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Banning Gab will only make it more "exciting" and increase its exclusive allure to those who seek something like this. I'm not sure I buy their reasoning (or Ma

Banning Gab will only make it more "exciting" and increase its exclusive allure to those who seek something like this. I'm not sure I buy their reasoning (or Mastodon's for that matter). I think all of this is either just a way to avoid controversy (which is silly, but people would be more receptive to it, if they just came out and said that, without the virtue signaling); or it's just that they feel like they cannot argue against those faulty/evil ideologies (which is concerning). I feel like I'm stating the obvious here but racisim and racisit propaganda won't just go away if you ban it, quite the opposite, it'll fester and gain new grounds and people. Banning (especially from supposedly free software groups) is indirectly doing a service to their propaganda.

foota 7y ago
I think there's two sides to this, by leaving it in the store you cut out a feed of organic growth, at the cost of some publicity, I feel like the loss of growth from people getting it from the store is greater than the gain from publicity.
phoe-krk 7y ago
Yes, some people are unable to deal with the faulty/evil ideologies, simply because they run out of spoons. This is exactly why bans like this come into place. Nobody is forced to deal with the kind of people who post and stay on Gab. The action that you see here is the direct effect of many, many people exercising their freedom of speech to say that they do not want to deal with the people who follow the brand of this software. Gab has the right to speak freely; it does not have the right to a free audience and/or megaphone. The decision you see here is a direct consequence of them refusing to address the problem of hate speech festering on their platform.
- beshrkayali 7y ago
  Gab users already have the audience/megaphone, aka "the means" to practice their free speech. I'm not saying that fdroid is not allowed to remove gab if they want to, but it's still going to indirectly benefit gab. Same as Alex Jones fiasco. Bans don't work. And if we've all collectively ran out of spoons like you say to argue against their weak propaganda, then we have a more severe problem on our hands than having gab on this store or that one. Just out of curiosity, have you seen what's on Gab? Faulty ideologies need to be discussed in the open.

foota 7y ago

I think there's two sides to this, by leaving it in the store you cut out a feed of organic growth, at the cost of some publicity, I feel like the loss of growth from people getting it from the store is greater than the gain from publicity.

phoe-krk 7y ago

Yes, some people are unable to deal with the faulty/evil ideologies, simply because they run out of spoons. This is exactly why bans like this come into place. Nobody is forced to deal with the kind of people who post and stay on Gab. The action that you see here is the direct effect of many, many people exercising their freedom of speech to say that they do not want to deal with the people who follow the brand of this software. Gab has the right to speak freely; it does not have the right to a free audience and/or megaphone. The decision you see here is a direct consequence of them refusing to address the problem of hate speech festering on their platform.

beshrkayali 7y ago
Gab users already have the audience/megaphone, aka "the means" to practice their free speech. I'm not saying that fdroid is not allowed to remove gab if they want to, but it's still going to indirectly benefit gab. Same as Alex Jones fiasco. Bans don't work. And if we've all collectively ran out of spoons like you say to argue against their weak propaganda, then we have a more severe problem on our hands than having gab on this store or that one. Just out of curiosity, have you seen what's on Gab? Faulty ideologies need to be discussed in the open.