Google Removed Catalonian Referendum App Following Spanish Court Order

from the this-seems-problematic dept

Mon, Oct 23rd 2017 1:39pm — Mike Masnick

Last month, we wrote about the crazy situation in Spain, where the government was so totally freaked out about a Catalonian referendum on independence that it shut down the operators of the .cat domain, arrested the company's head of IT for "sedition" and basically shut down a ton of websites about the referendum. The Washington Post now has an article with even more details about the digital attacks in both directions around the Catalonian independence referendum, including hack attacks and DDoS attacks. But one thing caught my eye. Apparently, the supporters of the referendum had created an app called "On Votar 1-Oct." The app had a bunch of the expected functions:

The app, available on Google Play until just before 7 p.m. on Friday, helps people to find their polling station via their address and shows the closest polling stations on Google Maps via GPS, the name of the town or keywords.

It also allows users to share links to polling station locations.

But the Spanish government was so freaked out by the referendum and anything related to it, that it ran and got a court order demanding Google take the app out of Google's app store:

The court order told Google Inc—at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View CA 94043 (USA)—to take down the app located at that URL and also to block or eliminate any future apps submitted by the user with e-mail address "onvotar1oct@gmail.com" or identifying as "Catalonia Voting Software".

The judge says in her ruling that the tweet with the app link is "only a continuation of the actions of the [Catalan government] to block" Constitutional Court and High Court orders "repeatedly".

In the Washington Post article, the CTO of the Catalonian government explains why this is so disappointing:

“I’m a tech guy,” says Jordi Puigneró, chief technology officer of the Catalonian government. “So I’ve always been a great fan of Google and its principles of respect for digital rights. But now I’m really disappointed with the company.” (Puigneró’s office was also occupied by police during the referendum, he says.)

And you can understand why he's disappointed. But, the real problem here, seems to be going back to the same problem we keep identifying over and over again: deep centralization of the digital world. Part of the very promise of Android was that it was supposed to be open, and people weren't supposed to be locked into just Google's app store. And, indeed, there are competing app stores -- but the general argument around them (with the possible exception of Amazon's competing Android app store) is that if you want to keep your device secure, you'll only download via Google's app store.

And then we're back to a problem where there's a centralized choke point for censorship -- one which the Spanish government is able to exploit to make that app much more difficult to access. Google, for its part, said it took the app down because it had received a valid court order. And, that's true, but it's also opening up yet another path to widespread censorship. Google has stood up against similar situations in the past, but the decision of whether or not a movement should be stifled should never come down to whether or not a giant company like Google decides its worth taking a moral stand against a legal court order. The problem is much more systemic, and its built into this world where we've started to build back up gatekeepers.

For nearly two decades, I've argued that the real power of the internet was not -- as many people initally argued -- that it got rid of "middlemen," but rather that the middlemen turned into enablers rather than gatekeepers. In the old world, when only some content could get released/published/sold/etc., you had to rely on gatekeepers to choose which tiny percentage would get blessed. The power of internet platforms was that they became enablers, allowing anyone to use those platforms and to publish/release/sell/distribute things themselves, often to a much wider audience. But there'a always a risk that over time, former enablers become gatekeepers. And it's a fear we should be very conscious about -- even if it's not done on purpose.

To be clear, I don't think Google wants to be a gatekeeper around things like apps. It would prefer not to be. But because the marketplace has become so important, and because Google's role is so central, it almost has no choice. And when governments start issuing court orders to take down apps, suddenly Google is left with few good options. Either it censors or it picks fights with a government. And even if many of us would probably support and cheer on the latter as a choice, we should be concerned that this is even an issue at all. The solution has to be less reliance on centralized platforms and centralized choke points. Catalonians shouldn't have to rely on Google to get a simple voting app out to the public. The next big breakthroughs need to be towards getting past such bottlenecks.

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Filed Under: bottlenecks, catalonia, democracy, election, independence, play store, points of failure, referendum, spain
Companies: google

33 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 23 Oct 2017 @ 1:59pm

But NO problem when Google chooses what will be censored?
"The New Censorship"
https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2016-06-22/google-is-the-worlds-biggest-censor-an d-its-power-must-be-regulated
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- Roger Strong (profile), 23 Oct 2017 @ 2:12pm
  
  Re: But NO problem when Google chooses what will be censored?
  Are you claiming that none of those issues have been covered or criticized here?
  
