> To be clear, these multi billion/trillion dollar companies don't need anyone defending them. However, it would be interesting to see what the EU's position would be if Meta started as an EU company.
I absolutely agree on this point. I do have the… bias, that in my formative years Apple was very much the plucky underdog in danger of bankruptcy.
This may be why I am less concerned about what Apple does. I am aware that, net, most people here very much disagree with my position that if you don't like Apple's software policies, you can simply not buy their hardware. (Indeed, they are priced such that many people who would actually like to have those things, cannot afford them).
Google and Facebook, however, are much harder to avoid — yes, you can in theory replace Gmail with Yahoo, Google.com with DuckDuckGo.com, Google Maps with OpenStreetMap, but people who try this report that it's harder than it seems to totally cut that particular cord.
Facebook Messenger is my only way to remain in contact with some people. I've stopped logging into the main site because their feed is, approximately: [real post from an actual connection but 75% chance I've already seen it on a previous visit, advert, list of people it thinks I might know but I don't, then a repeating pattern of {advert, 3 example posts from a group it thinks I might want to join but don't}].
But yeah, Apple aren't the plucky underdog any more.