Responding to a court order, the Google Play Store in the US now longer prohibits developers from using 3rd-party payment services and including links to download or pay for apps outside the Play Store... at least until the Supreme Court rules on an appeal. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/10/google-begins-loosening-developer-restrictions-in-play-store-against-its-will/ #Google #Antitrust #GooglePlayStore
#Google trips over its own words, when they sell you #Android it's the best computing device in the world that does everything. After you bought it Google doesn't let you do anything *you* want to.
#Sideload is a made-up term. Putting software on your computer is simply called “installing”, regardless of whether that computer is in your pocket or on your desk.
What Do You Talk About When You Talk About Sideloading?
What does Google?
Here's #FDroid: https://f-droid.org/2025/10/28/sideloading.html
Our nonprofit group's award winning, prosocial, non-violent video games were removed by #Google.
🤥 They claimed that we had misled them by classifying them as #educational. Google purported to know more about our work than we do.
🎮 Our free games about #consent and #healthyrelationships were unilaterally removed from Google Play, making it much tougher for us to reach and help young people.
🧡 The ubiquity of smartphones make game marketplaces a necessary channel for us to reach #adolescents directly.
#indiegames #publichealth #violenceprevention #DVAM #antitrust #criticalthinking #dh #undueinfluence #duopoly #education #students @stopTDV
Chewie
boosted
Regarding the last boost: Google has been found to be an illegal monopoly multiple times, and so far no judge has had the courage to impose a significant enough penalty that Google actually changes its ways. Its monopoly behavior is frequent, obvious, and damaging.
Anyway, check your Google Drive, if you use that: go to drive, then click the gear. Choose Settings -> Manage Apps, and make sue "Use by default" is checked OFF on everything you don't like, especially Gemini (Google's AI that they're pushing on everyone). This was added and turned on by default for most people, it seems.
#Google #Gemini #DarkPattern #monopoly #AI #GenAI #tying #antitrust #DefaultToOptOut
Regarding the last boost: Google has been found to be an illegal monopoly multiple times, and so far no judge has had the courage to impose a significant enough penalty that Google actually changes its ways. Its monopoly behavior is frequent, obvious, and damaging.
Anyway, check your Google Drive, if you use that: go to drive, then click the gear. Choose Settings -> Manage Apps, and make sue "Use by default" is checked OFF on everything you don't like, especially Gemini (Google's AI that they're pushing on everyone). This was added and turned on by default for most people, it seems.
#Google #Gemini #DarkPattern #monopoly #AI #GenAI #tying #antitrust #DefaultToOptOut
jbz
boosted
💰 Apple loses UK App Store monopoly case, penalty might near $2 billion - 9to5Mac
｢ developers were overcharged by the difference between a 17.5% commission for app purchases and the commission Apple charged, which Kent’s lawyers said was usually 30%. The CAT also ruled that app developers passed on 50% of the overcharge to consumers ｣
https://9to5mac.com/2025/10/23/apple-loses-uk-app-store-monopoly-case-penalty-might-near-2-billion/
💰 Apple loses UK App Store monopoly case, penalty might near $2 billion - 9to5Mac
｢ developers were overcharged by the difference between a 17.5% commission for app purchases and the commission Apple charged, which Kent’s lawyers said was usually 30%. The CAT also ruled that app developers passed on 50% of the overcharge to consumers ｣
https://9to5mac.com/2025/10/23/apple-loses-uk-app-store-monopoly-case-penalty-might-near-2-billion/
Tim Chambers
boosted
#BigTech Helped Bankroll the #EastWing Destruction
#Meta, #Amazon, #Microsoft, #Apple, & #Google have a lot riding on their relationships with the #Trump admin. They all cut checks for the ballroom.
#TechBros #plutocracy #billionaires #corporations #corruption #bribery #extortion #law #antitrust #regulations #AI #energy
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/10/white-house-east-wing-destruction-google-meta-apple-microsoft-amazone/
Then there’s the #tech companies — #Google, #Apple, #Microsoft, #Amazon, & #Meta.
The tech companies themselves have been awfully quiet about the project they’re helping to underwrite. Just to make sure they hadn’t missed it, MJ sent a photo of the demolished #EastWing — & requests for comment — to representatives of all of these companies. A Microsoft spox confirmed the company had made a contribution but offered no further comment. None of the others responded.
