=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2737/paper02
|storemode=property
|title=Hard-coded Censorship in Open Source Mastodon Clients — How Free is Open Source?
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2737/FP_6.pdf
|volume=Vol-2737
|authors=Juhani Naskali
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/tethics/Naskali20
}}
==Hard-coded Censorship in Open Source Mastodon Clients — How Free is Open Source?==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2737/FP_6.pdf
Proceedings of the Conference on Technology Ethics 2020 - Tethics 2020
Hard-coded censorship in Open Source Mastodon clients — How
Free is Open Source?
Long paper
Juhani Naskali 0000-0002-7559-2595
Information Systems Science,
Turku School of Economics, University of Turku
Turku, Finland
juhani.naskali@utu.fi
Abstract. This article analyses hard-coded domain blocking in open source soft-
ware, using the GPL3-licensed Mastodon client Tusky as a case example. First, the
question of whether such action is censorship is analysed. Second, the licensing
compliance of such action is examined using the applicable open-source software
and distribution licenses. Domain blocking is found to be censorship in the literal
definition of the word, as well as possibly against some the used Google distribu-
tion licenses — though some ambiguity remains, which calls for clarifications in the
agreement terms. GPL allows for functionalities that limit the use of the software,
as long as end-users are free to edit the source code and use a version of the appli-
cation without such limitations. Such software is still open source, but no longer
free (as in freedom). A multi-disciplinary ethical examination of domain blocking
will be needed to ascertain whether such censorship is ethical, as all censorship is
not necessarily wrong.
Keywords: open source, FOSS, censorship, domain blocking, licensing terms
1 Introduction
New technologies constantly create new challenges. Old laws and policies cannot al-
ways predict future possibilities, and sometimes need to be re-examined. Open source
software is a licensing method to freely distribute software code, but also an ideology of
openness and inclusiveness, especially when it comes to FOSS (Free and Open-source
software). But how does openness and inclusiveness coexist with intolerance and pos-
sibly hateful content?
Mastodon is a free and open-source social network, sometimes also called a mi-
croblogging service. Notable features of Mastodon include interoperability and federa-
tion, which allow everyone to run their own instance of Mastodon or another standard
complying server software, and have their users’ messages federated to other instances
using the ActivityPub standard. (Rochko, 2018; TootSuite, 2019) This allows people
Copyright © 2020 for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons
License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
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using one site or instance to communicate with users on other instances, similarly to
how email works. One characteristic of a federated system is that it is decentralized, so
there is no single entity that has the ability to censor all users or posts. Each Mastodon
instance has its own rules for membership and moderation, and Mastodon includes tools
for individual users to block messages from specific users or instances.
While it is possible to use Mastodon with a browser, it can be more convenient
to use a native client application. There are many Mastodon clients for desktops and
mobile devices, which allow you to communicate using your Mastodon account, no
matter which instance you are using — or at least that used to be the case.
Gab (https://gab.com) is a microblogging instance based on Mastodon, which claims
that it ”champions free speech, individual liberty and the free flow of information on-
line”, but is considered by many to contain extreme hate speech. Gab has caused uproar
in the media, and has subsequently been blocked by Paypal (McKay, 2019). Their mo-
bile applications have been removed from Google Play Store and Apple Store (Lee,
2017).
Many Mastodon client programs have now implemented hardcoded blocks for Gab
users. This paper examines the legality and ethicality of open source client programs
hard-coding blocklists in their applications, using the Android Mastodon client Tusky
and its GPL-3.0 (GNU General Public License v3.0) licensing terms as a case example.
2 Case: Rickrolling Gab users in Mastodon client Tusky
2.1 Rickrolling instead of logging in
On 17th of June 2019, a change was made to the Mastodon social media client Tusky
that prevents some users from logging in, and instead redirects unsuspecting users to
a famous 1987 music video of Rick Astley’s song ”Never Gonna Give You Up” in a
common internet gag familiarly coined as ”rickrolling”. The codechange is relatively
simple. It checks if the user’s domain is ’gab.com’ or ’gab.io’ (or a subdomain thereof),
and opens a browser view of the specified youtube url based on this check. (Tusky,
2019a) The change renders the app unusable with Gab accounts, as they are unable to
log in.