  Just so we know how to respond.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
    
    Anonymous Coward, 23 Oct 2017 @ 2:28pm
    
    Re: Re: But NO problem when Google chooses what will be censored?
    First, "Roger Strong", have you even read the link? There's plenty of statements there.
    
    Now, are you claiming that those issues have been covered or criticized by Techdirt? If so, give links.
    
    Who is this "we"? Are you part of Techdirt? Or just fancy yourself royalty?
    
    Just so I know how to respond. You go first with some STATEMENTS. I don't fall for the endless questions tactic, learned my lesson there from the now rare "nasch" and "Gwiz".
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - Anonymous Coward, 23 Oct 2017 @ 2:57pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: But NO problem when Google chooses what will be censored?
      I don't fall for endless questions tactic, says the person with a comment entirely composed of stupid questions.
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - Roger Strong (profile), 23 Oct 2017 @ 3:31pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: But NO problem when Google chooses what will be censored?
      Wooo; scare quotes! I'm posting with my real name. I'm assuming that you are too.
      
      There have been plenty of stories here criticizing Google. Sometimes followed up by posts joking about your claims that it doesn't happen. You've become a running gag.
      
      Most stories about Google are neither pro nor anti Google. They criticize various questionable government and litigant claims, with Google merely being the biggest and most obvious excuse for their butthurt or the ill health of their favorite dinosaurs.
      
      But do a simple Google search, and you'll find plenty of stories criticizing Google too. One about Google censorship a few weeks ago comes up on the first page of results.
      
      Let's call this what it actually is: Google has occasionally been hamfisted and stupid on how it handles YouTube on third party devices chiefly in order to exert a greater level of control it rarely actually achieves. In some ways this has all the hallmarks of a Sony-style way of doing business, which is an odd look for Google.
      
      On the second page of results, the headline:
      
      Thanks, Google, For Fucking Over A Bunch Of Media Websites
      
      Spoiler: It's not pro-Google.
      
      Naturally, one comment was voted Funny by the readers:
      
      Just more proof ...
      
      Clearly this is just more proof that Mike Masnick is a Google shill.
      
      Running gag. You may have hidden your name, but your core identity is well known.
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      - Her Majesty, The Queen of England, 23 Oct 2017 @ 6:36pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: But NO problem when Google chooses what will be censored?
        
        Wooo; scare quotes! I'm posting with my real name. I'm assuming that you are too.
        
        Me too, dear boy!
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    - Anonymous Coward, 23 Oct 2017 @ 5:47pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: But NO problem when Google chooses what will be censored?
      One should do their own research when attempting to defend a claim, challenging others to do your work for you is lame.
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - Anonymous Coward, 23 Oct 2017 @ 5:48pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: But NO problem when Google chooses what will be censored?
      Run away like you always do little boy.
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 23 Oct 2017 @ 2:05pm

'the real power of the internet was not -- as many people initally argued -- that it got rid of "middlemen," but rather that the middlemen turned into enablers rather than gatekeepers'

and this is exactly why industries like Hollywood, the movie and music industries are doing whatever it takes to stop this from happening and enabling them to remain as 'gatekeepers' stifling anything and everything that could effect their ability to lose control of what they think should never be anyone else but theirs to decide who can have, when, how, where and at what time point and price!
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- Anonymous Coward, 23 Oct 2017 @ 6:07pm
  
  Re:
  The legacy media players are also inextricably linked with the worst political cynics from the 20th century. Control over the distribution of "entertainment" and "news" was/is also control over political narratives. See:
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politico-media_complex
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Christenson, 23 Oct 2017 @ 2:17pm

Protocols, not platforms!
I think it's been said somewhere on Techdirt that central platforms (google, facebook, twitter, take your pick) are a problem in general, and this is why we need protocols, more along the lines of bittorrent. Bigness, in the platform space, is a problem.

Part two of this is that we really don't have secure computing platforms. We see this with the Kaspersky fracas this week; underneath it is the problem that I can't really trust my computer after I let *X* put their software on it.

