Apps like Grok are explicitly banned under Google’s rules—why is it still in the Play Store?

Google describes apps exactly like Grok and says they are banned from Google Play.

See full article...

 

[J.R.G]

Yet another reason to boot Google out of my life.

 

[DarthSlack]

So CSAM, revenge porn, and every other form of non-consensual sexual imagery is just fine with the Silicon Valley crowd so long as they're making a buck off of it. Or if they might have to penalize one of their own.

Because Musk very much is a creature of Silicon Valley.

 

[Coriolanus]

I am going to guess that Google doesn't want to be accused of anti-competitive behavior by booting Grok, which is a direct competitor to Gemini.

 

[MyBloodyBallantine]

So CSAM, revenge porn, and every other form of non-consensual sexual imagery is just fine with the Silicon Valley crowd so long as they're making a buck off of it. Or if they might have to penalize one of their own.

Because Musk very much is a creature of Silicon Valley.

The extremely wealthy are the only people with class solidarity in this country.

 

[markgo]

I am going to guess that Google doesn't want to be accused of anti-competitive behavior by booting Grok, which is a direct competitor to Gemini.

Doubt it. Far more likely they fear governmental action on the basis of suppressing one of the right’s favorite bullhorns.

There’s no such thing as anti-competitive behavior in the age of Trump. Just antitrust figleaves for punitive action they decide to take based on content or lack of sufficient obsequiousness.

 

[Wraithtek]

It's owned by a guy who the law protects, but does not bind.

 

[dnorman]

I wonder if someone will submit a protest app named “non-consensual child porn generator” to see if it’ll get approved.

 

[DarthSlack]

The extremely wealthy are the only people with class solidarity in this country.

This is soooo spot on it hurts.

 

[agoodflyingbird]

I tried to report if for breaking Google's TOS for you know hosting illegal content like CSAM, but they just said its not our app, we don't have any control over what X users do. My reply was, guess you had to remove "Don't be evil" as your slogan, because you are certainly being evil now. They had no problem banning Fortnite for 4 years because they wanted to squeeze out some extra money.

 

[Batmanuel]

When you’re a billionaire, they let you do it.

 

[StormyParis]

to be contrasted with the extremely energetic ban of ICE block. To those who think corps "don't be evil" or "think about safety" & disallow porn apps, well ...

Apple and Google love themselves a dictator. Morals ? Urgh !

 

[Nazgutek]

America is a business not a society. It's civilisational aim is profit, not citizen wellbeing.

 

[jimmyeatapple]

Because Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai are cowards...

https://meincmagazine.com/civis/threa...-of-women-and-children.1511123/#post-44181792


I should copy the link where I lifted the statement from. I agree with it whole heatedly: https://www.theverge.com/policy/859902/apple-google-run-by-cowards

 

[Unsure platypus]

I think the unsaid portion of this report is money and political power.

Musk can make problems even for as large of a corporation as Google. That is why we should not have billionaires.

Also, we should not have walled gardens for smart phones.

 

[pug fugly]

Is there a similar article about Apple's non-ban ? Or is Ars currying Tim Apple's favour the same way Tim Apple is Trump's ? And is this transitive ?

Guess who didn't read the article.

 

[KrookedRooster]

The costs of lawsuits from the populace vs the cost of lawsuits from a man with a warchest the size of a small country.

hmmm.

 

[alansh42]

I've reported X to both Apple and Google, for whatever it's worth. At least I'm wasting their time.

And Ani is just a ripoff of Misa from Death Note.

 

[Urist]

"Look guys, we already paid the bribe, Elon could... um... well its hard to think of something worse than this but you get the idea."

 

[DarthSlack]

Unless they're A/B ing the titles and bylines, this article is very biased. This is not a Google issue specifically. This is an Apple and Google issue. Maybe MS too not sure if they still have an appstore.

I'd argue it's more of an Apple issue even, since Apple is virtue signaling so hard at all times.

As The Fine Article has noted, Google is laying out the rules very specifically, and X/Grok is clearly violating them. Apple takes more of a "I know it when I see it" approach that leaves them more wiggle room.

So no, the article isn't biased. It's pointing out that Google is clearly not abiding by the rules that Google has put down.

 

[yababom]

2P2B -- Too Profitable Too Ban: A commercial practice or product that is allowed to continue due to its profitability for supporters, even though it enables or commits acts that would be instantly condemned in a person.

 

[Velvet G]

C.R.E.A.M.
(Cash rules everything around me)

 

[citizencoyote]

Doubt it. Far more likely they fear governmental action on the basis of suppressing one of the right’s favorite bullhorns.

There’s no such thing as anti-competitive behavior in the age of Trump. Just antitrust figleaves for punitive action they decide to take based on content or lack of sufficient obsequiousness.

