Comments by "XSportSeeker" (@XSpImmaLion) on "Elon Musk threatens Apple u0026 Google with making his own phone: a win for tech freedom!" video.

  1. I partially agree with some stuff you said Louis, but there are also several caveats there... First, a matter of who is leading this. I don't believe at all that Musk will really get into making his own phone if Google and Apple decides to block Twitter on respective app stores, unless he's even more of an idiot than I already think he is, which is always possible since the bar is getting lower and lower everyday... one way or another Musk is, like many with his mentality, not actually a "freedom absolutist" as he so much preaches, but rather a "my freedom tramples over the rights of others" type guy. So, he wouldn't vouch for a device that just lets people reach Twitter... he'd vouch for a device with a walled garden taller than that of Apple and Google, that aligns itself with his own political and ideological views, while trampling over everything else that goes against him. Twitter is already a shinning example of that. He's not for the freedom of everyone, he's only for the freedom of himself and those that aligns with him - that's the truth of it. He wants to talk sh*t without consequences, he wants platforms that allow him to do that, and he wants everyone who is criticizing his position to get banned, censored, fired, or just shut up. Other than that, he just doesn't know what he's talking about yet on building a phone and handling an app store by himself, much like he didn't know how to handle Twitter better or how it really worked when he announced he was going to buy it. Not sure if he learned a lesson there though. Now, as for apks, we already had a pretty clear example of what happens with that going on with Epic. There has been much back and forth in this case, but we have a clear example of what happens when a big app goes outside Google Play Store with the developer explicitly telling people to install it as an independent apk - this is the case of Fortnite. Back sometime in 2018 Epic voluntarily took Fortnite outside Google Play Store for disagreements on the 30% imposed Play Store tax, telling people to install it as an independent apk. What ensued after that was: 1. A huge drop in people playing Fortnite on Android. Because most people can't bother, don't know, don't care or simply don't want to install apks for a given functionality. Mind you, this was the most popular game on Android back then, period. It was one of the most popular mobile games all around; 2. Epic getting flooded with complaints about the apk not working properly, malware problems, etc. Which the security community warned would happen, of course it did; 3. Fortnite quietly coming back to Google Play Store in 2020, with Epic still complaining about the whole deal, not admitting they were wrong in their decision, because now they have an ongoing lawsuit. I'd put sources here, but don't trust me, check for yourself. What is the essencial problem here? Well, I'm also old enough to remember the times of WinXP and back even further, when I was a kid the OS of choice was DOS. xD So... the problem here is that the exact same thing that gave unreasonable control to big tech, is also the thing that made these OSs so convenient to use, and attracted so many people to use them. To the point that potentially, the vast majority of people using smartphones these days cannot operate on a level that WinXP days demanded. We want for people to be more aware on these things, to do their own research, to understand how to operate outside walled gardens, and for the domination and control of big tech to diminish somehow... I do too, on this level I agree with Louis. But at the same time, we cannot be blind about people who simply don't want to deal with any of that, and I fear that it's simply the majority of people. It's a tyranny of the majority situation. They want to trade control for convenience, even if this control is at the hands of arbitrary big tech decisions. On this part, Musk is probably unintentionally right when he says he'll just do a phone on his own... because the absolute vast majority of Twitter users wanting to use the app won't be able and won't care about installing apks, installing custom ROMs, installing alternate app stores, etc... the better strategy there is for Musk to sell a Tesla phone or Twitter phone that comes with everything pre-installed. Problem is, if Musk is already at odds with Google on this, I'm not sure if Google will get in a contract with Musk for those. And then you have a phone with Twitter pre-installed, but not Google Play Store, which is the problem Huawei has nowadays on selling their phones in the western market. I'm not sure if people wants Twitter so much they'd pick a phone that doesn't come with Google Play Store with it. I mean, some will, but probably the vast majority wouldn't. But let's say Musk somehow manages to make a Twitter phone with the app pre-installed and also get Google to sanction the device... at the first sign this phone isn't getting security and regular updates, that it's kind of a crappy phone which only advantage is having Twitter on it, and that Musk only did it to enforce his personal political views on the thing - well, it's not going to be able to really compete with anyone else, right? I guess it sends a message, but I really doubt a Musk phone would be competent in any bullet point a modern phone is supposed to be. So in the end, it'd go the same route that Twitter is going. Perhaps it won't get outright killed, but it's relevance will just die down once all the scandals are over. I do agree that it's a marginally good thing to expose the level of arbitrary control that big tech platforms have, but then again, I lost count on how many examples we had over the years of arbitrary control that big tech platforms have with none of those having any effect on what people are paying for. With Twitter, if the argument becomes completely political, it'll be a 50-50 split more or less, and then it has even less chances of really being a thing that most people care about. And let's be honest about it here - with how chaotic the situation currently is at Twitter, with rampant false impersonation, scams, exploitation and whatnot going on without moderation and without control, is it really wrong for Google and Apple to impose the same sanctions and restrictive policies on Twitter based on the same rules that they imposed against other apps like Gab, Parler, Infowars and whatnot? I don't personally think they are being inconsistent there. They didn't ban Twitter just yet, but depending on how things go, they are saying they might, because it could end up violating the exact same terms of services that other banned apps did. So... I dunno what to say more here. It seems like as so many other Musk tweets, this is much ado about nothing.
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