Here’s the post in question: Editorial: Waiter, there’s a Nazi theme in my Android Market

The summary here is that Android has an open market (unlike Apple’s, of course) and that means any sort of app can show up there. Like pro-nazi apps! Oh no, doesn’t that just show how terrible open markets are? It isn’t really censorship cause an App Marketplace isn’t really the Internet (this seems to be his actual point he’s trying to make).

Ok, argument shredding time, after the jump.

Let’s just dive right in.

Earlier tonight our friend Michael Gartenberg tweeted that when he went to the Android Market to search for the word “Jewish,” a number of Nazi and Hitler themes turned up. Of course, we had to take a look for ourselves, and sure enough, the search for a fairly innocuous word related to a religion and culture turns up skins which are disgustingly, hatefully pro-Nazism and pro-Hitler. That’s a problem, no matter how you look at this.

Is it a problem? What, exactly, is the problem? I don’t get it. Describe to me what the actual problem this is. Does the App leap from the Marketplace into your brain and turn you pro-Nazi? No, it doesn’t. The curiously obvious solution is to simply not download it.

In the past, we’ve railed against Apple for its confusing, unfair, and often absurd App Store policies, particularly when it comes to the policing of applications based on content, not code. Steve Jobs has made a point during press conferences to say that the Android Market allows porn apps — which of course set off a furious debate. Sadly, what Jobs should have pointed out was that the Market allows something far more insidious and damaging than even the hardest-core pornography — apps that spread hate and propagate the views of a movement that is pretty much universally reviled.

He starts out trying to qualify himself. It’s the old “I have gay friends but…” prelude to an anti-gay tirade. This time it is “I’ve criticized Apple before but…” it’s totally better than Android and you shouldn’t think I’m biased. Just because you criticize Android doesn’t mean you are an Apple fanboy, just like criticizing Apple doesn’t mean you aren’t one. You can drop the act. Just lay whatever ill-conceived argument on the table and let it stand on its own (lack of) merit.

Yes, Steve’s problem with pornography is his own problem. It is a little ridiculous and he should be laughed at for it. Porn is not the end of the world. A lot of people actually like porn, and a lot of people in the porn business actually like their jobs. This means that yes, porn is likely much more popular an idea than pro-Nazism. But, since when did an idea’s popularity affect its ability to exist? If it is so universally reviled as you say, then what’s the big deal? What’s so dangerous about these themes if apparently everyone dislikes them?

And here’s where we have to take a 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 on mobile devices (and elsewhere). Let’s be clear about this right off the bat — an app store isn’t the internet. It’s not a free-for-all, it’s not an open venue where any type of wares might be hawked. The whole point of these app portals is to provide a controlled service to your users that has guidelines and rules that make getting software onto your phone relatively easy and safe. Whether or not you have stringent policies for what you’ll accept (Apple), or few (Google), no one should pretend that this isn’t a siloed service that must have rails to operate.

I’ve made myself all giddy now being able to trot out this paragraph. This is the best demonstration of begging the question I’ve seen in recent memory. Why prove your point? Why even demonstrate it should be true? It is much better for this guy to simply assume his conclusion is true before he begins and then argue onward from there. The App Store isn’t the Internet? Thanks, Captain Obvious. But, how does that in any way support your point that censorship doesn’t count as censorship when applied there? As if the Internet is the only place where openness should be allowed. How does he come to that conclusion? Well, he just states it of course! Since when is the whole point of an app marketplace to provide “controlled service” to users? And even if that is the intention of app marketplace providers, since when does “controlled service” mean culling apps based on content? Should the marketplace providers be able to pull any apps? Probably. But should that be what we expect? I see no reason to believe that this is automatically how these services are supposed to work.

So the question becomes: what are your limits? If you say absolutely no censorship, does it apply to hate-speak? If you say yes to porn, does it mean yes to Hitler themes that appear when you search for seemingly unrelated terms? Does being open mean accepting everything? Or do we have to set some reasonable limits for what we will and won’t tolerate?

If I say “absolutely no censorship” then yes, I mean it applies to hate speech. In what world can “absolutely no censorship” be magically transformed into “porn’s ok but nothing too hateful!” The word “absolutely” kind of gets in the way there. Same with being open. Yes, being open means accepting everything. What sort of reasonable limits do you need for tolerance? Why is tolerance so hard for you? Instead of talking about how being an open App Marketplace is bad and terrible, you could just say nothing and give these apps you don’t agree with no attention whatsoever. Do you really think having Nazi wallpapers available is going to cause a flood of anti-Jewish sentiment? Do you honestly believe removing them will wipe away those feelings from the people who were downloading them? Or, is this just a convenient opportunity to link Android with Nazis for some cheap attenton?

So ultimately, what’s the answer? While tapping out my thoughts on the matter, it seemed painfully clear how difficult of a question this really is. But the part that’s confusing is the part that’s essentially a lie — that keeping certain pieces of content out of systems like the App Store or the Android Market equates to censorship… because it doesn’t. As I said above, these portals aren’t the whole world, they’re not the internet — hell, most people don’t even have smartphones that they download applications onto. These are closed systems for specific uses, and something tells me that the people who built these systems don’t really want to see them used to distribute Nazi themes. A follow-up tweet from Gartenberg stating that the company is “upset” by the experience and that the apps in question are in violation of its terms of service seems to confirm that.

I don’t have the final word on this, and maybe there really isn’t a final word to have. I know in my gut that Google doesn’t want to be the place to go for all your Nazi needs, but I also know that there’s a serious gray area when it comes to the hows and whys of choosing what you will and won’t offer to users. In the end, a little common sense goes a long way, and if the Apples and Googles of the world can’t find a middle ground that’s fair, we’re in for a messy, bumpy ride.

Let me help you with some word definitions. Keeping content from a source absolutely is censorship. That’s the definition! The size and reach of the content source is not important. Removing a news story from a local paper is no less censorship just because the distribution of that source is smaller than the New York Times. Stop trying to redefine words to save your argument. Just because a content source doesn’t equal the Internet… damn, the point is too stupid to even retype. If Google wants to kill the apps for their content they can, because they have that control. But don’t pretend that it isn’t censorship, and don’t pretend that just because these ideas are distasteful that censoring them won’t diminish the platform for everyone.

Tags: android, censorship, engadget, incoherent argument, marketplace

This entry was posted on Friday, August 13th, 2010 at 11:46 am and is filed under Some Pulp. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.