Why the World Is Drawing Battle Lines Against American Tech Giants • Hacker News Board

Re: Why the World Is Drawing Battle Lines Against American Tech Giants

#71

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jun 02, 2016, 4:33 PM UTC

dougmany wrote: post #26

barisser wrote: post #3

I found this article really frustrating. The US government forces American tech companies to spy on users, so US companies are to blame? These services are so useful and well-liked around the world that they should be considered a threat? The author is amazingly willing to accord French bureaucrats the right to regulate the cultural consumption of Frenchmen. How is this defensible? Should we knock Netflix because it…

>These services are so useful and well-liked around the world that they should be considered a threat? Just because something is well liked, does not mean it is beneficial to society overall. Junk food and facebook come too mind. I love Netflix but part of me feels my life would be better without it too.

[deleted]

Re: Why the World Is Drawing Battle Lines Against American Tech Giants

#72

Post by hodwik2 » Thu, Jun 02, 2016, 4:33 PM UTC

guelo wrote: post #56

hodwik wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not just a funny coincidence -- the American left has for decades been slowly allying themselves against the West. That's why no one on the left batted an eye when Google chose Yuri Kochiyama for their Google Doodle, despite that she said in 2003: "...I consider Osama bin Laden as one of the people that I admire. To me, he is in the category of Malcolm X, Che Guevara, Patrice Lumumba, Fidel Castro.... I thank…

> American left has for decades been slowly allying themselves against the West. The US, including both parties, has been shifting rightward for decades, so it makes sense that leftists are feeling alienated.

Progressives move forever more to the left, and then accuse the right of "moving right" because we didn't move to your new definition of center fast enough. Excuse me, conservatives have not actually managed to get signed any major conservative initiative in the US in 50 years, because of that line.

Our government is bigger than it has ever been:

-we haven't privatized schools or gotten vouchers,

-we haven't abolished any major departments of governments,

-we haven't been able to abolish any major social program,

-we haven't been able to cut costs in the welfare state,

-we haven't abolished government marriage,

-we haven't opened immigration to wealthy foreigners,

-we have only lost ground on gun rights and religious rights,

-we have not been able to slow the judicial activism of the courts,

-we have only gotten passed minor deregulation efforts,

-we have not limited the unions,

-abolished the minimum wage, ended zoning laws, and so on.

To a conservative of the Goldwater years the Republican party of today would look like a bunch of socialist fascists. The closest Republicans get to doing anything conservative these days is to slow your guys roll.

Re: Why the World Is Drawing Battle Lines Against American Tech Giants

#73

Post by maxxxxx » Thu, Jun 02, 2016, 4:35 PM UTC

I am not sure I agree with the specifics but I think generally it's healthy for the world to keep multi-national companies in check. So even if it's a stupid law that blocks multinationals the effect will be positive in my view if it fosters a local tech scene.

The big Silicon Valley companies are already killing a lot of innovation so it's better to stop them from reaching more dominance.

Re: Why the World Is Drawing Battle Lines Against American Tech Giants

#74

Post by tomc1985 » Thu, Jun 02, 2016, 4:36 PM UTC

barisser wrote: post #3

I found this article really frustrating. The US government forces American tech companies to spy on users, so US companies are to blame? These services are so useful and well-liked around the world that they should be considered a threat? The author is amazingly willing to accord French bureaucrats the right to regulate the cultural consumption of Frenchmen. How is this defensible? Should we knock Netflix because it…

That's only like 10% of the issue.

Many of these tech firms are so big that many countries perceive a threat to their sovereignty. SV acts with such impunity that pushback should be no surprise.

Re: Why the World Is Drawing Battle Lines Against American Tech Giants

#75

Post by sievebrain » Thu, Jun 02, 2016, 4:39 PM UTC

pjc50 wrote: post #58

barisser wrote: post #3

I found this article really frustrating. The US government forces American tech companies to spy on users, so US companies are to blame? These services are so useful and well-liked around the world that they should be considered a threat? The author is amazingly willing to accord French bureaucrats the right to regulate the cultural consumption of Frenchmen. How is this defensible? Should we knock Netflix because it…

The article starts by asking you to view things from another perspective. It's not asking you to "knock" Netflix, it's inviting you to consider the point of view of people who do. American media is subtly hegemonising. All media carries with it the culture of those who produce it, but US media also carries a very strong assumption of "defaultness": that everyone is a (mostly white) American at heart. What effect does…

None of the issues you cite are the fault of American media. They are at best due to lack of sufficient quantities of local production, and at worst due to local production just not being very interesting.

Given that everyone learns English, material made in that language has a bigger market and can naturally be higher budget. But that's not anyone's fault per se and cannot be fixed with bureaucratic interventions. Anyone can make local content in English and some European artists do exactly that.

