certain political slant. Again, comrades should have no problem using them.
Boardreader? :(
If you’re searching for content written by everyday users about a topic this is your tool. Will the "everyday user" know what they are talking about? Too many seem to think that perpetual energy devices are real, and that Planet Nibiru is about to strike.
Slideshare?
Sponsored by LinkedIn, a comrade to Google, Twitter, Facebook and Microsoft, it links to videos, slides, pdf's and other educational material. Many are dated. Not the site to use if you want up to date information without a slant.
So, what to use?
What ever you want. Just know what using your choice can cost you more than you may realize.
Running with Linux for over 20 years!
Why does anyone use chrome and voluntarily give their shit to google anyway? Just build a PGO version of firefox. It's fast as shit, and not stupid.
its open source, you can check what it does
from what i read, it will detect the block page, redirects the request to one proxy and send to their servers the url of the blocked page (to detect new blocked domains)
A more simple alternative is just use google, cloudflare or other external DNS, as this block is done in the dns
Higuita
Didn't work for Facebook; won't work for Google.
Both companies have been doing wrong, and lots of of it, for a long time. There's absolutely no sign that the general run of users of either one care even a little bit.
A few people shouting here on /. mean nothing.
All of which I am very sorry to observe, but there it is.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Big Tech has gone all-in on fascism (NOT Trumpism which many hate but is NOT fascism, but ACTUAL fascism where government and corporations unite hand-in-glove to oppress). Big Tech is enabling all the oppression demanded by each national or local government. China wants the keys to Apple servers and - shazam! - China gets them. China wants to censor speech and - zap! - Google is all on-board. Democrat lawmakers demand the suppression of a tawdry guy like Alex Jones, who for some reason they seem to think harms them (I certainly do not see how the guy is anything but bad comedy or "performance art"), and - abra cadabra! - all the social media sites knock him off within a 12 hour timeframe. Multiple governments despise tools people use for privacy or to evade censorship and Google is only too eager to oblige in eliminating the tools.
Big Tech had a choice: Either be facilitators of true uncensored speech and let the speakers be accountable for their own words, or become censors and in doing so become enablers of oppression. They seem to be choosing the latter.
Fascism has many benefits for corporate meat puppets - as long as they do the bidding of their masters, they are allowed all the benefits of being in control of their particular fiefdoms and as a bonus their masters will use the power of government to suppress/oppress any would-be competitors. When faced with the decision to either go fascist or remain a beacon of freedom, most corporate executives in history have made the easy, obvious, "no-brainer" choice: they goose stepped into line with fascism.
Free people of all stripes need to face a simple truth: Big Tech is not your friend. You might love your iPhone, but it's just a handy tool and the big company operating it is not your pal. You might like Facebook and Google, but they do not like you.... they are spying on you, selling you out, censoring what you see, and helping others manipulate you. Do at least half your web searches using a Google competitor. Try using other social media sites than Facebook or Twitter at least half the time. Stop feeding the beasts.
Let's hope the EU keeps extracting money from Google till they get the message.
So what next AC?
No blocking approved ads?
No blocking ads?
No blocking approved ad services and sites?
The user will soon have no control over their own browser on their own computer.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
In the 1930's, the US was the only nation to increase investment in Nazi Germany because it was a strong government of "people we can work with".
In the 2010's, Google sees Fascist China as "people we can work with" too, and so do many others. This time, the wilful blindness to the consequences is not restricted to the US, however.
So, yeah, can't allow anyone to get around censorship - someone's got to think about the money, you know.
"Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"