Turns out authoritarianism is bad for freedom. Who knew?
> Of all the strange, unintended consequences stemming from major lawsuits, I never thought that the Trump administration’s power to force Apple to remove ICE-tracking mobile apps from its stores could have been connected to a legal battle over Fortnite V-Bucks.
It didn't stem from the lawsuit, it stemmed from Apple's intentional policy of tight control over the app store, which the lawsuit challenged. The lawsuit could have forced a change, but it did not make any changes, so I don't see how the lawsuit is at all relevant.
I also find myself a bit frustrated at expressions like this, because people like me have been shouting this danger from the rooftops since early on in iPhone history!
That doesn't make sense to me, couldn't the Trump administration just as easily make ISP's block the required pages. Similar to how the Pirate Bay is blocked in many countries?
The closest thing we have is seizing domain names which has been done for various reasons, but this doesn’t work for foreign domains.
They could just order it blocked extralegally, then attempt to exert extralegal pressure to force ISPs to implement the order, but this would likely face widespread pushback, a successful court challenge, and public embarrassment. So it’s not a serious risk until there is a law in place that could be twisted to enable this sort of blocking.
They could also just drone strike the devs, and yet they do not. There is a reason for that, it’s not just that they haven’t thought of it as an option. It’s not a realistic option in the current political environment.
Apple or Google blocks your app, that could have been a web app anyway...
Apple blocked Microsoft from putting Cloud Gaming, as an app, Microsoft released a web page you can add to your home screen.
There are ways around this. The web app might have been the cheaper option too.
Fricken•3mo ago