I was posting some comments on Reddit, in the “Privacy” subreddit, about better privacy options than Android or iOS—like GrapheneOS. I just received a message from the bot deleting my posts that mentioned GrapheneOS or other privacy-friendly operating systems. I accept this, since I’m not the owner of the subreddit. But with all due respect, what’s the point of having a place to discuss privacy if comments recommending great privacy-focused OS alternatives get deleted? I don’t get it.

It seems like people in that community want privacy, but apparently not enough to have an open discussion about alternatives. Sure, some people might disagree—that’s normal in any discussion! Should we stop talking about the NSA because some people support what they do? I doubt anyone would suggest that.

Am I missing something here? Maybe I just don’t understand the reasoning.

  • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    16
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    4 days ago

    Eh, I get the rule. On the surface, it seems stupid because the subject of rom options is pretty integral to privacy

    However, discussion of roms tends to always devolve into what amounts to fanboyism at some point. You end up with a lot of “yeah, but” and “but they are/aren’t” that covers the same ground every single time, and users have to wade through the bullshit to get to anything useful.

    It’s the same conversation every time, so you reach a point where it’s better to just outright ban rom/os so that other issues aren’t drowned by that.

    It’s damned if you don’t damned if you do, there’s no good choice, so you make the choice that’s less hassle on average