Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Europe is in danger of regulating its tech market out of existence

foreignpolicy.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

491–500 of 761 posts

Re: Europe is in danger of regulating its tech market out of existence

#491

Post by koonsolo »

1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #420

"Europeans could end up living in an online backwater with out-of-date phones, cut off from the rest of the world's search engines and social media sites, unable to even access high-performance computer chips." Sounds like a paradise. More healthy lifestyle. For most people much of this stuff is unnecessary. If one wants to live life "online", glued a screen digesting garbage and propaganda 24/7, then one can relocat…

If we (EU) are not allowed to have high end AI chips strapped on quadcopters and Russia is, well, good luck to EU.

Re: Europe is in danger of regulating its tech market out of existence

#492

Post by baq »

xvector wrote: post #360
baq wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Now, large tech companies haven't wholesale killed people Teen suicides are a thing. It isn’t lung cancer, sure, but it also isn’t nothing.

[flagged]

Why would I want to do that? Do you routinely compare apples with oranges?

Re: Europe is in danger of regulating its tech market out of existence

#493

Post by burnerthrow008 »

lucianbr wrote: post #430
spongebobstoes wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That data point is very hard to provide any evidence for, and not sufficient to draw any conclusions from. For example, what if the company was never started? What if they pivoted after speaking to a lawyer?

> Criteria relating to the size of the companies: (a) a turnover of the company of at least 7.5 billion euro in the European Economic Area for three years at least or (b) a market capitalization or equivalent of at least 75 billion euro; > Criteria relating to the place of the company in controlling access of other businesses to final customers: the company needs to have (a) more than 45 million monthly active end us…

Sure, but those quantitative criterion were not met by iPadOS, and the EC just said "nah, we gots the feelz" and declared it a gatekeeper platform anyway.

Who is to say they won't decide that a 6 person startup with 10 users doesn't qualify?

Re: Europe is in danger of regulating its tech market out of existence

#494

Post by burnerthrow008 »

Zpalmtree wrote: post #416
surgical_fire wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how much we are actually losing on this side of the pond with that. Maybe it is for the best. I don't really trust those billion-dollar companies.

classic, uh, actually it's a good thing we don't have any tech scene bringing jobs and innovation!!

This Is Good For Bitcoin!

Re: Europe is in danger of regulating its tech market out of existence

#495

Post by runday198 »

tivert wrote: post #454
runday198 wrote: post #444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What an interesting point of view. Very European. I wonder what will those Europeans do that do need the high-performance computer chips to create something new, to innovate. They will probably move to those whacked out societies.

> What an interesting point of view. Very European. I wonder what will those Europeans do that do need the high-performance computer chips to create something new, to innovate. You mean the ones fabricated with European photolithography machines? I think you missed the GP's point: a lot of so-called "innovation" is crap, providing as much true value as a parasite (maybe one of those lovely ones that will kill you if…

And I think you missed mine.

I agree with you. A lot of innovation is indeed crap. But there are times when they are not crap, but brilliant instead.

So these crappy and brilliant innovators are going to move to the whacky societies. It's for Europeans to judge if that is a net loss or a net gain.

Re: Europe is in danger of regulating its tech market out of existence

#496

Post by Too »

georgeburdell wrote: post #136
thrance wrote: post #77

I wish targeted advertising was made completely illegal here, I am sure our society would greatly benefit from that.

Do you actually get relevant online ads? I usually get ads about the thing I just bought

Even worse. It doesn’t work. Yet, it either way requires large scale harvesting of everyone’s personal information.

If it wasn’t allowed, the value of all this personal information wouldn’t be as high.

Re: Europe is in danger of regulating its tech market out of existence

#497

Post by burnerthrow008 »

thrance wrote: post #68
FredPret wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you under the impression that people in the US don't have purchasing power? Also, Europe is a power house right now, but won't be a generation from now if trends continue. All forms of power are built on economic power or are a means to get economic power.

As an European, I heard that 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. I don't think our laws should focus on tech companies' freedom since it doesn't seem to improve the people's lives.

> As an European, I heard that 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck

Yes, and we all declare bankruptcy every month, and charge $10,000 to our credit card to be allowed into the doctor's waiting room, where we announce our arrival by firing a gun in the air.

Where do you guys hear this stuff?

Re: Europe is in danger of regulating its tech market out of existence

#498

Post by Too »

ADeerAppeared wrote: post #335
thrance wrote: post #77

I wish targeted advertising was made completely illegal here, I am sure our society would greatly benefit from that.

I have some excellent news for you about the legality of targeted advertising under the GDPR. The GDPR is very clear about this. Advertising is not a legitimate interest or a functionally-required data processing, ergo, it may only be done with user consent. And that user consent may not be coerced in any way at all , you may not even refuse access to services if users reject their data being used. It's taking a whil…

Good intentions but how well is that working out so far?

Only thing we got was annoying cookie popups everywhere, where consent is one click away and reject is three layers behind a small “learn more” button.

Re: Europe is in danger of regulating its tech market out of existence

#499

Post by FMecha »

ripped_britches wrote: post #445
tcfhgj wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd even go to banning all commercial ads, like several cities have done offline. Reasons? Click bait, boosts consumerism, ads imply essentially a tax for everyone (remember that ads have to be paid by the consumers), CEO spam, annoying, environmental costs

You should ask an economist to model this scenario for you and then see if you still feel this way.

Making everything rely on subscription (consider European TV license fees as such) and word-of-mouth is what you end up with. Except in the case of former, over-subscription is getting into a problem too.

Re: Europe is in danger of regulating its tech market out of existence

#500

Post by null0pointer »

AnarchismIsCool wrote: post #106
thrance wrote: post #77

I wish targeted advertising was made completely illegal here, I am sure our society would greatly benefit from that.

I'd just say all advertising. It's effectively money time and effort we just light on fire.

I’ve wondered the same thing. How much does a company have to spend on ads just to keep up with their competitors’ ad spend? I don’t know but if I had to guess I’d say most of the ad budget. Not to mention that ads are a cancer that infest and overrun anything they touch.
Post reply on HN