Oh, absolutely. The story was about Google, but it's at least as true (and has been true for longer) about Apple.
Similar comments could be made about Tumblr, which has implemented similarly wrong headed policies in a similarly incompetent way, and has also done a ton of damage, although it's less frustrating watching a single site do it. Ultimately Verizon owns Tumblr, and they can ruin it if they like, and the damage will be somewhat limited because it can't really spread beyond Tumblr.
Google and Apple have vastly more power over vastly more of our digital lives.
As a libertarian, I reflexively resist suggestions of regulation, but actions like this (or on a somewhat different vein, Facebook's) make that position harder and harder to support. It's hard to overstate the power that running the dominant Android app store gives Google, and thus the responsibility they have to use that power wisely.
Unfortunately, even if we wanted to try the regulation option, the current political climate makes that a non-starter; the neo-Victorian sexual panic is firmly entrenched in Congress (see, eg, SESTA/FOSTA). We're screwed.
Similar comments could be made about Tumblr, which has implemented similarly wrong headed policies in a similarly incompetent way, and has also done a ton of damage, although it's less frustrating watching a single site do it. Ultimately Verizon owns Tumblr, and they can ruin it if they like, and the damage will be somewhat limited because it can't really spread beyond Tumblr.
Google and Apple have vastly more power over vastly more of our digital lives.
As a libertarian, I reflexively resist suggestions of regulation, but actions like this (or on a somewhat different vein, Facebook's) make that position harder and harder to support. It's hard to overstate the power that running the dominant Android app store gives Google, and thus the responsibility they have to use that power wisely.
Unfortunately, even if we wanted to try the regulation option, the current political climate makes that a non-starter; the neo-Victorian sexual panic is firmly entrenched in Congress (see, eg, SESTA/FOSTA). We're screwed.