Google Play has delisted UpScrolled, the “censorship-resistant” social media app founded by Issam Hijazi, following its rapid growth to over 2.5 million users and its brief stint as a top-ranked alternative to TikTok.

While the app remains available for existing users, Google has not provided a specific reason for the removal; UpScrolled’s team confirmed they are working with the Play Store for reinstatement while maintaining their commitment to unfiltered content.

This development follows the app’s rapid ascent in popularity, particularly amid concerns over content moderation on competing platforms like TikTok.

  • kadu@scribe.disroot.orgEnglish
    108·
    3 months ago

    Reminder that Google is on it’s third attempt to prevent or limit the installation of APKs outside of the Play Store, meaning they are near the point they can effectively control what apps people run.

      • Squizzy@lemmy.worldEnglish
        40·
        3 months ago

        Do it now, use obtainium, droidfy and aurora. Nearly every app works except google wallet.

        • SpezCanLigmaBalls@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          3 months ago

          My only problem stopping me is I use my phone for work too. Microsoft auth, outlook. Mostly just auth. I was looking it up a bit ago and people said it breaks it for work accounts

            • shane@feddit.nlEnglish
              15·
              3 months ago

              Or ask your work to give you a phone?

              My company insists on spyware for my phone, so I insist they give me a phone for work stuff. I leave it off in a drawer at home when I’m not on call.

            • Zombie@feddit.ukEnglish
              6·
              3 months ago

              I’d recommend demanding work getting a cheap budget phone.

              If they require you have work software they can provide the hardware to run it.

              Your phone is your phone.

          • Saljid@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            3 months ago

            I currently use MS Auth on my Graphene OS phone. Have installed Play Services on that profile, though

          • pirat@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            3 months ago

            The MS auth I need for a work VPN has been set up to call my phone instead, letting me sign in by tapping the # button after answering the phone call from MS.

  • Pika@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    24·
    3 months ago

    De-listed where? It’s listed still for me.

    I’m guessing it was a regional de-listment and it just wasn’t specified.

    Being said, this page was enough to make me install the app, still unsure if I wanna use it or not but, I don’t wanna risk losing the ability to install the app either.

      • ben@lemmy.zipEnglish
        61·
        3 months ago

        The more I work for tech companies the more I genuinely end up believing that stuff like this being removed is in fact just incompetence at least 50% of the time

        • BreadstickNinja@lemmy.worldEnglish
          10·
          3 months ago

          A lot of companies seem to automatically delist things that get mass reported, which makes them subject to interference by armies of paid or unpaid trolls. Hopefully the issue gets corrected but this seems to happen more and more frequently.

        • fortnitefinn@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          6·
          3 months ago

          I work in tech too, and I’m convinced almost none of these abusive tactics are the result of incompetence.

          The abuse is the point. They need to constantly remind people who is in charge.

      • fortnitefinn@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        2·
        3 months ago

        This is what Google does. They censor content and keep it gone as long as there isn’t a sufficient retaliation.

        It’s what they did to remove AdNauseam from their addon repository. The only difference is nobody fought back so it remains gone to this day without justifiable reason.

    • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
      6·
      3 months ago

      The devs confirmed it was delisted. Not sure what its current status is. Seeing mixed messages online so it might be regional delisting or it might have been restored.

    • scala@lemmy.mlEnglish
      71·
      3 months ago

      Don’t use brave it’s still chromium/ pays Google

        • scala@lemmy.mlEnglish
          3·
          3 months ago

          Waterfox ftw.

          Honestly Firefox is fine for now until they add their AI shit

            • scala@lemmy.mlEnglish
              2·
              3 months ago

              Right. I saw that. That’s good to bad it’s opt-out rather than opt in. Applaud Firefox for that though, rather than everyone else shoving it down your throat the second you sign in.

      • nforminvasion@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        3 months ago

        And yet it has some of the best fingerprint randomization techniques. Down to some insane details. And before you say, just use the Tor browser for that… I do. But that is a different type of resistance, uniformity. Which is great for some use cases, but randomization also works even better in other situations… Eg, personalized browsers with a few extra extensions and customizations.

    • QuandaleDingle@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      My main problem now is that Google has a monopoly on the Android app store. Plus, most banking apps use play services, so good luck using your own phone ROM.

    • TractorDuffy@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      the only thing I can’t replace yet is Maps. reviews, photos, in-trip driving instructions, it’s just so full-featured I can’t imagine myself without it

  • voodooattack@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2412·
    3 months ago

    Clickbait? The developer is Palestinian/Australian, the app’s audience is global, and it’s not just Palestine-specific. So what’s up with the sensationalised title?

    • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
      221·
      3 months ago

      It’s an app developed by a Palestinian which got popular because of recent increasing censorship on TikTok and Instagram against Palestine.

      • voodooattack@lemmy.worldEnglish
        75·
        3 months ago

        I’m aware. But it’s not just Palestine being censored, it’s currently anything the current U.S administration doesn’t like. So anything anti-trump/Zionist/Israel/ICE falls into this category.

        I’m saying the title is misleading because it could be construed as “a social media app/platform specifically made for Palestinians”, which is what most people that haven’t heard of the app before would assume by reading the title alone.

        • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
          121·
          3 months ago

          That’s true but most of the hammer is coming down on Palestine content right now. Netanyahu publicly said the goal of the TikTok purchase was to censor for Israel and they’re pulling out all the stops. ICE content isn’t nearly as censored as Palestine content atm

    • bossito@lemmy.worldEnglish
      12·
      3 months ago

      If anything the app is Australian, Australian made, the developers are in Australia… this is clickbait

  • MochiGoesMeow@lemmy.zipEnglish
    10·
    3 months ago

    I hope Europe makes their own App Store and sells cool flip phones like they have in Japan.

    Sell it to us too.

    Kindly, An American wanting to starve the corrupt beast of my government.

  • CovfefeKills@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    3 months ago

    It’s back I am downloading it now. Good guy google with the streisand effect.

    E: Oh it’s just isreal hating which is fun and all but doesn’t get anyone anywhere but a list lol

  • merdaverse@lemmy.zipEnglish
    51·
    3 months ago

    Has anyone here actually tried the app? The first (and thankfully last) time I tried it, it was full of nazis and actual CSAM. Maybe too censorship resistant for its own good??