Telegram has blocked Hamas channels on Android because Google forced it to

yakultdrinkr@lemdro.id to World News@lemmy.world – 189 points –
Telegram has blocked Hamas channels on Android because Google forced it to
theverge.com
48

It's pretty understandable. Many companies do not want to use their platform to give terrorists a voice.

Title is a bit misleading. Those channels are not blocked on Android in general, but only on the play store version of telegram. Download from F-Droid instead and that's that.

I think I can do without terrorist channels.

It's the principal of the matter.

Do you feel the same about Nazi channels?

Yes. Same cunts

You'd be upset if Nazi accounts were banned?

No, of course not? Did I get the question wrong?

Someone said they were okay with these accounts being banned. You replying "it's the principle of the matter" made it sound like you were disagreeing with those bans in free speech or anti-"corporate" censorship like many other commenters were saying. So I asked if you were okay with them banning Nazi accounts, which you agreed with so maybe I misunderstood?

1 more...
1 more...
1 more...

This is why sideloading is always an essential function for any devices in general. How come I buy stuff and do whatever the fuck I want with it?

Don't get me wrong, although I think it's quite clear, Hamas, obviously bad. Very much understandable of Google's decision. But a company(apple) deciding what is and what is not acceptable to be installed on my device? It's just uncanny how acceptable it is. That's like buying a car that can't go into certain places because uSeR sAfEtY. Even if I probably would never go there, why on Earth would you want that?

No one does except those in power.

The show must go on and "I'm" the star. - vote me

Not sure how I feel about this, Google isn't the law but it is their platform...but the app is the platform that hosts them and they haven't been forced to remove any other groups.

On the other hand Facebook doing nothing literally spiralled Myanmar into ethnic cleansing.

So sometimes a bit of moderation is better

Israel is already doing ethnic cleansing so... I wouldn't really call this a win

Same here. I think censorship is bad - but looks like Google really want to distance themselves from anything Hamas related, and even Telegram bosses who didn't bend for Russian government pressure (couple of years ago there was an attempt to control or block Telegram there) prefer to stay away from it...

They're also legally liable for content on their app store, which is one of the big (maybe biggest) reasons they bother to monitor it so carefully. Their app store moderation is genuinely heavy-handed at the best of times, but it makes sense for them to distance themselves from Telegram in this case.

It also entirely makes sense that Telegram has only limited their changes to Android as a response. Apple customers are where the money is at anyway.

This is just another parameter that will now be built into future chat software; no high level control over channels or groups by any central authority. The Internet will route around all obstacles.

They shouldn't submit to arbitrary censorship, even if I also disagree with Hamas, Google could do it to anyone they disagree with. Telegram should move to (or at least also be on, with an uncensored version) F-Droid.

If you think blocking literal terrorists is "arbitrary censorship" then I don't even know what the fuck you are looking for in a society.

One where we treat HAMAS and IDF the same way

They are. There's a FOSS version of Telegram on f-droid.

This is why I don't use a messaging app that allows non-participants to control my conversations.

The world is telling palestinians to just give up and die

Hamas does not equal Palestinians.

Right, so get rid of hamas so theres no more obstacle to exterminating palestinians.

Stop calling every Palestinian a terrorist.

Who is stopping palestinians being exterminated?

If you think Hamas is an effective security for Gaza and the West Bank, you're outta your mind. It's the existential threat of becoming enough of a pariah to be forced to trade with North Korea and rely on the Kibbutz economy again. Can't really maintain tritium stockpiles that way.

Hamas is as effective security for Gaza as Likud is for Israel. It would be better off for both parties if each fucked off.

Okay, who else is gonna stop the extermination if not hamas?

Certainly not Hamas, since they're responsible for what is happening now.

The threat of international condemnation and the less hawkish members of the Israeli government and electorate.

Predictably the rate at which civilians in Gaza are bombed by Israel went up not down after Hamas' acts of terrorism the other week.

Even if you believe that the Israeli government is ontologically evil; serving them up causus belli to bomb and potentially invade Palestinian lands does not constitute "preventing Palestinians from being exterminated", rather it actively helps them hastens the process

The international community supports the extermination