The officially distributed versions of Tusky include this functionality and can be
downloaded from F-droid, Google Play or Amazon Appstore. Removing the block
requires changing the code and compiling it yourself, which is outside the expertise of
most smartphone users.
2.2 Functionality announcement and discussion
Tusky’s block-implementing merge commit was made with the comment ”Rick roll
instead of logging in on selected domains. This is not censorship, but rather a choice by
this house who will facilitate our services to.” (Tusky, 2019a) There are no comments
on the code changing merge commit, but the pull request introducing the code change
gathered 167 comments before it was locked down as off topic by the developers (Tusky,
2019b).
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The Tusky pull request mentions it is a copy of a similar earlier implementation in
Sengi app, where a commit titled ”added a little check” created the rickroll effect for the
same group of users (NicolasConstant, 2019). The change in Sengi was announced on
Mastodon in a humorous toot (a Mastodon post, similar to a tweet on Twitter) containing
a video clip and the text ”Here is what will happen if someone tries to log-in with a #gab
account in #sengi :smirk:” (Sengi, 2019).
While Sengi’s change made it through without much notice, Tusky’s pull request
generated a lot of heated discussion. Some people commented in favor of the change
while others were against it, thought it might be illegal — or agreed in principle but
thought that rickrolling was not the most productive way of blocking people. Fascism
and Nazis were mentioned. The moderation team ended up locking the comment thread
citing the amount of moderation work required. (Tusky, 2019b)
F-Droid is a repository for FOSS (free and open-source software) on Android plat-
form. They issued a statement (F-droid, 2019) after a lot of user discussion about
whether they should block Mastodon clients based on whether they implement blocking
or not. The discussion was later taken down, but can still be accessed through the Inter-
net Archive at https://web.archive.org/web/20190711065044/https://forum.f-droid.org/t/tusky-
is-nonfree/6448.
All in all, the topic has generated quite a wide array of discussion and elicited strong
emotions in people. There is no clear consensus on whether such domain blocking is
in accordance to GPL licensing, whether it is considered censorship or whether it is
ethical.
2.3 Other Mastodon clients
Gab is also censored on other Mastodon clients: Amaroq, Mastalab, Mastodome have
all implemented similar blocking features (Mastodome, 2019; Fedilab, 2019b; Amaroq,
2019) and Toot! on iOS also blocks Gab users according to their Mastodon announce-
ment1 .
”- I didn’t receive a reply from Google policy team about a potential ban
of the application.
- Without the previous risk, I clearly think that’s not my role. I can’t hard-
code instance blocks especially when every tools are [sic.] here for that.
- If you want a strong block, it’s in the hands of social network developers
or your admins.” (Fedilab, 2019a)
Mastodon does include tools for users to block other users or instances from show-
ing for themselves, and there are tools for instance administrators to do the same for all
their users. Nevertheless, the percentage of Mastodon apps implementing hard-coded
domain block is quite high, which means that while it’s not true that blocked users do
not have access to any Mastodon clients — and indeed even if this was the case, they
could still use a browser to use their chosen service, even without coding skills — their
options are noticeably limited.
1 https://mastodon.social/@tootapp/102185365923885685
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After domain blocking was implemented, an uncensored version of Tusky was re-
leased on Google Play2 , making it possible for Gab users to keep using Tusky. This
unofficial version was later blocked by Google. Even if modified versions would still
be available, using them would require users to trust the distributor of the unofficial
version.
2.4 Reasons for using Tusky as a case study
Censorship in sourcecode is highly interesting to begin with, and this is one of the first
recorded cases of hard-coded censorship based on the user’s chosen platform, instance
or service provider. It has also been traditional for client programs to be provider-
agnostic, working on any and all providers of the supported protocols, and this type
of service-specific blocking is new, especially in open source software. It is techni-
cally analogous to Outlook email program not working for Gmail users (though such a
hypothetical case would be ideologically very different).
