News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the word 'retard'. Parent comment

Re:GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the ... by tn13 on Wednesday July 29, 2015 @03:08AM (#9966803)
That is very sensible. Github is free to impose any arbitrary rule and repo admins are free to use competitor's products.

In fact Github cares very little about "offense" but probably only cares about their own profits. Private companies applying this sort of censorship is not a bad thing.

For example Apple, Google completely control the apps that will feature in their apps stores. That has actually improved the security of mobile devices lot more otherwise imagine a Ask Toolbar app playing an ad each time your call someone.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the ... by Jonasen on Wednesday July 29, 2015 @03:51AM (#9966924)
There are 53 other repos containing the word retard..

https://github.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=retard

It seems to me they are just singling out a single commit to be a problem, probably because of someone oversensitive complaining about this single commit, not knowing that github is full of what could be considered offensive to some. I am personally very happy we solved all world problems and now can focus on wording in commits.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the ... by sleepybrett on Wednesday July 29, 2015 @03:28PM (#9971015)
I think making the subtitle of the project 'Webm for retards' might have something to do with it.

It's possible this project was reported by an offended user. If it is automated I expect other projects that use the word 'retard' as a project name or subtitle might have email notifications giving them some length of time to change or be banned.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the ... by jgrowl on Wednesday July 29, 2015 @11:47AM (#9969392)
For that matter.... https://github.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=nigger&type=Repos...
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the ... by wooger on Wednesday July 29, 2015 @07:18AM (#9967805)
Bullshit! This might be true if they only censored for malware, but at present anyone on Android who wants an ad-blocker, or software to interface with various torrent / media servers now has to resort to off-store apps which aren't subject to any review.

This is a much larger problem.

[ Parent | on HN ]