LOL, What do you mean I don't have an independent way to verify that my *X* app isn't pilfering passwords out the back door?
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- Anonymous Coward, 23 Oct 2017 @ 2:37pm
  
  Re: Protocols, not platforms!
  Part two of this is that we really don't have secure computing platforms. ... LOL, What do you mean I don't have an independent way to verify that my X app isn't pilfering passwords out the back door?
  
  You kind of have that security. Even with 3rd-party app stores, apps don't get network access unless you allow it (I'm ignoring exfiltration via audio waves etc.).
  
  There's more than 1 centralization problem here:
  - Google('s automated systems) approve the apps
  - Google distribute the apps
  - Google know who they're distributing to
  It doesn't have to be like that. Google's app-scanners could sign the apps and send them back to the author to distribute, or to archive.org or bittorrent or a whole network of unaffiliated servers. They could use Tor so they don't know who's downloading what. They'd need some sort of revocation system, preferably accounting for the lessons of ocsp-pinning... and they could use different failure codes and allow the user to override it. "Revoked due to malware" and "revoked due to a legal order" could show separately on the GUI.
  
  A signature-based system would be "protocols not platforms", and could be easily extended with extra signatures: "Google says it's not malware", "F-Droid says it's free software" etc. It doesn't even require new technology.
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flyinginn (profile), 23 Oct 2017 @ 2:42pm

Protocols and Apps
Platforms are increasingly locations for international disputes about ownership of ideas and legitimacy of expression. If they have a location and a legally-identifiable owner, they are vulnerable. So protocols, and I wonder if something like Ethereum is a workable direction for distributed, unlocated, unattributable applications? It puts security back into the realm of consensuality instead of owned authority.
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MyNameHere (profile), 23 Oct 2017 @ 5:46pm

Risk v reward
Google (and most of the other big players) have products and services in almost every country that has significant value to them. With almost 50 million people, Spain is a larger market than Canada, as an example. Google wouldn't want to risk their rest of their business in order to support a separatist faction.

Google has little choice but to follow the law here. The Spanish courts could have easily moved to have the play store blocked at the ISP level. or perhaps moved on Google's offices in Spain with an injunction or restraining order that may have even shut them down until they complied.

Also, let's be clear here: Google has played fast and loose when it comes to tax avoidance for the last decade. Pissing off the Spanish government would lead to further scrutiny, and that could lead to a billion dollar tax bill. I doubt Google wants to take the chance of rocking anyones boat.

It's not Google's fight to fight. If the separatists want their app re-instated, they need to go to the court and complain. It's their fight. In the same way you can't buy certain products at a Wal-Mart, it's not the retailer to argue the case, it's the maker.

Google has it's own interests, and those aren't risking it's business to help a few seperatists - no matter how good or noble the cause.
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- Anonymous Coward, 23 Oct 2017 @ 7:54pm
  
  Re: Risk v reward
  Google tried following the law once, when Spanish newspapers ordered Google to pay them through the nose or leave. When Google agreed to pull out, the same newspapers threw a tantrum.
  
  Following the law doesn't protect you. Even a sycophant screaming "the law is the law is the law" will backpedal like a swimmer getting savaged by a shark, if it serves his shilling, authoritarian purposes.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Sok Puppette (profile), 23 Oct 2017 @ 5:56pm

And, indeed, there are competing app stores -- but the general argument around them (with the possible exception of Amazon's competing Android app store) is that if you want to keep your device secure, you'll only download via Google's app store.

Yeah, that's the argument generally made by Google's PR flacks and their dupes. It never has made any sense at all, mind you.

Google's checks aren't particularly effective, and Google Play is the number one distributor of Android malware just like it's the number one distributor of all Android software.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Oct 2017 @ 6:32pm

Valid?

Google, for its part, said it took the app down because it had received a valid court order. And, that's true,

Really? Spanish court orders are valid in Mountain View, California? Since when? What about Turkish or Thai or Russian or Sharia court orders?
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- Roger Strong (profile), 23 Oct 2017 @ 7:23pm
  
  Re: Valid?
  Google does business in Spain, so they're subject to Spanish law. Should foreign-headquartered multinationals operating in the US ignore American court orders?
  
  Of course, context is important. If the app were about Texas or Vermont separatists, they probably could and would ignore a Spanish court.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 24 Oct 2017 @ 4:50am
    
    Re: Re: Valid?
    