This type of service restriction is not directly considered in current licensing and
policy texts. It is possible that the emergence of this new type of restriction on users
necessitates some reviews in open source licensing terms and/or developer policies.
One of the motivations with GPL-3.0 version was to restrict the use of DRM (Digital
Rights Management) and patents to limit the rights of end-users to change software:
”It [GPLv3] doesn’t forbid DRM, or any kind of feature. It places no limits
on the substantive functionality you can add to a program, or remove from
it. Rather, it makes sure that you are just as free to remove nasty features
as the distributor of your copy was to add them.
[...]
The explicit patent license of GPLv3 makes sure companies that use the
GPL to give users the four freedoms cannot turn around and use their
patents to tell some users, ’That doesn’t include you.’” (Stallman, 2014)
3 Is hard-coded domain blocking censorship?
3.1 Definition of censorship
While the Tusky commit message claims this is not censorship (Tusky, 2019a), it clearly
fits the dictionary definition in Encyclopedia Britannica:
”Censorship, the changing or the suppression or prohibition of speech or
writing that is deemed subversive of the common good. It occurs in all
manifestations of authority to some degree, but in modern times it has been
of special importance in its relation to government and the rule of law.”
The code change does suppress writing by Gab users, so it fits the definition of
censorship. The developers and distributors of Tusky have authority over the app and
2 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=codes.lin.tuskyuncensored
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their userbase, though their authority is not as direct as in case of governments, where
censorship is backed by law.
Merriam-Webster’s definition of the verb censor is even more terse: ”to examine in
order to suppress or delete anything considered objectionable censor the news also : to
suppress or delete as objectionable” and also fits domain blocking.
3.2 Hard and soft censorship
One reply to Tusky’s Pull request (Tusky, 2019b) by GitHub user twisterghost (Michael
Barrett) brings up a compelling point: ”As stated before, tusky is a convenience layer
and open source. The official app and the maintainers are humans, and they have every
right to take the app in whatever direction they see is best. If people absolutely must,
they can fork and remove this limitation, and distribute that. The license explicitly
allows it.”
The point about Tusky being a ”convenience layer” is a valid one — the censored
users can still speak freely using other means. They are only blocked from using specific
software. As such it cannot be considered a case of hard censorship, where the content
of the expressed opinions is deleted, but it can be likened to soft censorship, where
opinions are suppressed by withholding payments or applying other kinds of pressure.
More on this in 3.4.
3.3 Transparency, chilling effect and other censorship considerations
There are some common considerations, when examining cases of soft censorship. One
of these is the chilling effect of unclearly defined or untransparent censorship. If there
are rules in place that punish (e.g. through monetary losses) for publishing some con-
tent, but the limits of what can and cannot be said are unclear, this acts as deterrence —
a chilling effect — against any content that could conceiveably be considered contro-
versial, even if such content would not clearly break any explicit rules (Schauer, 1978).
Open source is, by nature, transparent. All censored domains can be clearly seen
in the freely posted source code (Tusky, 2019b), so knowledge of what is censored is
public, though perhaps not easily found. As such, there is no opaqueness in the actual
censorship process, which could contribute to a chilling effect.
There still might be a slight chilling effect caused by the unclear reason given for
this act of censorship, as it seems that the change was accepted only because the creators
of Tusky deemed Gab to be disagreeable to them, and by their definition, harmful. They
might be correct in their assessment, but the users of Tusky are subjected to subjective
decisions on what to censor and what not to censor. Still, it is unclear how this could
contribute to a chilling effect, as users’ activities are not censored directly.
The chilling effect should also be considered in the wider picture of such blocks also
being implemented in other ways, such as Mastodon instances blocking other instances.
Prima facie, it seems like the psychological effects of blocking instances or platforms
instead of user activities would be considerably different. This question, however, is
outside the scope of this paper.
