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Google's Monopoly-Based Foreign Policy

mattstoller.substack.com

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Re: Google's Monopoly-Based Foreign Policy

#91

Post by colejohnson66 »

NicoJuicy wrote: post #64
DSingularity wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not? Turkey survived a coup. We can critique the governments handling all day but can we at least all agree that when a democracy barely survives a coup it ought to institute policies to solidify the rule of law and endurance of its institutions?

A coup doesn't happen with democracies/countries, it's dictatorships that "survive" coups.

Technically, a coup is just a violent overthrow of the government. That can happen with democracies; it just generally doesn’t because the people can just vote out the current president if they don’t like him/her.

Re: Google's Monopoly-Based Foreign Policy

#92

Post by BurningFrog »

atlasunshrugged wrote: post #4

I'm generally pro competition but I feel like there's probably more to this story (just remembering how eBay also left Turkey). Aren't there some issues with how the data is supposed to be stored in Turkey (a place where many people including journalists are jailed and does not rank highly as a Democratic country) that would also make Google more likely to just up and leave or outright negotiate with the government o…

As someone who is also pro competition, I don't mind if a peaceful actor like Google is able to compete in some sense with an oppressive warring state like Turkey.

Yeah, I'm being provocative. But think about it.

Re: Google's Monopoly-Based Foreign Policy

#93

Post by banads »

umvi wrote: post #81
banads wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems Nixon's and Erdogan's motivations were similar. The war on drugs was created by the Nixon regime as a way to neutralize threatening political movements like Black Power and the Hippie Peace movement.

> The war on drugs was created by the Nixon regime as a way to neutralize threatening political movements like Black Power and the Hippie Peace movement. This seems like one of those Illuminati/Knights Templar conspiracy theories. I don't buy it. I'm imagining Nixon's cabinet in a super secret meeting: Nixon: "Those hippies and negroes. They are growing too powerful. Soon, democrats will dominate every level of gover…

Your satirically imagined quotes are comically similar to the actual quotes:

Nixon: "You see, homosexuality, dope, immorality in general. These are the enemies of strong societies. That's why the Communists and the left-wingers are pushing the stuff, they're trying to destroy us"

You might want to read up on some history:

http://www.csdp.org/news/news/nixon.htm

Re: Google's Monopoly-Based Foreign Policy

#94

Post by spicyramen »

mcv wrote: post #47
jacquesm wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Google also operate in USA. They're based there, in case you didn't notice. > USA has more people in prison than Turkey has. And is substantially larger, and tends to not lock up everybody that might be against dear leader. For now. > Recently journalist Max Blumenthal was jailed on false charges. Definitely not a very good moment in the history of the USA but there are plenty of worse examples and besides the case…

The US is larger than Turkey, but that's irrelevant to the argument; the US locks up a larger percentage of its population than practically any other country on Earth. The US has more people in prison than China , which has 4 times the population. I'm not denying there's a lot wrong in Turkey, but the US isn't all freedom and democracy either.

We Americans hate the autocrític. Good argument

Re: Google's Monopoly-Based Foreign Policy

#95

Post by goatinaboat »

BurningFrog wrote: post #92
atlasunshrugged wrote: post #4

I'm generally pro competition but I feel like there's probably more to this story (just remembering how eBay also left Turkey). Aren't there some issues with how the data is supposed to be stored in Turkey (a place where many people including journalists are jailed and does not rank highly as a Democratic country) that would also make Google more likely to just up and leave or outright negotiate with the government o…

As someone who is also pro competition, I don't mind if a peaceful actor like Google is able to compete in some sense with an oppressive warring state like Turkey. Yeah, I'm being provocative. But think about it.

a peaceful actor like Google is able to compete in some sense with an oppressive warring state like Turkey.

What if it were more profitable for Google to side with the oppressive regime?

A trick question because we all already know what the answer is.

Re: Google's Monopoly-Based Foreign Policy

#96

Post by greiskul »

umvi wrote: post #81
banads wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems Nixon's and Erdogan's motivations were similar. The war on drugs was created by the Nixon regime as a way to neutralize threatening political movements like Black Power and the Hippie Peace movement.

> The war on drugs was created by the Nixon regime as a way to neutralize threatening political movements like Black Power and the Hippie Peace movement. This seems like one of those Illuminati/Knights Templar conspiracy theories. I don't buy it. I'm imagining Nixon's cabinet in a super secret meeting: Nixon: "Those hippies and negroes. They are growing too powerful. Soon, democrats will dominate every level of gover…

Well, that's not too far off from what probably happened. According to former Nixon domestic policy chief John Ehrlichman:

"You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. And then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities," Ehrlichman said. "We could arrest their leaders. raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."

Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-...

Re: Google's Monopoly-Based Foreign Policy

#97

Post by root_axis »

black_puppydog wrote: post #19
seunosewa wrote: post #17

The article was masterfully framed to make us feel outraged by Google’s exercise of its right to chose where it does business. When Google pulls out of a country, it loses a lot, and so does the country. This is a strong incentive for both parties to be reasonable. Forcing Google to obey every government in the world doesn’t seem fair; many countries have unreasonable or evil laws.

OTOH: forcing every country in the world to obey google is no better.

Is this a reference to something? What does it mean for a country to obey google?

Re: Google's Monopoly-Based Foreign Policy

#98

Post by vageli »

ulfw wrote: post #77
wongarsu wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"One of Richard Nixon's top advisers and a key figure in the Watergate scandal said the war on drugs was created as a political tool to fight blacks and hippies" [1] It's not that different. 1: https://edition.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-...

It goes even further. By having a large (Democrat-leaning) non-white population jailed up, it reduces potential Democrat voters - in some states for life even after incarceration. The only western democracy who does that. https://felonvoting.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=...

This has always disgusted me. Civic duty is a foundation of representative democracy and we strip that right from former felons while talking about reintegration with society with the other side of our mouth.

Re: Google's Monopoly-Based Foreign Policy

#99

Post by brycesbeard »

umvi wrote: post #83
dahfizz wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google doesn't have armies and police forces. It can't "force" anyone to do anything, unlike governments. Deciding not to provide its services is not a use of force from google.

Many believe internet access is a basic human right. [1] Thus, many believe that pulling out of a country where your device is one of the sole affordable ways of reaching the internet is tantamount to a human rights violation. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_Internet_access

Many people believe abortion is murder. That doesn’t make it so.

Re: Google's Monopoly-Based Foreign Policy

#100

Post by Aperocky »

umvi wrote: post #83
dahfizz wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google doesn't have armies and police forces. It can't "force" anyone to do anything, unlike governments. Deciding not to provide its services is not a use of force from google.

Many believe internet access is a basic human right. [1] Thus, many believe that pulling out of a country where your device is one of the sole affordable ways of reaching the internet is tantamount to a human rights violation. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_Internet_access

I stand with Google in this case. What if google goes down tomorrow? Is your human rights violated?
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