It's probably a combination of both. You know the current administration scream and yell about "woke bias" if Google removed it, and probably point to Gemini as their reasoning for opening investigations into the company. It would be lawsuit city, even if Google would likely win they would be forced to spend tens of millions of dollars.

Much easier to simply ignore the problem for now. Which, I might add, is complete bullshit, but that's par for the course these days.

 

[jimmyeatapple]

Unless they're A/B ing the titles and bylines, this article is very biased. This is not a Google issue specifically. This is an Apple and Google issue. Maybe MS too not sure if they still have an appstore.

I'd argue it's more of an Apple issue even, since Apple is virtue signaling so hard at all times.

I really don't care if the article nit picks the differences between the ToS's. Both companies are wrong. They are siding with their bottom lines and making a conscious choice to not anger the current administration by pissing off their favorite second favorite billionaire and his ilk.

 

[Akilou]

I am going to guess that Google doesn't want to be accused of anti-competitive behavior by booting Grok, which is a direct competitor to Gemini.

But they're not booting Grok, they're booting X

 

[WozNZ]

So CSAM, revenge porn, and every other form of non-consensual sexual imagery is just fine with the Silicon Valley crowd so long as they're making a buck off of it. Or if they might have to penalize one of their own.

Because Musk very much is a creature of Silicon Valley.

Sort of the nature of capitalism no? The key drive is growth and profit, the rest is just advertising.

You only have to look at how all the companies jumped all over pride when they thought it would earn them more just to drop it as soon as Trump walked in. Hardly any company cares about that stuff, unless there is money in it, as they have share holders to answer to. Green washing was the same.

Basically they see Profit > Morality

 

[Fatesrider]

I tried to report if for breaking Google's TOS for you know hosting illegal content like CSAM, but they just said its not our app, we don't have any control over what X users do. My reply was, guess you had to remove "Don't be evil" as your slogan, because you are certainly being evil now. They had no problem banning Fortnite for 4 years because they wanted to squeeze out some extra money.

I believe the default setting for corporate behavior is "evil". It has been since the 1980's when profits became their only motivation, and they doubled down on that when it transitioned to "growth" (which is not equivalent to profits - see the whole AI field as a stellar example of growth without profits).

So, no corporation can be assumed to be anything BUT evil. Especially those who mention it in their corporate motto.

 

[noanoxan]

C.R.E.A.M.
(Cash rules everything around me)

Get that money!

 

[StormyParis]

I am not defending Grok's gross negligence here, but near as I can tell:

1. Grok designers did not intend Grok to be used to generate CSAM
2. This was an oversight. A gross, obvious, and inexcusable oversight, but an oversight nonetheless
3. Grok is being used to generate fake (but horrible) images.

YouTube (As an example) can be misused. Sometimes nudity slips past filters into videos. How is Grok different? This is true for many apps that remain in the app store(s) - even when a minority of people abuse those apps to use them in an unintended way. For an app to be banned, it really needs to explicitly be for one of those purposes (objectification, threatening, exploiting, etc), or proprietors must be willfully turning a blind eye to how their App is used.

As Grok generates fakes, this also doesn't technically degrade or objectify a person or threaten a person. You might make a case it exploits someone due to the training material utilized, but I seriously doubt training Grok on CSAM was intentional, and accidentally slipped into the terabytes and petabytes of training data.

Grok certainly has botched the handling of this matter, but I'm not sure you can paint it as intentionally malicious.

It got spotted.

They paywalled it. Not blocked it, paywalled it. Plausible deniability = none.

 

[maui_maxx]

It's not much, but I've reported the app for violating the rules. It's pretty easy to do. Unfortunately Google no longer has the motto "Don't be evil" so it will just be ignored.

 

[kvndoom]

So CSAM, revenge porn, and every other form of non-consensual sexual imagery is just fine with the Silicon Valley crowd so long as they're making a buck off of it. Or if they might have to penalize one of their own.

Because Musk very much is a creature of Silicon Valley.

Create your own virtual Epstein Island!

 

[thelongdarkteatimeof]

The extremely wealthy are the only people with class solidarity in this country.

That's what you get after generations of capitalism propaganda.

 

[thelongdarkteatimeof]

2P2B -- Too Profitable Too Ban: A commercial practice or product that is allowed to continue due to its profitability for supporters, even though it enables or commits acts that would be instantly condemned in a person.

Boeing

 

[metavirus]

Because money.
That is all.
That is all there ever is.

 

[Hadrian's Waller]

I believe the default setting for corporate behavior is "evil". It has been since the 1980's

Make that forever. See, e.g. Wikipedia:

History of union busting in the United States.​