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Big Tech to EU: "Drop Dead"

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Re: Big Tech to EU: "Drop Dead"

#241

Post by surgical_fire »

kernal wrote: post #13
bee_rider wrote: post #8

The EU will win this if they want. Their trump card is that, actually, making the EU not a viable market for the most annoying US tech companies would be a huge win for many of their constituents.

Apple should play their Trump card and threaten to pull out of the EU. The EU would blink first because the public backlash would be career ending.

> Apple should play their Trump card and threaten to pull out of the EU. The EU would blink first because the public backlash would be career ending.

I want this to happen so much. And I want it to be binding, that Apple cannot back down from that threat afterwards.

Re: Big Tech to EU: "Drop Dead"

#242

Post by lispm »

llm_trw wrote: post #212
master-lincoln wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because most people have little knowledge about the EU and are easily influenced. Direct democracy doesn't work well because of that if you ask me

So you'd say it has to be foisted on the common woman from up high?

Wasn't there a war in the US because of leaving states? ;-) How was that "referendum"?

Re: Big Tech to EU: "Drop Dead"

#243

Post by ben_w »

kalleboo wrote: post #234
ben_w wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Switching yourself is easy, but you can't expect everyone you interact with to switch too when they don't have a reason for it (and they have the same problem of getting all of their contacts to switch). Sure, but "the old one is no longer available" is absolutely going to get everyone to switch in the approximately 60 seconds it takes to go from the notification to having a new account. I mean, Google basically do…

It's easier on Android where anyone can "become" the SMS app and integrate all your chats in one place. Apple does not allow that, so you're always going to end up going back to iMessage with some people if you just know their phone number and try to send an SMS.

For now, but that doesn't apply in the hypothetical where Apple is told "change your behaviour or stop operating in the EU", no matter which option they pick.

Re: Big Tech to EU: "Drop Dead"

#244

Post by surgical_fire »

paganel wrote: post #227
lucianbr wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they do not represent anyone As a european citizen, I really wonder what allows you to speak in my name. How arrogant can you get?

> How arrogant can you get? Could be that some of the people in here are fine with a "Parliament" that is not really a parliament and that they are fine with the unelected European Commission taking decisions that affect us all, but that has nothing to do with "arrogance", it's just them wanting to live under a non-democratic regime. And facts speak for themselves, the technocrats in Brussels do not represent anyone…

> Could be that some of the people in here are fine with a "Parliament" that is not really a parliament and that they are fine with the unelected European Commission taking decisions that affect us all, but that has nothing to do with "arrogance", it's just them wanting to live under a non-democratic regime.

The commission is appointed by the member states, which are all, supposedly, democratically elected (and I only make this caveat because Hungary exists). There's nothing "non-democratic" about it.

> And facts speak for themselves, the technocrats in Brussels do not represent anyone because it was not the people of the EU who have put them there. Some of you may agree with their fiat decisions, but that is not "representation", it's just "sharing of interests".

Please, enlighten me how it was not the people of the EU who put them there. I'll wait.

Re: Big Tech to EU: "Drop Dead"

#245

Post by hwbunny »

Kick them out of the EU. We need our own solutions. Big tech stifles innovation, steal data and use underhanded practices all around. Just look at youtube. It's the same (worse) in the last 10 years. No innovation whatsoever.

EU is not the wild west US people accustomed to. Bombard them malicious big tech entities back to the stone age.

Re: Big Tech to EU: "Drop Dead"

#246

Post by pas »

NoboruWataya wrote: post #201
bee_rider wrote: post #8

The EU will win this if they want. Their trump card is that, actually, making the EU not a viable market for the most annoying US tech companies would be a huge win for many of their constituents.

I would like this to be true - that the big US tech companies leaving Europe would prompt Europeans to realise they never needed them in the first place, and either turn to local, privacy-respecting (maybe even open source) alternatives or just get their heads out of their phones altogether. But a lot of Europeans are obsessed with these platforms and would probably be extremely pissed off if they lost access to them…

well, not like the platforms currently promote European values :/

Re: Big Tech to EU: "Drop Dead"

#247

Post by bryanrasmussen »

emptysongglass wrote: post #196
bryanrasmussen wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Denmark taxis are great and are used all the time, but I think Uber is illegal here anyway so...

