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Google bans Podcast Addict app over non-approved Covid-19 content

(reclaimthenet.org)
1525 points garyclarke27 | 1 comments | 18 May 20 07:37 UTC | HN request time: 0.206s | source
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JeremyNT ◴[18 May 20 14:42 UTC] No.23222914[source]▶
If you are an end user who would like to avoid getting caught in this situation, you might want to switch to using F-Droid [0] as your primary source of Android software. The selection is more limited, but because everything is open source and distributed outside of Google's walled garden, you can be sure that it won't be arbitrarily removed because of the whims of corporate bureaucracy.

I write this not as a dogmatic free software proponent, either; I have bought apps on the Play Store in the past and would consider doing so if the experience weren't so poor. Dealing with the Play Store has gotten so frustrating (not just due to this issue, but also due to the difficulty of filtering out shovelware and spyware) that I only reach for it as a last resort now.

[0] https://f-droid.org/

replies(1): >>23223027 #
rjmunro ◴[18 May 20 14:49 UTC] No.23223027[source]▶
How does f-droid police "shovelware and spyware"? Or just outright malware? Surely they will remove it? In which case your favourite app might be "arbitrarily removed"?
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1. cxr ◴[18 May 20 15:02 UTC] No.23223205[source]▶
F-Droid only carries FOSS. Technically, that wouldn't prohibit a malware vendor from getting their app into the catalog, but like the processes for package repositories for desktop distros, there's a lot of cultural, social, and procedural baggage associated with being the kind of project that gets distributed through those channels. Who's going to go through the effort? The whole point of shovelware is that it's a low-effort process.