Google has decided that it will start removing fediverse apps because they don't do enough to preclude hate speech. So far, the apps impacted are Husky, Fedilab and Subway Tooter. Naturally this is just the Google censorship power play _du jour_. The majority of this article is just quoting noteworthy fedi users because they already got most of the important bits out.

@freemo@qoto.org reports:

This user makes a wonderful point because these clients are not accessing specific services in the way that Facebook or Twitter are, but are general-purpose _protocol_ clients. Google Chrome allows you to access hate speech because it's a web browser that allows you to go on any website one can think up. It would be like banning FTP clients because maybe you can log in to the wrong FTP server and download child porn, not realizing that FTP just stands for "File Transfer Protocol" and allows one to transfer any files at all. It's totally content-neutral.

Gargron beat IDDQD to the punch on this point by making this post:

Tateisu, the author of SubwayTooter, posted this:

A translation into English:

The trouble has come. "Fostering violence against individuals or groups based on racial, ethnic, religion, disability, age, nationality, military experience, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or other characteristics linked to organizational racial discrimination or alienation, Or apps that incite discrimination are not allowed." If it's just a client app, first restrict it from the Chrome browser...

How long will it be before Google Chrome starts blocking domain names on "hate speech" grounds? Only time will tell. But when that day comes, they will be destroying the usability of their browser in the interest of controlling what people can view online. Google really does appear to be going all-in on this topic.