The difference between the App Store and the Android Market is that the latter is not as actively policed. The Android Market has a fairly restrictive content policy, which (among other things) prohibits "promotions of hate or incitement of violence". While it's easier to slip prohibited content into the Android Market, it's not supposed to be there and will likely be removed.<p><a href="http://www.android.com/us/developer-content-policy.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.android.com/us/developer-content-policy.html</a><p>The freedom of the Android platform is that you can put what you want on your device. The same freedom does not apply to the Market -- if you want Market-prohibited content, you need to find another way to get it. This renders most of the article moot.
You can choose between censorship and freedom of speech. You can't have it both ways.<p>Offensive speech is the small price you pay for your freedom. Enjoy it.<p>And, BTW, I live in a country where I am not given the luxury of being able to express some impopular points of view without risking being arrested.
"turns up skins which are disgustingly, hatefully pro-Nazism and pro-Hitler. That's a problem, no matter how you look at this."<p>"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"<p>That's a seriously fucked up view on censorship right there. I hope it's just a troll and author really doesn't believe that censorship is ok, and censoring what they don't like is fine and dandy.<p>Also maybe the reason author thinks "Jewish" and "Hitler" are unrelated search terms is because the only history they have read had all the "hate filled" parts censored.
This link is from when a similar thing showed up in the main Google search results:<p><a href="http://www.google.com/explanation.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.google.com/explanation.html</a>
Even if you accept that it should be illegal to publish certain things, it doesn't follow that everything has to be piped through a censorship authority. Punishing offenders should be enough.<p>Otherwise, where to stop? It is illegal to kill somebody, therefore we need a watchdog to approve our every moves, in case it is a killing move?
The article describes the apps as themes and pictures, but then says they "spread hate." While actually agreeing with the policies of the Third Reich is hideous, making your phone have a swastika on it (for a costume party, perhaps?) seems innocuous. Were there apps that actually spread hate in some way?
<i>Think of it this way: app stores are kind of like privately owned bookstores. The owner of the bookstore doesn't have to carry the art book of nudes or the pro-Nazi thesis.</i><p>I would be very unhappy with a general bookstore openly refusing to carry a book solely because of its political content.