This is frankly getting ridiculous. I don't use any NSFW Discord servers nor do I intend to, but the level to which Apple (tries to) moderate user generated content is concerning. What's next? Is Apple Mail going to helpfully filter any email it deems NSFW?
I currently use an Android phone and wanted to go back to iOS, because I just preferred the overall experience, but this might just be the straw that breaks the camel's back for me.
Reddit has switch for NSFW content and I can browse porn reddits from the app just fine. I don't see why Discord should be different. Unless there's more to this story, that decision was made by Discord, not Apple.
Was thinking of maybe giving an iPhone (ideally jailbroken) a go in the future because of all the work they are doing for privacy, and then they pull this. Definately too controlling for my liking (not that I use Discord NSFW servers but it's a slippery slope).
Will stick to Android and hopefully root to add privacy instead.
I currently use an Android phone and wanted to go back to iOS, because I just preferred the overall experience, but this might just be the straw that breaks the camel's back for me.
Same here. I'm tired of Android's wonkiness but this is a showstopper.
I concur that Apples culture-grasp is really disconcerting.
Although I have made a living in the mobile industry for years and years now, I am personally quite happy at the moment to be middle the move from Android and iOS to PinePhone.
Nobody controls my content on that device but me.
It might be rocky, but the minimalism of Pine and its ecosphere represent, is refreshing - in light of the endless, endless tracking, deceit and plain uselessness of iOS and Android apps, in spite of it all.
It might be time for us all to reset our expectations and go back to a 100% open, compiler-onboard platform. I think PinePhone, and others just like that, are ripe for the attempt ..
It is against Apple policies to tell the truth.. How is this not market manipulation? They are purposefully misleading the market on a grand scale.
The whole "you are free not to buy from someone else " doesn't work if you are being lied to. I believe that my rights as a consumer are being violated by this practice.
At some point, some large app needs to stand up against Apple. Fortnite was a start, but that's a game; it doesn't "hit home" in Silicon Valley culture.
I still have hope that Facebook will pull something major in response to the ATT changes. To be clear: I support the goals of ATT, and I think Apple is in the right on it. But I think freedom of distribution on iOS is more important than this, and when choosing between Freedom and Privacy (or as our forefathers would say, Freedom and Safety); I will choose Freedom, every single time.
Apple should not be forcing users to choose. There do exist non-resolvable dichotomies when one has to choose, but this is not one of them.
Cut the gordian knot. Discord should just release the iOS application themselves and bypass the Apple walled garden.
It is time to end corporate feudalism and the first step is installing applications the way they were meant to be installed instead of through one specific corporate gateway.
It's always sad to watch these apps go through the phases of their lifecycle that seem like inevitable steps at this point. It's all fun and games in the early days, but eventually the incentive structures that watch over us begin to deteriorate user experience and increase hostility, whether it's via more advertising, invasive privacy measures, or worsening content restrictions and censorship. It seems inevitable that these things start getting worse as an online ecosystem scales up to massive numbers of users.
It often reminds me of platforms that try to stand out and be different from the others by empowering users in various ways, and this works at the start, but as they get millions of users they realize the other platforms acted as they did not out of choice, but out of force. You have to comply with app store guidelines, payment processor requests, banks, various world government(s), profit models that actually work, and so on, and before you know it you've become the very thing you sought to disrupt and are no different than every other major social platform with >100M users.
I don't know why, but for some reason I'm reminded of the Fermi Paradox after wondering why all of the technological process and app degradation is all happening now in a very recent timespan of a few decades. As in, why was I one of the people who was alive to witness the birth of the Internet, a massively influential point in human history, only a few decades ago? Maybe it's because when communication methods are discovered, humans inevitably want to perfect them, and the attempts to reach perfection have various consequences in a short period of time. There might not have been anything that could have prevented the creation of Facebook and such if humans discovered that it was possible to create such things.
I have this weird thought (from a fictional standpoint) that maybe all the adware and other bloat is rapidly converging on an inflection point that will cause some kind of technological collapse where we will have to start over from some earlier reference point, due to sentient AI or something. But I wouldn't know how, exactly.
