

Editorial: Waiter, there's a Nazi theme in my Android Market - booticon
http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/13/editorial-waiter-theres-a-nazi-theme-in-my-android-market/

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jcl
The difference between the App Store and the Android Market is that the latter
is not as actively policed. The Android Market has a fairly restrictive
content policy, which (among other things) prohibits "promotions of hate or
incitement of violence". While it's easier to slip prohibited content into the
Android Market, it's not supposed to be there and will likely be removed.

<http://www.android.com/us/developer-content-policy.html>

The freedom of the Android platform is that you can put what you want on your
device. The same freedom does not apply to the Market -- if you want Market-
prohibited content, you need to find another way to get it. This renders most
of the article moot.

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rbanffy
You can choose between censorship and freedom of speech. You can't have it
both ways.

Offensive speech is the small price you pay for your freedom. Enjoy it.

And, BTW, I live in a country where I am not given the luxury of being able to
express some impopular points of view without risking being arrested.

~~~
c1sc0
Where are you from? As far as I know this particular theme would probably be
illegal in Germany.

~~~
cr0atian
Yes it would be illegal in Germany, but here in the US we do have freedom of
speech. From flag burning, to KKK rallys and in this case Nazi insignia are
all examples of free speech, and protected by the Constitution.

Google can censor this but that would also be sacrificing free speech.

I think its a disgusting theme but I don't think it should be censored, maybe
they should get their keywords sorted so it doesn't show up when looking up
"Jewish".

~~~
jon_hendry
"Yes it would be illegal in Germany, but here in the US we do have freedom of
speech. From flag burning, to KKK rallys and in this case Nazi insignia are
all examples of free speech, and protected by the Constitution."

The 1st amendment is about Congress, not about what retailers allow into their
stores for sale.

~~~
rbanffy
> The 1st amendment is about Congress,

Which only means Google cannot be forced _by law_ to remove the offensive
material.

~~~
eru
And they can probably not be forced to keep it, either.

~~~
rbanffy
No, but removing it is a statement they will not go to great lengths to
protect free speech from the government, if it comes to that.

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njharman
"turns up skins which are disgustingly, hatefully pro-Nazism and pro-Hitler.
That's a problem, no matter how you look at this."

"hard look at what censorship really means, and what kind of role it can (and
clearly should) play in the new frontier of app marketplaces"

That's a seriously fucked up view on censorship right there. I hope it's just
a troll and author really doesn't believe that censorship is ok, and censoring
what they don't like is fine and dandy.

Also maybe the reason author thinks "Jewish" and "Hitler" are unrelated search
terms is because the only history they have read had all the "hate filled"
parts censored.

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Zak
I think the author believes that censorship is desirable for privately-run
marketplaces such as the Android Market and Apple App Store.

I don't have a problem with the idea of Google censoring its market to some
degree. Unlike Apple, Google has provided users with the ability to install
software from any source, significantly mitigating the impact of any
censorship. If Google doesn't want to censor hate speech, I'm ok with that
too. Ultimately, it's their store, and it's up to them to decide what's sold
in it.

I do, however believe that this is an example of poor search results. Someone
searching for "Jewish" probably doesn't want this theme, even though it's
relevant to the search term.

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ZeroGravitas
This link is from when a similar thing showed up in the main Google search
results:

<http://www.google.com/explanation.html>

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Tichy
Even if you accept that it should be illegal to publish certain things, it
doesn't follow that everything has to be piped through a censorship authority.
Punishing offenders should be enough.

Otherwise, where to stop? It is illegal to kill somebody, therefore we need a
watchdog to approve our every moves, in case it is a killing move?

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asolove
The article describes the apps as themes and pictures, but then says they
"spread hate." While actually agreeing with the policies of the Third Reich is
hideous, making your phone have a swastika on it (for a costume party,
perhaps?) seems innocuous. Were there apps that actually spread hate in some
way?

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ulysses
_Think of it this way: app stores are kind of like privately owned bookstores.
The owner of the bookstore doesn't have to carry the art book of nudes or the
pro-Nazi thesis._

I would be very unhappy with a general bookstore openly refusing to carry a
book solely because of its political content.

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glhaynes
Bookstores don't carry every book ever made; they're "curated". They have no
obligation to carry every book you might want... if your tastes are
significantly outside of the mainstream, you're going to sometimes have to
order from a specialty seller or directly from the author/publisher.

~~~
ulysses
Of course they don't. But not carrying every book ever printed is different
from refusing to carry a class of books because of their political content.

And I did mention general bookstores. Let's take Glenn Beck books as an
example. Personally, I find them rage-inducingly offensive. But I'd still
expect the local bookstores, even here in liberal Seattle, to carry them, and,
if they didn't have a copy on their shelves, to order it for me. Should I,
say, have some sort of psychotic breakdown and decide that I wanted a copy.