But #BigTech’s donations for #Trump’s pet cause come at a time when the industry’s giants have a lot riding on their relationships with the #WhiteHouse. In a marked shift from Trump’s first term, #tech leaders have spent most of the last 12 months singing the president’s praises as they navigate #antitrust cases, #tariffs, & #regulatory hurdles; fight for #contracts; & push for #policies that benefit their bottom lines.
#BigTech Helped Bankroll the #EastWing Destruction
#Meta, #Amazon, #Microsoft, #Apple, & #Google have a lot riding on their relationships with the #Trump admin. They all cut checks for the ballroom.
#TechBros #plutocracy #billionaires #corporations #corruption #bribery #extortion #law #antitrust #regulations #AI #energy
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/10/white-house-east-wing-destruction-google-meta-apple-microsoft-amazone/
Once again, by focusing on **monopoly power** as over-arching dynamic, Matt Stoller sees blindspots in mainstream Left
https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/monopoly-round-up-the-left-can-protest
What if "No Kings" clearly included *all* the oligarchs, even those associated with Democrats, like Gates and Soros and Mark Cuban, along with Kochs and Ellison and Musk And Zuck and Bezos and more…
And crazy to let robust local manufacturing and independence from China ever be claimed to be a Right-wing political view…
🚨 Another massive AWS outage just took down Roblox, Fortnite, Coinbase, Snapchat, and all Supercell games.
Half the internet has gone dark because of one Big Tech company. This is not innovation, it is monopoly risk.
💡It’s time to choose alternatives.
@Tutanota oh Amazon smh. Amirite? #AntiTrust , #AntiTrustlawsandcompetition
Next was an insightful talk by Anna Tzanaki on the EU's legal and economic challenges around addressing killer acquisitions at @Weizenbaum_Institut https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-UsU4Akdjs (5/7) #economics #law #antitrust
Tim Chambers
boosted
CNBC: U.S. Supreme Court allows order forcing Google to make app store reforms. “The justices turned down Google’s request to temporarily freeze parts of the injunction won by Epic in its lawsuit accusing the tech giant of monopolizing how consumers access apps on Android devices and pay for transactions within apps.”
CNBC: U.S. Supreme Court allows order forcing Google to make app store reforms. “The justices turned down Google’s request to temporarily freeze parts of the injunction won by Epic in its lawsuit accusing the tech giant of monopolizing how consumers access apps on Android devices and pay for transactions within apps.”
This summer a US judge Google to allow third-party app stores & billing in the Google Play Store. Google asked for a temporary stay during the appeals process, but the Supreme Court said no. So expect changes starting Oct 22. https://www.theverge.com/news/793610/google-epic-android-supreme-court-stay-denied #Epic #Google #Antitrust #GooglePlayStore
Next was a compelling conversation with Stavros Makris on competition law and legal philosophy at the Digital Markets Research Hub https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk6Zr51aIWQ (3/7) #antitrust #law #economics
Just by reading an LA Times story now, you supposedly agree to this.
#CorporateCrimes #Law #USpol #Antitrust #Journalism
Apparently that wasn’t enough.
In April, the #FCC sent a a blistering letter to #Disney CEO #BobIger saying it suspected the company was so thoroughly “infected” with “invidious” practices *favoring* *minorities* that it had no choice but to open an *investigation*.
Among other questions, the probe sought to determine whether Disney had really ended policies designed to ensure characters in its shows & its hiring practices favored “underrepresented groups.”
Meanwhile, a #Disney deal struck in January to buy a stake in the streaming service #FuboTV fell under scrutiny, too, with several reports that the #DOJ was investigating possible #antitrust violations.
The #FTC also launched a probe into whether Disney broke rules by gathering #personal #data from #children watching its videos without permission from parents. Disney settled the case earlier this month by paying $10M & agreeing to change its practices.
China has ruled that Nvidia violated anti-monopoly laws with a high-profile 2020 deal, ratcheting up the pressure on Washington as U.S. and Chinese officials meet in Madrid for sensitive trade talks. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2025/09/15/companies/china-nvidia-antitrust/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #business #companies #china #nvidia #antitrust #donaldtrump #xijinping
Agaric Tech Collective
boosted
@EUCommission
"clear rules. The European way of business"?
»#EU #antitrust regulators have delayed fining Alphabet's #Google over its #adtech business, while waiting for the United States to cut tariffs on European cars as part of a trade deal, three people with knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday.«
You're traitors to what Europe should be.