Google employees can pat themselves on the back for a job well done putting the same hurdles in place for software development that apply in a country 3rd last on the World Press Freedom Index.[1][2]
See for example Rosado et al. v. Blanche et al., 1:26-cv-01532[1] which is an active case addressing whether the US federal government suppressed the first amendment rights of the "Eyes Up" application developer by pressuring Apple to remove this application for crowd-sourced recording/reporting of ICE incidents. An injunction has been granted with the following finding:[2]
"the Court finds that Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits of their claim that Defendants violated their First Amendment rights through coercion of Facebook and Apple."
My reference to a press freedom index is due to a lack of "countries by freedom of software development" index. If such index existed, the methodology may have some commonality with a press freedom index.
Placing barriers in front of publishing of books, online content, software, etc all leads to some suppression of speech. The question is whether the benefits of the barriers placed outweigh the risks/negatives. In this case, why should anyone care what the passport number or residential address is of a student interested in a career in software development who is writing their first Android game?
dhx · · focus · HN ↗
[1] <a href="https://developer.huawei.com/consumer/en/doc/start/rna-0000001062530373" rel="nofollow">https://developer.huawei.com/consumer/en/doc/start/rna-00000...
[2] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Press_Freedom_Index#Rankings_and_scores_by_country_or_places" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Press_Freedom_Index#Rank...
ChrisRR · · focus · HN ↗
dhx · · focus · HN ↗
"the Court finds that Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits of their claim that Defendants violated their First Amendment rights through coercion of Facebook and Apple."
My reference to a press freedom index is due to a lack of "countries by freedom of software development" index. If such index existed, the methodology may have some commonality with a press freedom index.
Placing barriers in front of publishing of books, online content, software, etc all leads to some suppression of speech. The question is whether the benefits of the barriers placed outweigh the risks/negatives. In this case, why should anyone care what the passport number or residential address is of a student interested in a career in software development who is writing their first Android game?
[1] <a href="https://www.fire.org/cases/rosado-et-al-v-blanche-et-al" rel="nofollow">https://www.fire.org/cases/rosado-et-al-v-blanche-et-al
[2] <a href="https://www.fire.org/sites/default/files/2026/04/Memorandum%20Opinion%20and%20Order%20Granting%20Motion%20for%20Preliminary%20Injunction%20-%20Rosado%20v.%20Blanche.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.fire.org/sites/default/files/2026/04/Memorandum%...