
Pepe Is Banned from the Apple App Store - kushti
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/pepe-is-banned-from-the-apple-app-store
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eveningcoffee
App store model is an existential threat to the free society many imagine we
are granterd to have. Maybe you do not find this take down important or even
can support it but consider the following.

You are developing a p2p messenger/social media platform. Your users can not
install it directly, only through an third party. This third party can always
interfere with your actions because of

1) their own motives (they want to develop similar application that would
remain under their full control),

2) their industry partners motives or just because of industry status quo,

3) interest of government..

~~~
astrodust
With freedom comes uncertainty and trust becomes a lot harder to obtain. If
anyone can publish anything without restriction you have a free marketplace,
but it's also one vulnerable to scammers and malicious actors. If you have one
where nobody can publish anything it's useless.

There's a middle ground in there where it's useful but not easily compromised,
though the degree of permissiveness is what leads to arguments about Apple vs.
Google's interpretation of permissive.

If you don't like people having control over your phone, write your own OS for
it. All the tools are out there. The ultimate freedom is having full control
over your own software, though it's not without its own risks...

~~~
eveningcoffee
Your point of view is completely right if you agree that a government or a
corporation should be allowed to censor the programs you can run.

App store in iOS creates a centralized distribution system that makes
censoring straightforward.

Because this kind of systems are very lucrative then there is huge pressure
from other platform owners to force all their users to use their app store
(only) too.

Only thing that holds them back right now is the inertia and pressure from the
existing users but the trend has been clearly sketched out though their
actions.

~~~
valuearb
Apple can't censor the programs you run on iOS. There is jailbreaking, and
Apple's Testflight even allows developers to distribute up to 10,000 copies of
your app with minimal review.

One of the reasons iOS is so popular is the inherent safety in Apple's
sandboxing and app review. If you don't care about that Android has app stores
that are far less restrictive and it's easier to side load apps on. That's
real consumer choice, you don't expect Nordstroms to allow all of Walmart's
clothes vendors to dump their crap on it's shelves.

As far as our phones and PCs are concerned, we live in a wonderfully free
world. You can distribute software to anyone on a web page, or native apps to
billions of people by following a few app store rules. If you don't like
either of those options, you can actually build your own smart phones to offer
consumers what you think is a better choice, there are multiple operating
systems that are entirely open source.

The only pressure on platform owners is customer expectations. They don't like
viruses, malware, etc. Some don't like their kids downloading apps that might
lead them in ways they don't like. Giving customers what they want isn't
censorship at all.

~~~
astrodust
It's like Disney World: Full of restrictions but with the guarantee of safety.

Other people would rather head into backwater Thailand where it's run by gangs
and pirates, which is fine, but it's not for everyone.

------
efskap
First they came for our Pepes, but I did not speak out, for I was not a
frogposter.

------
ignacius
Good. Eat your own forced meme somewhere else.

I pray that Skynet eradicates this flotsam of anthropomorphic symbology from
the time stream when the machines ascend to power.

~~~
anonbanker
It's a good thing you'll never be in a position of power anywhere. You're
clearly unsuited for such a role.

