Zuckerberg didn’t make any friends in Europe today • Hacker News Board

Re: Zuckerberg didn’t make any friends in Europe today

#71

Post by sparkling » Wed, May 23, 2018, 7:57 AM UTC

thebradbain wrote: post #55

If worst comes to worst and EU tries to break up Facebook — and it seems likely they might — what would be Facebook’s best path forward? Theoretically, would it send a stronger signal to US regulators if Facebook simply shut down all operation in the EU? A pop up message to all EU citizens along the lines of “You may no longer access Facebook from within the EU due to X Y and Z from your government. As such, all of y…

Shut down the EU company entities, move all operations back to the US. There is no need to show a warning message to its users, EU laws do not apply to US firms. Also, despite what EU lawmakers may say, a purely US-based internet company is not required to comply in any way with EU laws even if they have customers/visitors/users in the EU.

Re: Zuckerberg didn’t make any friends in Europe today

#72

Post by amarkov » Wed, May 23, 2018, 7:58 AM UTC

thebradbain wrote: post #55

If worst comes to worst and EU tries to break up Facebook — and it seems likely they might — what would be Facebook’s best path forward? Theoretically, would it send a stronger signal to US regulators if Facebook simply shut down all operation in the EU? A pop up message to all EU citizens along the lines of “You may no longer access Facebook from within the EU due to X Y and Z from your government. As such, all of y…

I imagine US regulators would be on Facebook's side there. The US can't really tolerate a world where the EU purports to reach inside American borders and forcibly reorganize American companies.

Re: Zuckerberg didn’t make any friends in Europe today

#73

Post by icebraining » Wed, May 23, 2018, 7:58 AM UTC

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #43

robin_reala wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Requiring consent as a pre-condition of a service is frowned upon under GDPR. If you have a legitimate requirement (which is fairly rigidly defined under GDPR) or legal obligations for that data then you don’t need user consent, but if you don’t then you need to offer the service regardless of the user consent or not.

Techcrunch isn't an European company though, and IIRC they have no obligation to serve European customers so a "wall" is probably allowed. Even if it was european, I don't think the GDPR makes websites obligated to be accessible for everyone.

They are not European, but they have European "partners" (read: advertisers and ad-networks) siphoning off data from their EU users. They are not just a site that happens to be available to the EU.

Re: Zuckerberg didn’t make any friends in Europe today

#74

Post by skrebbel » Wed, May 23, 2018, 7:59 AM UTC

scaryclam wrote: post #57

FranzFerdiNaN wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looking at the Dutch media it's the complete opposite of what you say. It's mostly about Zuckerberg not saying much, to the frustration of the members of parliament.

Same here in the UK. Nothing positive about Zuckerberg so far, so I'm not sure what media the parent is reading.

> I'm not sure what media the parent is reading.

Um, Der Spiegel apparently.

Re: Zuckerberg didn’t make any friends in Europe today

#75

Post by jdietrich » Wed, May 23, 2018, 7:59 AM UTC

ericdykstra wrote: post #21

If anything, this kind of regulation helps companies like Facebook keep their "monopoly", because it raises the monetary cost of starting a competitor. A number of smaller services and games have shut down due to increased cost of compliance, even for companies that don't have any privacy issues.

It's a huge competitive advantage for privacy-oriented companies that were actually following the old Data Protection Directive. I've spoken to people who are in a blind panic about GDPR day, but I've also spoken to people who were completely unconcerned because they already had their ship in order.

If your business relies on re-selling user data or aggressively targeting ads through data mining, coming into compliance will be painful and expensive; it might completely break your business model. If your business just sells a useful service at a reasonable price while respecting user privacy, you've got very little to worry about.

