Slashdot Mirror
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
Can't have the Chinese government thinking Google supports routing around censorship, now can we?
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.
"Don't be evil" was the young Google. Their new motto is "power corrupts".
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.
it gets deleted when i close the browser and reopen it
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
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
Let's hope the EU keeps extracting money from Google till they get the message.