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Zuckerberg didn’t make any friends in Europe today

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

#111

Post by raverbashing »

repolfx wrote: post #94
flukus wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that was a reference to the US election interference, not the EU.

It's both. Verhofstadt is a full-blown European federalist (people who want Europe to be united under a single government and single flag). The fortunes of that dream have not been good lately, and he's looking for people to blame that aren't people like himself. I find it pathetic. Verhofstadt and people like him are one of the things that turned me off the EU and turned me into a Brexit voter. They routinely descri…

While you're not wrong in spirit, it seems the current UK government (and its opposition) also downplay the major concerns of people.

And I do agree with some of the concerns. (See Corbyn downplaying grooming gangs, antisemitism, etc and see the current gov ignoring the economic impact of Brexit)

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

#112

Post by patio11 »

Roritharr wrote: post #86

What struck me as quite interesting was Guy Verhofstadts sideremarks. >"You have to ask yourself how you will be remembered," he said. "As one of the three big internet giants together with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, who have enriched our world and our societies, or on the other hand, the genius that created a digital monster that is destroying our democracies and societies." I imagine you have to talk like this to a…

Presumably Zuckerberg has learned the lesson of Bill Gates: Europe periodically discovers a reason to fine American tech companies large-but-relatively-immaterial amounts of money. Then you eventually graduate to being Old Money, and Europe reminisces fondly about you.

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

#113

Post by amarkov »

zaarn wrote: post #88
amarkov wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The US regulators didn't seem to mind when the EU complained about IE... When you do business in a country or union be prepared that they will enact their law on you.

Absolutely. Facebook deliberately chooses to have a business presence in the EU, and nobody denies that this means the EU can levy fines against them or set rules on how they operate within the EU.

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

#114

Post by xg15 »

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…

> "As such, all of your data is unavailable for download and no longer subject to GDPR privacy regulations"

IANAL, but wouldn't this itself violate the GDPR?

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

#115

Post by martimarkov »

repolfx wrote: post #94
flukus wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that was a reference to the US election interference, not the EU.

It's both. Verhofstadt is a full-blown European federalist (people who want Europe to be united under a single government and single flag). The fortunes of that dream have not been good lately, and he's looking for people to blame that aren't people like himself. I find it pathetic. Verhofstadt and people like him are one of the things that turned me off the EU and turned me into a Brexit voter. They routinely descri…

As we have seen asking the general public about an important topic leads to a situation like Brexit. Just because ppl have an opinion about what the priorities should be does not mean they have the slightest understanding about what the is happening in the world. The MPs are the ppl claiming to know best so you should trust them that they are doing everything in your interest and if they are not then it is your right to remove them from power. Having the average Joe decide on external politics is one of the stupidest thing you can do (e.g. Boris Johnson).

I do find your argument for Brexit to be a bit better than the average but employing the same logic London should just be a separate city state because there are ppl outside who vote against London’s values (openness and inclusion). I’d be the first to admit that in that vote if asked I would vote for an independent London from the U.K. and this is exactly why general population should not be making these descions.

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

#116

Post by Spearchucker »

repolfx wrote: post #94
flukus wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that was a reference to the US election interference, not the EU.

It's both. Verhofstadt is a full-blown European federalist (people who want Europe to be united under a single government and single flag). The fortunes of that dream have not been good lately, and he's looking for people to blame that aren't people like himself. I find it pathetic. Verhofstadt and people like him are one of the things that turned me off the EU and turned me into a Brexit voter. They routinely descri…

Immigration is good for any economy, because a growing economy is a strong one. There are many, many things more important than terrorism. And I imagine there are as many views on what exactly, as there are people. My biggest issue personally is that I want to see a common fiscal policy adopted across the union, to match the current monetary policy.

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

#117

Post by repolfx »

AstralStorm wrote: post #33
sparkling wrote: post #23

The EU and its officials are a joke. I cringe when these EU bureaucrats act like they are going to "get tough" on US businesses and the Trump administration. They lack digital sovereignty and nation state sovereignty. Local and federal EU agencies continue to depend on Microsoft and other US tech giants. They didn't even manage to unveil the NSA wiretapping, to this day still not a single person or company has been c…

Other than being politics as usual (which are a joke because politicians are not equipped for dealing with complex issues other than public relations)... If EU died, who do you think would take over and why do you think they'd be any better? US has problems of its own with "digital sovereignty" as it allowed China to take over most of manufacturing. Russia is saddled with social debts and social warfare. EU nation st…

If EU died, who do you think would take over and why do you think they'd be any better?

Easy. Nation states would. And they'd do better, at least some of the time, because they're more accountable.

Just compare the Congress vs EUP performance. The USA is arguably too large and too centralised. But Congress, despite having many ancient politicians who clearly have never used the internet let alone Facebook, still managed to run rings around the EU "Parliament" (it's not really a parliament). The EU apparently allocated nearly all the hearing time to politicians speaking, leaving only minutes for Zuckerberg to reply, allowing him to pick and choose which questions he answered.

And yet there won't be any real impact on the EUP for this because it's not a real parliament, it can't actually change laws by itself. So the people who run can't have any real policies, and as a result it's stuffed with political nobodies with no ideas beyond rah-rah EU and sometimes boo-boo EU, so voters tune out and ignore it. There's little competition.

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

#118

Post by tomkinson »

Roritharr wrote: post #86

What struck me as quite interesting was Guy Verhofstadts sideremarks. >"You have to ask yourself how you will be remembered," he said. "As one of the three big internet giants together with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, who have enriched our world and our societies, or on the other hand, the genius that created a digital monster that is destroying our democracies and societies." I imagine you have to talk like this to a…

Agree but his track record is 14 yrs long already. Let's not forget that.

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

#119

Post by kylegordon »

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.

In this context, you are wrong.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=us+company+eu+customers+gdpr

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

#120

Post by zerostar07 »

icebraining wrote: post #85
kennell wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think that the GDPR has really changed anything for either Facebook or its users? Do you think that anything changed in the way data is being handled? All i see is a bunch of highly paid law firms writing up 200 additional pages in terms and conditions to shield the company, but nothing really changed as far as daily business is concerned.

Not yet, it'll take a few lawsuits. See the work of Max Schrems: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Schrems https://www.fbclaim.com

Apparently they are already GDPR compliant (FB). In their case it's actually easy to justify their legitimate interest because their entire business is the handling of private data. Ironically, even though GDPR is supposed to affect things like facebook more, it changes very little about the way they work.
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