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A comment on Element (Matrix chat app) suspended from the Google Play Store. Parent comment

Re:Element (Matrix chat app) suspended from the Google Play ... by walrus01 on Saturday January 30, 2021 @02:25AM (#25967058)
Element and Parler are nothing alike.

Element is a chat client. It's an empty piece of software for use with your own choice of server. Element is to a chat server, as Thunderbird is to an email server. It's basically a glorified IRC client. It contains no content of its own.

Parler was basically a curated, centrally run, Facebook-message-board-replacement for neonazis, antisemites, qanon conspiracy theorists, and the lunatic fringe of the alt-right.

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Re:Element (Matrix chat app) suspended from the Google Play ... by alangibson on Saturday January 30, 2021 @04:14AM (#25967564)
Technical distinctions are irrelevant to someone at headquarters worried about having a regulatory probe inserted in their backside.
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Re:Element (Matrix chat app) suspended from the Google Play ... by throwagainway on Saturday January 30, 2021 @08:33AM (#25968910)
But this one is important, no? This is like banning Firefox because it can connect to illegal content.
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Re:Element (Matrix chat app) suspended from the Google Play ... by alangibson on Saturday January 30, 2021 @12:58PM (#25971254)
Yea, it's a lot like that. The idea of banning browsers that don't actively police what users are able to access (maybe via something like a global blacklist) is no longer crazy.
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Re:Element (Matrix chat app) suspended from the Google Play ... by uncoder0 on Saturday January 30, 2021 @11:19AM (#25970275)
It is relevant, it makes it more absurd than Parler's bans but, I was just trying to point out they're for the same core reason.
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Re:Element (Matrix chat app) suspended from the Google Play ... by uncoder0 on Saturday January 30, 2021 @11:18AM (#25970268)
As I said nothing else in common....
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Re:Element (Matrix chat app) suspended from the Google Play ... by patrickaljord on Saturday January 30, 2021 @03:38AM (#25967403)
Don't count on PWAs. Once these free speech platforms start embracing PWAs and they become super popular, Chrome and Safari will simply censor them directly. When you will try to visit these PWAs, you will get a message that says "this website contains hate speech and has been blacklisted as it doesn't respect our terms of services for a safe and friendly browsing experience we thrive to offer our users".

Any browser that allows accessing these PWAs will be banned from the app/play store. Let's not kid ourselves this isn't what's coming next.

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Re:Element (Matrix chat app) suspended from the Google Play ... by dextralt on Saturday January 30, 2021 @04:54AM (#25967764)
This is exactly what's going to happen, not just with PWAs but with all websites. The mechanism ("Google Safe Browsing") is in place, precedents are being set, the number of hysterical ideologues who will support that is growing.

But on the bright side, I think if it was Mozilla with 90% of the browser market and not Google, this would've happened already.

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