    Google does business in Spain, so they're subject to Spanish law.
    
    According to the article, "The court order told Google Inc—at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View CA 94043 (USA)—to take down the app". Notice that's Google in the USA, not Google in Spain.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - Roger Strong (profile), 24 Oct 2017 @ 6:15am
      
      Re: Re: Re: Valid?
      The local office may have referred them to head office. Or maybe the case was defended from head office. Regardless of why, Google does business in Spain, so they're subject to Spanish law.
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
      - Anonymous Coward, 25 Oct 2017 @ 11:00am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Valid?
        "Google does business in Spain, so they're subject to Spanish law."
        
        In California.
        I see.
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Oct 2017 @ 12:18am

Google should have told the Spanish government to go to hell.

Google's servers are in the United States, therefore, they ONLY have to comply with AMERICAN laws.
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- Anonymous Coward, 24 Oct 2017 @ 12:56am
  
  Re:
  
  Google's servers are in the United States, therefore, they ONLY have to comply with AMERICAN laws.
  
  Wrong they are wordlwide, which is why Google is fighting the US government) to avoid handing over emails
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  - Anonymous Coward, 24 Oct 2017 @ 3:44am
    
    Re: Re:
    However, if they keep that app on their US servers, Spanish law has no jurisdiction.
    
    Google's app stored is hosted in the United States. There, apps sold from their US servers only have to comply with United States law.
    
    Just like when I ran an online radio station, and also ran a free VPN to allow people to bypass workplace filters to listen, becuase the VPN was hosted in my apartment in Sacramento, California, that VPN was ONLY subject to American laws. In other words, laws in Oman, Pakistan, and Iran, that specifically outlaw VPNs without a VPN license did not apply to my server.
    
    My VPN server was not subject to the laws of any country, other than the United States. I only only had to obey American law when it came to that VPN/Proxy.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - Roger Strong (profile), 24 Oct 2017 @ 6:18am
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      So a foreign multinational doing business in the US - with offices in the US - isn't subject to US law because their servers are elsewhere?
      
      Good to know.
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      - Anonymous Coward, 25 Oct 2017 @ 11:06am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re:
        "So a foreign multinational doing business in the US - with offices in the US - isn't subject to US law because their servers are elsewhere?"
        
        Wait. I thought that if they did any kind of business at all in a country, then all of their operations worldwide were subject to that country's laws. That isn't so? Now you're confusing us!
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- orbitalinsertion (profile), 24 Oct 2017 @ 12:56am
  
  Re:
  Google's servers are everywhere, not that this is particularly relevant.
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DannyB (profile), 24 Oct 2017 @ 6:04am

Google helping to maintain law and order
Google is simply helping Spain protect the best interests of the Catalonian people by suppressing their right to vote, silencing the chaos of people expressing their worthless opinions, and most important of all, denying them the right to choose how and by whom they will be governed. What could go wrong? The latest polls indicate that 98% of world dictators agree.
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- Si seguro, 25 Oct 2017 @ 5:01am
  
  Re: Google helping to maintain law and order
  You mean suppressing the right of a group of people to vote to decide for everybody else, using everybody money to pay for the vote. The latest poll indicate that 100% of oligarchs and dictators are against suppressing it.
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Oct 2017 @ 8:45am

Attention!

Breaking News ..... Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.
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Dan T., 24 Oct 2017 @ 1:06pm

Catalan situation
You can expect a lot more such court orders in the near future as Spain moves to take control of the Catalan government and the Catalan public and local officials move to obstruct this (expected by the end of this week). Spain will probably issue all sorts of demands of various Internet companies seeking control of websites, domains, email accounts, social media accounts, apps, and so on that are in the name of various parts of the Catalan government. If Catalonia goes forward with declaring independence, it may convene its own courts to issue orders of its own.
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- Si seguro, 25 Oct 2017 @ 5:24am
  
  Re: Catalan situation
  You mean, former Catalan public and local officials. If the Spanish government decide to temporally stop the delegation of authority to the Catalan officials they are not officials anymore. By the Spanish constitution the political authority comes from the Spanish people, from all people of Spain.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 25 Oct 2017 @ 11:09am
    
    Re: Re: Catalan situation
    I wasn't expecting the Spanish Inquisition!
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