Recently saw that the TEA Autonomia app was showing up on F-Droid. This app is supposedly to help autistic adults with routines and regulations. However the app uses the puzzle piece image for it’s icon. This is widely considered to be a harmful image given that it references the harmful, dehumanization and discredited “missing-piece theory” and has been rejected by most autistic run advocacy groups. The few groups that still endorse it’s use are often run by non-autistic individuals without consultation with the autistic community.
I’ve also since noticed the TEA Kids app that uses the puzzle ribbon logo.
When I submitted an issue on the gitlab to have the app taken down while it uses harmful imagery @Licaon_Kter directed me to contact the original app developers and seems to have refused the request to take down the app or even to remove the harmful icons for the apps. I’m unclear what consultation this decision to refuse the request seems to have gone through. I asked a followup about what the F-Droid policy is for harmful imagery but have not received a response to either my comment on gitlab or my email asking the same clarifying question.
I have also refused the request to contact the developers directly. I’m not contacting people who use harmful imagery about myself as an autistic adult.
I’m going to be going through these apps in more detail, given they didn’t bother to research the symbols and the harm associated with them I wonder if the apps are potentially also harmful to autistic individuals like using ABA which is now widely considered torture and incredibly harmful.
Clarification
Ultimately I would like clarification on the F-Droid policy about the inclusion of dangerous speech and harmful imagery and how decisions are made on these topics. I would also like to see explicit policy barring the use of dogwhistles within applications and what the process for reporting a dogwhistle would be.
You are doing everything (gitlab issue, email, forum post) else EXCEPT what you’ve been asked: to give the developer a chance to speak about this issue or even fix it to your likeing.
Sure, do find more stuff to use against F-Droid, that will help /jk
So devs should never get a chance to answer the accuser? They should be punished right away, right?
Once again, asking a minority to go interact with people using harmful imagery about that minority is not a safe thing to be suggesting. You are more than welcome to pass on the information and to notify the devs about this discussion and the gitlab issue but I’m not putting myself at risk like that and I shouldn’t have to to raise this issue. This shows a glaring hole in your understanding of how to make a safe and inclusive environment.
Why are you assuming that I want to find things to use against F-Droid? This pretty clearly goes against the forum guidelines in that you have assumed bad faith from myself. I want to make F-Droid better and part of that involves removing harmful imagery that can and will drive people away from the project.
Beyond that are you suggesting that I shouldn’t check if the app could be harmful to autistic individuals?
Nowhere was this said or even suggested. Again you are more than welcome to notify the dev about the conversation on the forum or the gitlab and they are just as able to comment and reply there. This issue is about harmful imagery being included in the F-Droid repository not about the app using it.
Nowhere do the docs have clarity on this issue, I read through them in detail before even making the initial issue to make sure I wasn’t missing anything.
I’m really unimpressed with your response on many levels. Please follow the guidelines of the forum when replying in future and please also stick to the decision making policies set out in the docs you referenced. Nowhere does it say you should be the final arbiter of these decisions which you currently seem to be acting as.
Thank you for letting me know, will keep an eye on how that evolves as it might inform the discussion here but this post is more about the policies and decision making on F-Droid.
For those only now picking up this thread @Licaon_Kter has since edited the title in a way that has distorted the original intent of the post. It seems @Licaon_Kter also marked another post by @Carsap as a solution despite it not being a solution I have unmarked this but am unable to edit the title back. My apologies for those who this may confuse.
This post was about F-Droid’s policies on harmful speech and imagery. The background section was meant only as an introduction about why this was being raised and an example case to illustrate the point.
I still want more clarification on these issues because the inclusions policy @Licaon_Kter has referenced doesn’t mention harmful speech, imagery or dogwhistles in any way.
I’m gonna cc the board into this post as I don’t feel the moderation on display is good form or that my original request for clarity on this issue has been meaningfully met in any way.