Re: Zuckerberg didn’t make any friends in Europe today

#76

Post by ForHackernews » Wed, May 23, 2018, 8:01 AM UTC

thebradbain wrote: post #55

If worst comes to worst and EU tries to break up Facebook — and it seems likely they might — what would be Facebook’s best path forward? Theoretically, would it send a stronger signal to US regulators if Facebook simply shut down all operation in the EU? A pop up message to all EU citizens along the lines of “You may no longer access Facebook from within the EU due to X Y and Z from your government. As such, all of y…

There's currently a well-funded activist campaign advocating for breaking up Facebook by separating Instagram, WhatsApp, etc into separate companies: http://freedomfromfb.com/

Re: Zuckerberg didn’t make any friends in Europe today

#77

Post by adam-_- » Wed, May 23, 2018, 8:01 AM UTC

phicoh wrote: post #69

thebradbain wrote: post #55

If worst comes to worst and EU tries to break up Facebook — and it seems likely they might — what would be Facebook’s best path forward? Theoretically, would it send a stronger signal to US regulators if Facebook simply shut down all operation in the EU? A pop up message to all EU citizens along the lines of “You may no longer access Facebook from within the EU due to X Y and Z from your government. As such, all of y…

Just my impression: if this was Google, then yes. It is very hard to replace Google at this point in time. Facebook is on its way out. Due to the network effect, Facebook will stay relevant for a long time. But if Facebook would leave the EU then it wouldn't take long for other social networks to take its place. Facebook is relevant because everybody is on Facebook. Not because it is such a great service. Personally,…

That network effect can't be underestimated.

In the olden days of a new social network every other week the percentage of my friends and family on each social network (including Myspace, the most dominant) was relatively low, so the pain of switching was low.

Now the percentage on Facebook is extremely high and I don't even know what an alternative would be.

Lots of friends and family are on Whatsapp, quite a lot of people use Instagram but beyond that... there's very little uptake in any other heavily used social network. And of course, they're both owned by Facebook anyway.

So, for me at least, to say Facebook is on the way out, is something I cannot agree with.

Re: Zuckerberg didn’t make any friends in Europe today

#78

Post by ForHackernews » Wed, May 23, 2018, 8:02 AM UTC

sparkling wrote: post #71

thebradbain wrote: post #55

If worst comes to worst and EU tries to break up Facebook — and it seems likely they might — what would be Facebook’s best path forward? Theoretically, would it send a stronger signal to US regulators if Facebook simply shut down all operation in the EU? A pop up message to all EU citizens along the lines of “You may no longer access Facebook from within the EU due to X Y and Z from your government. As such, all of y…

Shut down the EU company entities, move all operations back to the US. There is no need to show a warning message to its users, EU laws do not apply to US firms. Also, despite what EU lawmakers may say, a purely US-based internet company is not required to comply in any way with EU laws even if they have customers/visitors/users in the EU.

If Facebook wants to have any customers (advertisers) in Europe (and they do), then they are subject to EU laws.

Re: Zuckerberg didn’t make any friends in Europe today

#79

Post by thebradbain » Wed, May 23, 2018, 8:02 AM UTC

sparkling wrote: post #71

thebradbain wrote: post #55

If worst comes to worst and EU tries to break up Facebook — and it seems likely they might — what would be Facebook’s best path forward? Theoretically, would it send a stronger signal to US regulators if Facebook simply shut down all operation in the EU? A pop up message to all EU citizens along the lines of “You may no longer access Facebook from within the EU due to X Y and Z from your government. As such, all of y…

Shut down the EU company entities, move all operations back to the US. There is no need to show a warning message to its users, EU laws do not apply to US firms. Also, despite what EU lawmakers may say, a purely US-based internet company is not required to comply in any way with EU laws even if they have customers/visitors/users in the EU.

If that’s the case, why do any multinational tech companies have entities outside of their home country? There has to be something that allows them to access banking and finance in each country, no?

Re: Zuckerberg didn’t make any friends in Europe today

#80

Post by flukus » Wed, May 23, 2018, 8:02 AM UTC

thebradbain wrote: post #55

If worst comes to worst and EU tries to break up Facebook — and it seems likely they might — what would be Facebook’s best path forward? Theoretically, would it send a stronger signal to US regulators if Facebook simply shut down all operation in the EU? A pop up message to all EU citizens along the lines of “You may no longer access Facebook from within the EU due to X Y and Z from your government. As such, all of y…

Compliance would be facebooks best bet. If they pull out they lose a lot of money and give their competitors a large breeding ground to develop in. The superior privacy of competitor platforms would make them enticing for US users as well.