It might make for a mildly interesting SF plot point.
You are right, and that is why niche, tightly coupled communities will always remain superior in UX and content over the "mainstream/lowest-common-denominator" ones.
Unfortunately, these smaller communities have more churn to them as the bedrock contributors fall out for various reasons, and then its on to next. But at least we now know the cycle of life, and more importantly, what to stay away from.
Isn't this exactly what happened to Tumblr back in 2018? It feels a little different since Tumblr is one big unit and Discord has its content shared by servers so it's not like you're immediately able to find NSFW content with Discord without explicitly searching out and finding a server to add.
I applaud apple for their work towards making iOS secure, but I still just can't get on board since they can decide at any time I don't have the ability to choose for myself what software I want to run. There's a reason my first iPhone was immediately jail-broken and I left the platform almost 10 years ago.
I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. What is going on at Apple where they dictate what you see and do online. I'm sure the discord app is already rated 18+. Will reddit clients be next since they have NSFW content and subreddits? Will they start banning purchases from "certain" places if you use your apple credit card? Sorry, can't buy ammo, alcohol, or tobacco with your Apple card starting today!
There is a simple solution. Stop relying on apple's walled garden and install applications the normal user directed way instead of the corporate-loading-walled-garden way.
Imagine you bought a BMW car and a year after you bought it they pushed an update that limited the speed to 90 mph, the car refused to drive through a 'bad neighborhood' and refused to take fuel from non-approved fuel stations? There would fucking riots in the streets.
Yet somehow this behavior is tolerated when it comes to this industry. The whole parade is being run by greedy wankers with no respect for individual liberty.
Agreed in principle, but note you never bought anything in the first place when you're using SaaSS: at best you're merely renting. So a better example could be Hertz asking you to please not drive through these neighbourhoods.
An example of actual purchase would be a fully free/libre and open source software.
Stuff like this is what will divide the internet into national fiefdoms. We’re already seeing it with India, Russia, and China. It’s only going to accelerate when creating a FaceGramTube clone becomes easier and easier.
If you’re running a Western startup and think the open internet is a noble idea, please, check your morality at the door.
I'm not endorsing censorship in any way, but I think a lot of people in these comments fail to understand what an average teen's discord experience is like:
- Join tons of servers, where the friends/lolz are
- Many run popular bots
- Many popular bots have porn commands, for example the popular Dank Memer, which is a general utility/games bot
-- /black posts BBC content
-- /group posts group sex pics
-- /xmas posts christmas themed porn?!
- Its not uncommon for people to post nudes of themselves or friends
Sometimes the content stays inside of channels labeled NSFW, but often it pops up elsewhere. If you're hanging out in many discord servers, it can be pretty difficult to fully avoid porn in your feeds, or its always 1 click away.
Its mostly left to server admins and mods to enforce those rules.
Do with that what you will, but its based on that basic set of information that Apple and Discord are approaching these issues.
Very serious question here — where can we have 18+ discussions of NSFW topics? There are very real reasons to do this; somewhat mundane things like LGBT communities and sporting firearms competitors are having a very hard time using common communication platforms on the Internet because the vagueness in the definition of “NSFW” and the policing of subject matter.
Life is full of wonderful people of varying shades of weirdness. Freezing the people at the fringes out of mobile platforms does a disservice to everyone.
This is why I never want to get into "apps". It is literally controlled by Google and Apple Duopoly. Yes we still use web browsers that are controlled by 2-3 companies but at least we have the flexibility there to an extent. I worry for the future when they start doing shit like this on web browsers.
> Additionally, all users on the iOS platform (including those aged 18+) will be blocked from joining and accessing NSFW servers. iOS users aged 18+ will still be able to join and access NSFW communities on the desktop and web versions of Discord.
What?! Is this an accurate interpretation of Apple’s policy? I know you cant have specifically NSFW apps but I didn't think their policy applied to user generated content. It’s certainly not the status quo to ban all NSFW user content on iOS on other platforms.