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3.4 Blocking users based on their service provider is censorship
While hardcoded domain blocking in a particular software application only prevents
users from accessing their service via that specific application, it still suppresses a spe-
cific means of expression. This fits the dictionary definition of censorship, even though
the action is very different from hard govermental censorship, where published content
is removed. Historically, only censorship of news outlets was considered censorship be-
cause little else was pertinent to the spread of expression. In modern times, it is possible
to censor the spread of information without actually removing content, by for example
removing search results or preventing access with blocklists in the readers’ internet
connection. Such acts are censorship, even if they do not directly remove published
material.
Imagine a keyboard manufacturer whose keyboards do not work for writing any-
thing that goes against the company’s political views. Avoiding one such keyboard
brand to express yourself would be irritating. Avoiding ten would get difficult. If all
keyboard manufacturers (hardware and software) join the blocking effort, we get some-
thing close to total censorship. While such imaginary censorship keyboards are far from
practical, there are some parallels to blocking users inside applications. While domain
blocking is not complete censorship of certain viewpoints, especially when not widely
coordinated, it would be disengenious to say it is not censorship at all.
Another, perhaps more fruitful, perspective is to note that software utilizing domain
blocking is no longer free in the sense that it doesn’t allow its users to use the software
freely, but instead imposes limits on how the software is to be used. Sidestepping the
definition of censorship, it is clear that the software’s use is being limited. Such limits
are not necessarily wrong in the moral sense. Developers own rights to their code, and
open-source licenses such as GPL do not limit them in what functionalities they can
include in the application.
Open-source software that utilizes domain blocking is a good example of software
that is open-source but non-free. The first (freedom 0) essential freedom of free software
is ”The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose” (GNU Project, 2001),
and this freedom is not granted to domain-blocked users. While domain blocking is not
hard censorship, it does fall into the continuum of soft censorship.
4 Legality of censorship
4.1 Considerations
Programmers have copyright to their creations and are quite free to dictate how their
code and applications can be used and by whom. These rights can possibly be subject
to preceding rights by others — rights that create more compelling duties to respect
other people’s freedoms. The creators can also willfully give away parts of these rights
to others with contracts and agreements.
In the case of open source, the creators of software code enter into a licensing agree-
ment with others, guaranteeing their right for using and modifying the code freely.
Tusky is licenced under GPL-3, so the GPL license will be examined in more detail,
though many of the findings might be applicable to other similar licenses.
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Further considerations are any agreements entered in the distribution of applica-
tions. For example in the case of Tusky, app publishers need to agree to the Google
Play Developer Distribution Agreement and Developer Program Policies, which require
them to adhere to certain rules for distribution through Google Play Store (Google,
2019a,b). These agreements differ from platform to platform, and might restrict app
developers rights in different ways when it comes to the distribution of compiled ap-
plications. Notably these considerations no not relate to the open source code but the
compiled executable application, which users download and run directly.
4.2 Possible violations of GPL-3
Definition of Free
The definition of Free Software has been discussed since the 80s, with GNU’s 1st bul-
letin being one of the first records of what is considered free software: ”When we [the
Free Software Foundation] speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
price.” (GNU, 1986, p.8) This definition of free software focuses on user freedom, but
mainly discusses the freedom to share, read and modify code.
Open Source Initiative states that open source by definition should comply with ”No
Discrimination Against Persons or Groups” and ”No Discrimination Against Fields of
Endeavor” (Initiative, 2019). Users of a specific Mastodon instance constitute a dis-
tinct group, especially if instance selection is based on an ideology or other identifiable
characteristic, which means that domain blocking doesn’t comply with this criteria.
Interestingly, this point of contention was — at least partly — already considered
around 1990 by the GNU Project, which added a ”freedom 0” to their text, which pre-
cedes the freedoms relating to study, redistribution and modifying the code: ”The free-
dom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose”. (GNU Project, 2001) Stallman
(2013) later expanded on the reasons why programs must not limit the freedom to run
them by licensing, explicitly stating that distributions shouldn’t restrict how you use the
software.
”It is worse than ineffective; it is wrong too, because software developers
should not exercise such power over what users do. Imagine selling pens
with conditions about what you can write with them; that would be noi-
some, and we should not stand for it. Likewise for general software. If
you make something that is generally useful, like a pen, people will use it
to write all sorts of things, even horrible things such as orders to torture
a dissident; but you must not have the power to control people’s activities
through their pens. It is the same for a text editor, compiler or kernel.”
