Google Removes App That Helps People Boycott Pro-Israel Companies

L4sBot@lemmy.worldmod to Technology@lemmy.world – 739 points –
Google removes app that helps people boycott pro-Israel companies
newsweek.com

Google Removes App That Helps People Boycott Pro-Israel Companies::NoThanks was temporarily suspended from the Google Play app store due to a line in its description speaking about Israel.

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It seems likely to me that there are campaigns of people mass reporting content and apps to get then taken down even if it’s just temporarily. Sure, in some cases, like TikTok, they are meeting with rich Zionists who are lobbying for censor anything anti-Zionist. That takes time to negotiate in some cases I would imagine.

Most people and most Zionists are not rich I think. It’d be faster to run a coordinated mass report campaign through some influencer to trigger the automated moderation.

So even if Google weren’t financially involved in Israel’s occupation, which it is, people could use the mechanisms of its automations to censor things on their own for everyone.

It seems likely to me that there are campaigns of people mass reporting content and apps to get then taken down[...]

Case in point. Maybe my example is more DMCA-centric than you meant, but same practice applies here.

In addition to taking advantage of automated systems, yes many groups are engaging in pressure campaigns on specific companies and organizations to engage in censorship right now.