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The EU likes the power to delist apps by compelling two companies (Apple and Google) to do so. Android is moving to the same, KYC (credit or debit card; no pre
by dannyw 2mo ago
The EU likes the power to delist apps by compelling two companies (Apple and Google) to do so.
Android is moving to the same, KYC (credit or debit card; no prepaid cards) with play store required for APK distribution
- xp84 2mo agoyeah, I think for as much as many of us hold out hope that the EU will break the back of these brazen monopolists, there's a limit to their friendliness to the actual interests of consumer freedom when it's got to be balanced by their love of censorship.
- ahartmetz 2mo agoWhatever censorship exists in the EU is really inconsequential. What bothers me is the spying.
- x3ro 2mo agoDo you mean “censorship by the EU” or “censorship within the EU”, or both? Because I see a lot of the latter, and I don’t find it inconsequential at all.
- ahartmetz 2mo agoBy the EU and in Germany, really... What is censored in other member states isn't in the news, but for all I know it's also not much and not important. Which censorship do you consider problematic?
- Certhas 2mo agoThe whole EU censorship rhetoric is almost always devoid of facts and examples. I feel like it is mainly sustained because US people like the narrative that theytl are the free(TM).
- ahartmetz 2mo agoAsking innocent questions often works better than confrontation, but yeah, this elevated importance of utmost free speech doesn't survive the Atlantic crossing and can be used to maliciously pooh-pooh Europe to an American audience.
- tpm 2mo agoWe don't have a lot of "censorship within the EU", some russian propaganda tv channels might be blocked (as they should) but that's about it really. Now if you mean in a particular EU member, that's different but it's not impacting the whole EU.
- NetMageSCW 2mo agoTry watching Citizen Vigilante in Germany. Or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or I Spit on Your Grave until recently.
- rstat1 2mo agoThe Play Store is not required for APK distribution. Not now, nor has it ever been.
- Zagitta 2mo agoyet https://keepandroidopen.org/ https://keepandroidopen.org/
- rstat1 2mo agois like much of the discourse around the changes, overly sensationalized and borderline false. The only change made that's relevant to sideloading-a-downloaded-APK as far I understand, is a 24hour delay in enabling the ability to do so, which is a wildly overblown non-issue.
- jwitthuhn 2mo agoIt is less secure though, and they are doing it in the name of security. People are right to call that out as bullshit. Availability is a key component of security, and this is a 24-hour DOS on apps not blessed by google.
- dannyw 2mo agoThey’ve announced they’re changing the policy to require ‘verification’ in future Android versions. It will likely be delayed, just like Manifest v3, but eventually it will happen.
- pjc50 2mo agoWait, which apps are you referring to having been delisted by EU (which branch? what process?), as opposed to "breaching app store terms and conditions" (which the companies do of their own initiative all the time)
- dannyw 2mo agoOne example: Russia Today / RT News. Process: Google made a blog post [1] and cited EU's Council Regulation (EU) 2022/350. The app is still available in Russia on both App Store and Play Store. [1] https://blog.google/company-news/inside-google/company-announcements/helping-ukraine/#:~:text=We%20continue%20our,the%20Lumen%20database. https://blog.google/company-news/inside-google/company-annou...
- pjc50 2mo agoDo you have any more sympathetic examples that aren't enemy propagandists? I feel getting banned from the app store is getting off lightly compared to, say, Julius Streicher.