Nazi and Hitler phone themes in the Google Android Market.

[onehandle]

Waiter, there's a Nazi theme in my Android Market

Earlier tonight our friend Michael Gartenberg tweeted that when he went to the Android Market to search for the word "Jewish," a number of Nazi and Hitler themes turned up. Of course, we had to take a look for ourselves, and sure enough, the search for a fairly innocuous word related to a religion and culture turns up skins which are disgustingly, hatefully pro-Nazism and pro-Hitler. That's a problem, no matter how you look at this.

In the past, we've railed against Apple for its confusing, unfair, and often absurd App Store policies, particularly when it comes to the policing of applications based on content, not code. Steve Jobs has made a point during press conferences to say that the Android Market allows porn apps -- which of course set off a furious debate. Sadly, what Jobs should have pointed out was that the Market allows something far more insidious and damaging than even the hardest-core pornography -- apps that spread hate and propagate the views of a movement that is pretty much universally reviled.

And here's where we have to take a 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 on mobile devices (and elsewhere). Let's be clear about this right off the bat -- an app store isn't the internet. It's not a free-for-all, it's not an open venue where any type of wares might be hawked. The whole point of these app portals is to provide a controlled service to your users that has guidelines and rules that make getting software onto your phone relatively easy and safe. Whether or not you have stringent policies for what you'll accept (Apple), or few (Google), no one should pretend that this isn't a siloed service that must have rails to operate.

So the question becomes: what are your limits? If you say absolutely no censorship, does it apply to hate-speak? If you say yes to porn, does it mean yes to Hitler themes that appear when you search for seemingly unrelated terms? Does being open mean accepting everything? Or do we have to set some reasonable limits for what we will and won't tolerate?

http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/13/editorial-waiter-theres-a-nazi-theme-in-my-android-market/

[YOY]

1. You want to laugh at some stupid Nazis? Google "Mongolian Skinheads".

Yes...Asian Skinheads...

[dickthegrouch]

2. Maybe Google's "Do no Evil" motto can be invoked /nt