Re: Why the World Is Drawing Battle Lines Against American Tech Giants

#76

Post by sievebrain » Thu, Jun 02, 2016, 4:40 PM UTC

maxxxxx wrote: post #73

I am not sure I agree with the specifics but I think generally it's healthy for the world to keep multi-national companies in check. So even if it's a stupid law that blocks multinationals the effect will be positive in my view if it fosters a local tech scene. The big Silicon Valley companies are already killing a lot of innovation so it's better to stop them from reaching more dominance.

How are they killing innovation?

Re: Why the World Is Drawing Battle Lines Against American Tech Giants

#77

Post by apozem » Thu, Jun 02, 2016, 4:40 PM UTC

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #38

verroq wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it not problematic when American tech form an oligopoly on internet services? Especially when these services need to bend to the whims of American government.

If the current crop of tech companies can supersede MS, AOL, Yahoo, MySpace, etc. Why can't companies from other parts of the globe do it as well? It just takes one company to do something different and build inertia. That's all. What is keeping European companies from toppling Google or FB or Twitter? Edit: Keyboard fail.

Because competing in internet services gives a tremendous advantage to the first mover who can amass the largest network. Metcalfe's Law states that the value of a network (and, implicitly, how hard it is to topple) is proportional to the square of the number of connected users.

https://stratechery.com/2014/uber-fights/

Re: Why the World Is Drawing Battle Lines Against American Tech Giants

#78

Post by kuschku » Thu, Jun 02, 2016, 4:41 PM UTC

strictnein wrote: post #15

di4na wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's look at it the other way. Launching a movie cost a ton of money. So to keep a diverse culture ( we all agreee diversity is great isn't it?) and diverse way to think, you need to help less mainstream way to think. You spend years elaborating complex way to let mainstream exists and makes money, without disturbing it too much, but still keep a working amount of culture disruptor and new ideas growing. And you eve…

> "rendering all your organisation void, cutting the money and support for the smallest groups." How does Netflix not offering enough French TV shows do that? Did the government just stop giving them money once Netflix showed up? Also, encouraging Netflix to take on more local content is one thing. I'm sure they'd love to. Forcing them to fund the creation of local content is another thing completely. These governmen…

> These governments are looking to require that a foreign company fund domestic businesses to be able to access their markets

So, like the All-American clause for almost all US govt. contracts?

Or the US punishment for VW, requiring them to produce specific cars in the US?

> Did the government just stop giving them money once Netflix showed up?

Where is the government supposed to get the money from, once they can’t make money with TV anymore?

Re: Why the World Is Drawing Battle Lines Against American Tech Giants

#79

Post by sievebrain » Thu, Jun 02, 2016, 4:44 PM UTC

guelo wrote: post #54

barisser wrote: post #3

I found this article really frustrating. The US government forces American tech companies to spy on users, so US companies are to blame? These services are so useful and well-liked around the world that they should be considered a threat? The author is amazingly willing to accord French bureaucrats the right to regulate the cultural consumption of Frenchmen. How is this defensible? Should we knock Netflix because it…

> The author is amazingly willing to accord French bureaucrats the right to regulate the cultural consumption of Frenchmen. How is this defensible? They don't have to defend it to you. You have American values, they have French values. The whole point is that they don't want Americans coming in and imposing their values over theirs.

American values tend to actually be genuinely shared by Americans and thus do not need to be enforced by the government. The USG does not force its TV stations to play specific content in order to promote American values, they arise spontaneously from the culture.

When it comes to pop culture, "French values" are something the French government wishes were actual shared values, but which aren't, hence the need for subsidies and laws mandating that local content which supposedly embodies these values are played. It's a simple propagandistic switcharoo: a few lawmakers claim "French values" must be protected, but who asked the French themselves? Well, in a sense the market did, and the French weren't interested.

The flip side of this is that there are definitely non-media related French values that really do arise from the people, like socialist values and the value of striking.

Re: Why the World Is Drawing Battle Lines Against American Tech Giants

#80

Post by exomancer » Thu, Jun 02, 2016, 4:45 PM UTC

barisser wrote: post #3

I found this article really frustrating. The US government forces American tech companies to spy on users, so US companies are to blame? These services are so useful and well-liked around the world that they should be considered a threat? The author is amazingly willing to accord French bureaucrats the right to regulate the cultural consumption of Frenchmen. How is this defensible? Should we knock Netflix because it…

> The author is amazingly willing to accord French bureaucrats the right to regulate the cultural consumption of Frenchmen. How is this defensible?

By the virtue of those bureaucrats being democratically elected officials responsible to implement the will of said Frenchmen.

Not to say that the situation is perfect, but while there are many things wrong with Europe, but the democracy does work better than it does in the States.