You don't need to get Signal from an app store (unless you're on iOS I guess)

For 99% of people the effect is the same as blocking the app.

You mean because users don't know how to sideload? Maybe so far, as there's been no need. On Android it's just one pref and then you download the APK in the browser.

Yeah, most people don't leave the easy path. Most people don't use Signal. Adding more friction won't improve that.

Fortunately iOS is not 99% of the market.

I did not mean iOS.

In the EU, Apple must support side loading and other app stores.

But those are also vulnerable to these laws, no? App sideloading seems the only escape.

Even then the webapp should work

Since when is there a Signal web app? I don't think there is, but even if there were then presumably it'd work the same as the desktop app: "To use the Signal desktop app, Signal must first be installed on your phone."

What's funny is that it's other EU laws from totally different parts of government which are, at the same time, pushing to allow for side loading of apps and alternate app stores on iOS and Android.

https://www.google.com/search?q=apple%20eu%20alternative%20a...

The end result of which, if done at large scale, means that an EU government couldn't ban signal, short of forcing all its domestic ISPs to be downstream of a China type great firewall, or simply null route all the IP space where signal's servers are located.

All the alternative app stores can easily be subject to the same legal requirements as Apple.

Side-loading is harder to enforce any rules over, of course.

Blocking domains is well-established at this point, thanks to the copyright industry doing a 21.5-year whack-a-mole-waltz with The Pirate Bay. Of course, this also demonstrates the limited effectiveness of domain blocking.

> Of course, this also demonstrates the limited effectiveness of domain blocking.

Extremely limited effectiveness, when VPN operators like Mullvad are corporations based in Sweden and offer 5 euro a month service to bypass whatever local "mess with internet traffic" activity, whether government-caused or not, that someone's last mile ISP is up to...

There's also the game of whack a mole with taking ownership of domains at the registrar/ICANN level through court orders, such as with the various .com or similar things that get jacked and plastered with a "DOMAIN HAS BEEN SEIZED" notice by the US feds.