The moralistic decisions shaping parts of the internet and technology are getting pretty ridiculous. I'm not interested in making any grand statements or drawing parallels to Orwell or what have you here.
But sometimes I really just want to indicate my situation by pointing an emoji gun at my emoji head, or respond to a friend with a GIF some might consider offensive, and I really think anyone who can be trusted to use the internet should also be trusted to handle that ability somewhat responsibly, and eradicating it from our communications repertoire like this really does not serve anyone in my view.
Before people get all worked up. This is certainly so that discord can maintain it's current rating "T for Teen" on the app stores. Apple likely got POed since Discord could be used as a work around for parental controls, and here we are.
The right long term policy might be to have multiple apps or a feature to restrict NSFW access within the Discord app akin to Netflix, but to address the issue immediately, this is a reasonable short term policy.
Don't forget an enormous user base are kids from 13-17, so this, in my view, is entirely reasonable until they sort out a longer term solution.
[+] [-] Cu3PO42|5 years ago|reply
I currently use an Android phone and wanted to go back to iOS, because I just preferred the overall experience, but this might just be the straw that breaks the camel's back for me.
[+] [-] vbezhenar|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] roody15|5 years ago|reply
Don’t worry our corporate friends will let us know what is trending, what topics we should discus, and keep us safe!!!
[+] [-] NazakiAid|5 years ago|reply
Will stick to Android and hopefully root to add privacy instead.
[+] [-] amelius|5 years ago|reply
I prefer the real world.
[+] [-] g_p|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mhuffman|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] baxuz|5 years ago|reply
Same here. I'm tired of Android's wonkiness but this is a showstopper.
[+] [-] somesortofsystm|5 years ago|reply
Although I have made a living in the mobile industry for years and years now, I am personally quite happy at the moment to be middle the move from Android and iOS to PinePhone.
Nobody controls my content on that device but me.
It might be rocky, but the minimalism of Pine and its ecosphere represent, is refreshing - in light of the endless, endless tracking, deceit and plain uselessness of iOS and Android apps, in spite of it all.
It might be time for us all to reset our expectations and go back to a 100% open, compiler-onboard platform. I think PinePhone, and others just like that, are ripe for the attempt ..
[+] [-] Layke1123|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] fukmbas|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] zyphr|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gbl08ma|5 years ago|reply
I can only assume that it is also against Apple's rules to blame Apple for their draconian policies, and therefore they had to amend the text.
[+] [-] barake|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ClumsyPilot|5 years ago|reply
The whole "you are free not to buy from someone else " doesn't work if you are being lied to. I believe that my rights as a consumer are being violated by this practice.
[+] [-] 015a|5 years ago|reply
I still have hope that Facebook will pull something major in response to the ATT changes. To be clear: I support the goals of ATT, and I think Apple is in the right on it. But I think freedom of distribution on iOS is more important than this, and when choosing between Freedom and Privacy (or as our forefathers would say, Freedom and Safety); I will choose Freedom, every single time.
Apple should not be forcing users to choose. There do exist non-resolvable dichotomies when one has to choose, but this is not one of them.
[+] [-] superkuh|5 years ago|reply
It is time to end corporate feudalism and the first step is installing applications the way they were meant to be installed instead of through one specific corporate gateway.
[+] [-] pjmlp|5 years ago|reply
What about Discord blocking servers full of war scenes and car chasing with shootings?
[+] [-] ve55|5 years ago|reply
It often reminds me of platforms that try to stand out and be different from the others by empowering users in various ways, and this works at the start, but as they get millions of users they realize the other platforms acted as they did not out of choice, but out of force. You have to comply with app store guidelines, payment processor requests, banks, various world government(s), profit models that actually work, and so on, and before you know it you've become the very thing you sought to disrupt and are no different than every other major social platform with >100M users.
[+] [-] nonbirithm|5 years ago|reply
I have this weird thought (from a fictional standpoint) that maybe all the adware and other bloat is rapidly converging on an inflection point that will cause some kind of technological collapse where we will have to start over from some earlier reference point, due to sentient AI or something. But I wouldn't know how, exactly.
