Comment by phaer | Hacker News Reader

Comment by phaer | Hacker News Reader

While I personally dislike to see an App Store coming from the Modi government, I wonder if there's at least some virtue to the idea of publicly funded App Stores e.g. in the European Union.

Of course there's a risk of easier distribution of state-sponsored Malware and censorship - somewhat similar to state-level DPI - but there could be an advantage in enforcing local laws.

As it stands, software distribution to european mobile clients seems to be restricted by:

  * U.S. laws and regulations
  * Policies by Google or Apple
  * European laws and regulations

Independent App Stores could probably help with at least the first, if not the second point one as well. At least from a governments perspective.

For Free Software Users, https://f-droid.org/en/ is course preferable. Seems to be registered in the UK according to https://f-droid.org/en/about/

F-Droid previously banned Gab for being a “free speech zone” that will “tolerate all opinions”

https://reclaimthenet.org/f-droid-bans-gab-app/

F-Droid's press release actually explains their decision not to ban Fedilab even though it allows accessing Gab and they don't like it. https://f-droid.org/en/2019/07/16/statement.html

Their press release says:

> F-Droid is taking a political stance here

I do not want any App Store to be taking political stances.

> I do not want any App Store to be taking political stances.

I don't think there is a clean separation between political and non-political when you're choosing whether to accept or deny apps to an app store.

I think you can choose to not deny apps based on political reasons (e.g. BLM) but still choose to deny apps based on security (e.g. malware), deceptiveness (spam, abuse), or license (e.g. closed source).

Free software is a political stance

Free as in free speech. The Gab app does not violate the four essential freedoms [1] or F-Droid's inclusion policy [2]. They even host Hentai apps where you can access lolicon pornography [3] and simply state that users should "be aware of any applicable local laws and regulations".

[1] https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

[2] https://f-droid.org/en/docs/Inclusion_Policy/

[3] https://f-droid.org/en/packages/moe.feng.nhentai/

There is, of course. Government build ports, airports, customs etc. This is part of digital infrastructure (until the day comes that stores are no longer needed).

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