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Ask HN: Do US tech firms realize the backlash growing in Europe?

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Re: Ask HN: Do US tech firms realize the backlash growing in Europe?

#61
I think it depends a lot on what happens in the elections 2 and 4 years from now. The world may forgive or may be very well justified in their turn. I’m in the enterprise space and there’s not a lot of open acknowledgement of changes yet. I don’t think my particular company thinks there’s a way this is good for them.

To some degree I think it’s being treated as yet another line item in the long list of things that need to be managed in global companies of a certain size. I presume that the threat of retaliation (see story about X advertisers) is keeping voices quiet too.

It’s different this time… it’s going to get weird. And possibly dangerous. Talk of third term, crashing the economy as a pretense for parting out the assets of the federal government, finding a reason to cancel the next election, and being the war machine for our enemies may not feel like the purview of technology companies even as they angle for federal contracts to “support” some of these things.

We need more bodies at protests. Not everything announced has gone into effect, but they’re testing all the things they want to make happen. And they’re persistent.

The public haven’t yet seen the spark that may light the next resistance fire. It may not feel like we have moves available to us, but public boycotts, protests/ marches, calls to our politicians, honking for peace, supporting our neighbors — these are all reps in the resistance. They are recruitment and rallying measures. They are all little tiny sparks, from which something may alight. Look for something happening today and show up.

Re: Ask HN: Do US tech firms realize the backlash growing in Europe?

#62
post #2

Tesla FSD wont be authorized in Europe, this will be one direct consequence of all of that. In addition, tariffs will be put on cars coming from the US. Plus, US is now recognized as a very unreliable partner in terms of defense, that Europe regrets buying their systems.

Will this really happen? Or will the US prevent Europe from doing that by saying “then defend from Russia all by yourself?”

This is already the expectation from our leaders. It is the belief of a good % of EU leaders that, if Russia were to push into Poland and the Baltic states, and Article 5 was invoked, the US would not respond. Or at least not without some Versailles Treaty-level extortion, as they're trying to do with Ukraine.

Re: Ask HN: Do US tech firms realize the backlash growing in Europe?

#65
post #30

Good information, and I see no sign it has been noticed in the US (which is why your report is good info). The first question is how broad is this shift; is it really everywhere on the street or just in the "early adopters"? The next question is how durable is the trend? The things I've noticed here are reports of AfD rapidly losing 5% in the polls after Vance spoke in Munich, and a French right-wing leader cancellin…

The shift is not that broad at all. True, in some politically and technology aware circles, a lot of people are shifting. But the vast majority of people isn't aware of what's happening, doesn't feel like putting effort to change, or even agrees with Trump & Musk.

Re: Ask HN: Do US tech firms realize the backlash growing in Europe?

#66
post #4

Any links to read what people in EU are saying?

I wrote about it yesterday: https://rewiring.bearblog.dev/usa-big-tech-grip-on-europe/

It seems clear to me now, that the dependency on US tech needs to be reduced _a lot_, and I sincerely hope this current political storm will bring renewed interest in protocols and European tech

Re: Ask HN: Do US tech firms realize the backlash growing in Europe?

#68
post #47

Wishing and doing are two different things. Integration of US products and services is still incredibly deep in Europe, as is political cooperation on all layers. I don't think this can be abandoned on a whim, even if people wanted to. (Same goes for the other side of the geopolitical aisle: European politicians would have liked a much faster and much more comprehensive economic decoupling from China since at least t…

That's what they said about the German economy and Russian Gas

Re: Ask HN: Do US tech firms realize the backlash growing in Europe?

#69
post #2

Tesla FSD wont be authorized in Europe, this will be one direct consequence of all of that. In addition, tariffs will be put on cars coming from the US. Plus, US is now recognized as a very unreliable partner in terms of defense, that Europe regrets buying their systems.

I have a Tesla with so-called FSD in Europe, and it still feels like it’s ten years away from being road-safe. It can’t even recognize speed limit signs correctly.

I bought this car six years ago paying for the FSD feature upfront, and since then Tesla and their CEO have been constantly lying about it. I’ll never buy another car from this company just for this reason.

I think Musk probably sees the writing on the wall. Tesla’s brand is destroyed in Europe and they can’t ship these promised advanced features in this market. But he doesn’t mind giving up the European market because he’s got a sweet deal at home where his businesses are now part of a 1930s-style union between corporations and authoritarian government. The gains from that arrangement far outweigh the headaches of trying to sell cars globally.

Re: Ask HN: Do US tech firms realize the backlash growing in Europe?

#70
post #4

Any links to read what people in EU are saying?

Check out Andreas Klinger on Twitter, and people he's retweeting and talking about. That should give you a good overview.

> on Twitter

It's like rain on your wedding day

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