It might make for a mildly interesting SF plot point.
[+] [-] e3bc54b2|5 years ago|reply
Unfortunately, these smaller communities have more churn to them as the bedrock contributors fall out for various reasons, and then its on to next. But at least we now know the cycle of life, and more importantly, what to stay away from.
[+] [-] frob|5 years ago|reply
I applaud apple for their work towards making iOS secure, but I still just can't get on board since they can decide at any time I don't have the ability to choose for myself what software I want to run. There's a reason my first iPhone was immediately jail-broken and I left the platform almost 10 years ago.
[+] [-] wizzwizz4|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kmfrk|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] theklr|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] post_break|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] protomyth|5 years ago|reply
I don't think this is as far fetched as some would believe. Someone should tell Apple that even Disney produces R-rated movies.
[+] [-] superkuh|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Sharlin|5 years ago|reply
I mean, banning any of those would be less unreasonable than banning NSFW content.
[+] [-] BitwiseFool|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Kiro|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] simiones|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ClumsyPilot|5 years ago|reply
Yet somehow this behavior is tolerated when it comes to this industry. The whole parade is being run by greedy wankers with no respect for individual liberty.
[+] [-] Nemo_bis|5 years ago|reply
An example of actual purchase would be a fully free/libre and open source software.
[+] [-] causality0|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ceilingcorner|5 years ago|reply
If you’re running a Western startup and think the open internet is a noble idea, please, check your morality at the door.
[+] [-] reilly3000|5 years ago|reply
- Join tons of servers, where the friends/lolz are
- Many run popular bots
- Many popular bots have porn commands, for example the popular Dank Memer, which is a general utility/games bot
-- /black posts BBC content
-- /group posts group sex pics
-- /xmas posts christmas themed porn?!
- Its not uncommon for people to post nudes of themselves or friends
Sometimes the content stays inside of channels labeled NSFW, but often it pops up elsewhere. If you're hanging out in many discord servers, it can be pretty difficult to fully avoid porn in your feeds, or its always 1 click away.
Its mostly left to server admins and mods to enforce those rules.
Do with that what you will, but its based on that basic set of information that Apple and Discord are approaching these issues.
[+] [-] kactus|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] clscott|5 years ago|reply
This is an Apple policy not a Reddit policy
https://www.vice.com/en/article/78k8yb/reddit-ios-apps-disap...
Edit: added the url I meant to use in the first place
[+] [-] tinus_hn|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Mindwipe|5 years ago|reply
It doesn't fit with the published iOS terms, but as we've seen before, Apple frequently ignores the published App Store terms during approval.
[+] [-] everetm|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wayoutthere|5 years ago|reply
Life is full of wonderful people of varying shades of weirdness. Freezing the people at the fringes out of mobile platforms does a disservice to everyone.
[+] [-] codegeek|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dcow|5 years ago|reply
What?! Is this an accurate interpretation of Apple’s policy? I know you cant have specifically NSFW apps but I didn't think their policy applied to user generated content. It’s certainly not the status quo to ban all NSFW user content on iOS on other platforms.
[+] [-] rvz|5 years ago|reply
Can't wait for the parents of big brother to step forward with this in the future. /s
[+] [-] throw7|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mensetmanusman|5 years ago|reply
Apple defines exactly what moderation is required for any social media on their platform.
[+] [-] bschne|5 years ago|reply
But sometimes I really just want to indicate my situation by pointing an emoji gun at my emoji head, or respond to a friend with a GIF some might consider offensive, and I really think anyone who can be trusted to use the internet should also be trusted to handle that ability somewhat responsibly, and eradicating it from our communications repertoire like this really does not serve anyone in my view.
[+] [-] fny|5 years ago|reply
The right long term policy might be to have multiple apps or a feature to restrict NSFW access within the Discord app akin to Netflix, but to address the issue immediately, this is a reasonable short term policy.
Don't forget an enormous user base are kids from 13-17, so this, in my view, is entirely reasonable until they sort out a longer term solution.