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Gab.ai sues Google over Play Store rejection

24 points by calvinbhai 9y ago

throwawaymanbot 9y ago
Google are a Private company... doing what a private company wants to do. To compare Gab to Twitter.. is laughable frankly. So im not sure how the "blocking a rival" aspect is going to be legally entertained. But, keep the laughing going at least.
crispinb 9y ago
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/08/gab-the-right-wing-twitter-rival-just-got-its-app-banned-by-google/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/08/gab-the-right-wi... gives Google's explanation for the rejection. It seems all that's required would be for gab.ai to explicitly disallow hate speech in their terms, but permit (and optionally profit from) it in practise. Like Twitter.
- Spivak 9y ago
  It does seem weird that according to Google you're not allowed to have a social network that draws the moderation boundary at legal speech and actually requires censorship. Seemingly worse it appears as though a platform where the people posting are personally responsible for their own content is also prohibited. If your app connects people you apparently are not allowed to act as an impartial carrier. Better not let them know that Chrome and Hangouts should also be pulled.
  - acty1 9y ago
    This. Absolutely terrifying that Google went from "Never censorship" to "Our users and customers must now enforce pur perspective and censor their users". I am astounded. Like the other poster said... shouldn't alternative web browsers be banned too?
- ominous 9y ago
  If that is the problem, why are browsers on the Play store? Wouldn't a gab client behave the same way, fetching and sending content from the internet?
  - foobarbazetc 9y ago
    You can make this exact argument for any app. So, no.
    - ominous 9y ago
      Precisely my point. A general purpose machine should be able to run general purpose tasks, and that understanding should relieve its manufacturer from any blame, ending the PR problem for google. Just as firefox still GETs hate speech if you tell it to. Or would you like google's DNS to just not resolve requests for gab as well?

24 points by calvinbhai 9y ago

Google are a Private company... doing what a private company wants to do. To compare Gab to Twitter.. is laughable frankly. So im not sure how the "blocking a rival" aspect is going to be legally entertained. But, keep the laughing going at least.

crispinb 9y ago

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/08/gab-the-right-wing-twitter-rival-just-got-its-app-banned-by-google/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/08/gab-the-right-wi... gives Google's explanation for the rejection. It seems all that's required would be for gab.ai to explicitly disallow hate speech in their terms, but permit (and optionally profit from) it in practise. Like Twitter.

Spivak 9y ago
It does seem weird that according to Google you're not allowed to have a social network that draws the moderation boundary at legal speech and actually requires censorship. Seemingly worse it appears as though a platform where the people posting are personally responsible for their own content is also prohibited. If your app connects people you apparently are not allowed to act as an impartial carrier. Better not let them know that Chrome and Hangouts should also be pulled.
- acty1 9y ago
  This. Absolutely terrifying that Google went from "Never censorship" to "Our users and customers must now enforce pur perspective and censor their users". I am astounded. Like the other poster said... shouldn't alternative web browsers be banned too?
ominous 9y ago
If that is the problem, why are browsers on the Play store? Wouldn't a gab client behave the same way, fetching and sending content from the internet?
- foobarbazetc 9y ago
  You can make this exact argument for any app. So, no.
  - ominous 9y ago
    Precisely my point. A general purpose machine should be able to run general purpose tasks, and that understanding should relieve its manufacturer from any blame, ending the PR problem for google. Just as firefox still GETs hate speech if you tell it to. Or would you like google's DNS to just not resolve requests for gab as well?