Stallman (2013)
Notably, Stallman was writing specifically about license restrictions. If the ideal of
freedom is user choice, it is difficult to see how hard-coded limits would fit this ideal.
But when it comes to open source the ideal is to secure users freedom in relation to the
source code, and not the distributed program(s). While not related to the license, it is
worth noting that such distinction only secures freedoms for those people who have the
necessary skills to alter code and compile the programs, discriminating against those
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who do not have the means to remove restrictions for themselves or cannot have others
do it or them.
While restricting the usage of programs due to ideology is arguably against the
spirit of free software, akin to Stallman’s above example of dictating what can be writ-
ten using a pen, it is not against the licensing terms of GPL-3.0. Stallman’s explicit
acceptance of DRM, as long as it can be removed, speaks to this directly (Stallman,
2014). Such software code is still open-source, but the distributed software application
is no longer free. This distinction speaks volumes to the need for terms such as FOSS
(Free and Open Source Software) that makes the distinction between free as in freedom
and ”merely” open source.
Permission to run the program
Line 158 of the GPL-3 license states ”This License explicitly affirms your unlimited
permission to run the unmodified Program.” The license goes on to prohibit different
ways of limiting the use of software, including use of DRM (digital rights management),
that cannot be removed, as well as withholding installation information.
It has been argued that allowing the program to run in this manner is enough for
freedom 0 (Slep, 2019), as only the functionality of the application is limited — not its
running, as blocking is done after the program starts. While domain blocking techni-
cally allows the program to be run, it only does so similarly to a DRM system that runs
only to disallow the usage of said program.
Some DRM systems require a login after the application runs, and block access if
the login is not licensed to use the program. It would be disengenious to claim that
in either case the program runs for DRM-blocked users, when it fulfills none of its
intended functions for non-licensed users. Still, even this type of DRM is explicitly
allowed in GPL-3 licensed applications. As long as users are free to change the source
code and run their own versions of the programs without such restrictions, Freedom 0
is retained to those who can compile their own programs.
While domain blocking is akin to DRM in that it blocks the program from working
based on the used media (Mastodon instance or DVD, respectively), this is not against
the GPL.
Denial of Access
GPL-3 line 333 states: ”Access to a network may be denied when the modification itself
materially and adversely affects the operation of the network or violates the rules and
protocols for communication across the network.” Insofar as domain blocking can be
construed as denying access to a network (such ”deny rules” usually affect network traf-
fic and not user input that is expected to translate to network traffic), domain blocking
could be in violation of GPL.
However, such interpretation of network access would be shaky at best, and not the
intended meaning of this part of the license. The line is noted here only for completeness
sake.
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4.3 Violations of Google’s policies
Interruption of service
It could be tenuously argued that censoring a Mastodon instance constitutes as disrup-
tion of service. The developer agreement states: ”4.9 You will not engage in any activity
[...] that interferes with, disrupts, damages, or accesses in an unauthorized manner the
devices, servers, networks, or other properties or services of any third party” (Google,
2019b).
However, the word disruption generally refers to larger disruptions to a network or
a system, just as in the case of GPL, and not to specific blocking of user’s intended
services. As such, domain blocking does not seem like a violation of this clause.
Product takedowns
Google’s Agreement prohibits product takedowns from users that have previously pur-
chased or downloaded the products:
8.1 You may remove Your Products from future distribution via Google
Play at any time, but You agree to comply with this Agreement and the
Payment Processor’s Payment Account terms of service for any Products
distributed via Google Play prior to removal including, but not limited to,
refund requirements. Removing Your Products from future distribution via
Google Play does not (a) affect the rights of users who have previously
purchased or downloaded Your Products; (b) remove Your Products from
Devices or from any part of Google Play where previously purchased or
downloaded applications are stored on behalf of users; or (c) change Your
obligation to deliver or support Products or services that have been previ-
ously purchased or downloaded by users. (Google, 2019b, 8.1c)
Gab users that used Tusky before domain blocking was implemented suddenly found
themselves rickrolled instead of getting the service they were using. As modern phones
often automatically install updates, users might have no way to prevent loss of service
due to updates. It could be argued that blocking gab.com users that had previously been
able to use the app breaks this clause of the agreement.