Taxis are not great here in Denmark, I don't know why you'd think to state this. They are also not "used all the time", instead used sparingly because of how outrageously expensive they are. Taxis are run by cartels here who have carved up Denmark amongst themselves. Drivers wait in queues, idling, and are paid to idle, sometimes dozens of cabs at a time. As a result, taxis in Denmark are some of the most expensive i…

hmm, ok so maybe things changed in the last 15 years as I do not go out on the weekends anymore but basically all I remember was everyone taking cabs everywhere.

My experience from other countries made me feel like hey, these Danes sure do use the cabs quite a bit.

As a general rule I find the cabs in Denmark more reliable and better maintained than UK, Italy, and any region in the U.S I've lived in.

>As a result, taxis in Denmark are some of the most expensive in the world.

Everything in Denmark is some of the most expensive of that thing in the world. Suggesting that taxis are somehow different than all the other expensive stuff in Denmark is absurd.

Re: Big Tech to EU: "Drop Dead"

#248

Post by olalonde »

forgetfreeman wrote: post #101
yard2010 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But what if they will though? Won't china happily replace the EU market? It's much bigger too and Winnie the Pooh doesn't care about ppl privacy that much

This assumes Apple has something to offer the Chinese market that it incumbents aren't already providing. I'm skeptical.

The iPhone is already the best selling phone in China...

Re: Big Tech to EU: "Drop Dead"

#249

Post by wolvesechoes »

paganel wrote: post #227
lucianbr wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they do not represent anyone As a european citizen, I really wonder what allows you to speak in my name. How arrogant can you get?

> How arrogant can you get? Could be that some of the people in here are fine with a "Parliament" that is not really a parliament and that they are fine with the unelected European Commission taking decisions that affect us all, but that has nothing to do with "arrogance", it's just them wanting to live under a non-democratic regime. And facts speak for themselves, the technocrats in Brussels do not represent anyone…

And those technocrats doesn't force anything, and their role is not to represent anything. Every law needs to be voted by the Council, and this is your real representation. If you don't like where EU is heading, complain to your government.

Re: Big Tech to EU: "Drop Dead"

#250

Post by candiodari »

pas wrote: post #246
NoboruWataya wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would like this to be true - that the big US tech companies leaving Europe would prompt Europeans to realise they never needed them in the first place, and either turn to local, privacy-respecting (maybe even open source) alternatives or just get their heads out of their phones altogether. But a lot of Europeans are obsessed with these platforms and would probably be extremely pissed off if they lost access to them…

well, not like the platforms currently promote European values :/

This is the EU. Like most governments, if they thought they could get away with it they would not just outlaw Tech Giants, they would outlaw the internet itself, along with any source of information that they cannot easily sue out of existence. Hell, they would outlaw people talking to each other without permission.

It was worst with Jose Manuel Barroso at the head of the EU commission, who needed to hide ... well, why don't I just say it. He spent a big part of his youth being a violent communist protestor (he wasn't even a now-fashionable Marxist, he was a Maoist. He protested IN FAVOR OF the "cultural revolution" in China, in favor of the killing of between 80 and 300 million people. He was explicitly anti-Marx, though I don't understand why), and has more than a few convictions and arrests for destruction of property, beating up people, assault, ...

Frankly, he is THE stereotype of what is wrong with leftists. Turns out, surprise! It's not about communism, or rights, or ... At least, it isn't for him. He was offered power through what, though people don't often think of them this way, is one of THE most capitalist institutions on this planet, the EU commission (used to be named "The European Union of Coal and Steel producers", and hasn't forgotten). He of course, immediately and totally forgot his "conviction" and took the power (of course there were many steps in his rise to power, but ...). For Barroso leftism was, and presumably is, nothing but a way to amass power, to maximize what he accidentally got thrown into at university.

But the worst of it is, he is a suspect in an unsolved murder. Now that isn't QUITE as bad as that sentence makes it sound, but close. At one of the protests where he was, someone was murdered, and the police knows he was in the group where the death occurred. Hence, he is a suspect. Along with ~20 others. The murder was "never solved".

There's even more than a few reasons this information is hidden. First is that he's involved (as well as another famous Portugese politician). Second is that the police essentially let the murder go, and "that this might lead to copycat ...". Frankly, that second part is a genuine concern.

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