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A comment on Google removes ICE-spotting app following Apple's ICEBlock crackdown. Parent comment

Re:Google removes ICE-spotting app following Apple's ICEBloc... by Zak on Saturday October 04, 2025 @12:35PM (#45474566)
XKCD's point stands as long as nobody has a monopoly on an important medium. Apple and Google effectively do have a duopoly on mobile app distribution, and mobile apps are an important medium for speech in 2025.
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Re:Google removes ICE-spotting app following Apple's ICEBloc... by mindslight on Saturday October 04, 2025 @02:04PM (#45475296)
From the first part of your comment, it directly follows that neither Apple nor Google has a required monopoly on the important medium.

IMO, we need to stop thinking in this broken paradigm of "-opolies" (with its loaded requirement to define what constitutes a given "market") and look at the actual coercive power they wield through market stickiness. Apple and Google both wield much coercive power with regards to software running on mobile devices.

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Re:Google removes ICE-spotting app following Apple's ICEBloc... by Zak on Saturday October 04, 2025 @03:27PM (#45475952)
That does seem to be what the EU is trying to do with its "gatekeeper" classification.
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