From another point of view, the wording of the clause seems to only affect removals
of complete applications and not removal of functionality. However, if one considers
functionality removals OK under the clause, this would allow removal of any program
by replacing it with a placeholder application with no functionality — at least when
done in a targeted manner (e.g. using domain blocking).
Without clarification from Google, the clause remains partially unclear. Neverthe-
less, there seems to be grounds to argue that removing functionality from users who
previously downloaded the application is a violation of this policy.
Deceptive behaviour
Github user Vaasref commented on Tusk’s pull request (Tusky, 2019b) that he needs to
trust apps installed on their phone, and suggested that the app doing something against
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the will of the user is in violation of Google Play Developer Policy, which states that
Google doesn’t allow ”apps that attempt to deceive users or enable dishonest behavior”.
Google’s Developer Policy states that ”Apps must provide accurate disclosure of
their functionality and should perform as reasonably expected by the user.” Users can
reasonably expect a service client to log in and function as a service client, so domain
censoring in this way constitutes a policy violation. Also, not disclosing such censorship
functionalities (e.g. in the app description) constitutes a violation.
Tusky’s domain block could constitute as deceptive behaviour if the user doesn’t get
any information on why, instead of logging in, they are now watching a video of Rick
Astley from 1987. Clear explanation of the blocking functionality and a descriptive
error messages would alleviate this infringement.
Minimum functionality
Google’s Developer Policy also requires the following:
”At a minimum, apps should provide users with a basic degree of func-
tionality and a respectful user experience. Apps that crash, exhibit other
behavior that is not consistent with a functional user experience, or that
serve only to spam users or Google Play are not apps that expand the cat-
alog in a meaningful way.” (Google, 2019b)
Blocking logging in to a service on an application whose only function is to work as a
client to use said services clearly violates this policy. Furthermore, doing so by rick-
rolling isn’t respectful, and constitutes another clear violation of this policy. Even with
a respectful explanation of the intended blocking functionality and a descriptive error
message during the blocking, it is difficult to consider not logging in as providing ”a
basic degree of functionality” ”consistent with a functional user experience”.
5 Conclusion
Domain blocking through rickrolling doesn’t seem to be against GPL, but does arguably
violate Google’s Developer Program Policies, as it blocks the user from the appli-
cation’s minimum functionality. Furthermore, removing access from previous users
seems to also violate Google Play Developer Distribution Agreement. Nevertheless,
the clauses are unclear when it comes to blocking functionality in this way, and require
clarifications.
GPL-3.0 allows for functionalities that limit user rights, such as DRM, as long as
such limitations can be removed from the source code by the user and the newly created
program can be used without limitations. Thus domain blocking, as another way to
limit usage rights digitally, is allowed by the licensing terms, and programmers have
not signed away their right to decide how the application they distribute will be used
(though end-users are free to change the source code and overrule any imposed limits).
However, distributed applications with such limitations can no longer be considered
free, as they limit the freedom of users to use the program as they wish.
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This does create some inequality between those who have the technological knowl-
edge necessary to bypass these limitations and those who do not. However, such ques-
tions about the morality and unintended consequences of domain blocking would re-
quire a multi-disclipinary ethical examination of the case, which is outside the scope of
this paper.
Even though domain blocking doesn’t seem to violate GPL, blocking all applica-
tion functionality by rickrolling them based on users’ selected communication group or
ideology does seem at odds with the general ideology of free software, and distributing
such censorship functionality in software should be done carefully, with transparency
and respect. To do otherwise seems to be against Google’s Developer Distribution
Agreement, and there might be similar clauses in other platforms’ distribution agree-
ments. Implementing domain blocking under GPL creates software that is open-source
and non-free, which is an interesting space to inhabit, especially when it comes to ques-
tions of free speech and censorship. The ethical considerations of such cases clearly
require more research.
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