Earlier quoted context omitted.
How are all those guns helping in the US right now, as it turns authoritarian?
Pretty good, thanks for asking!
I’m confused. I thought the guns were for stopping an authoritarian regime?
Cloudflare CEO on the Italy fines
811–820 of 1001 posts
Re: Cloudflare CEO on the Italy fines
#812Let's be a bit more honest here, I think the Italian law is badly defined, but I also think the american perspective is wrong. We (all tech people everywhere me included) argued for a lot of time for free speech on the internet, but the result currently is that we built a system that is free speech for Russian and Chinese bots and actors. In Europe we are under daily attack from Russian accounts that spread massive a…
Well, we cry "freedom of speech" when Russia/China/adversary shuts our propaganda-pushing media or tools out. Freedom of speech for me, not for thee, eh? I don't want my politicians deciding what is good or bad on the internet. I'm an adult, and I can decide for myself.
Free speech for the individuals is needed, in terms of people should not be punished for what they say. But social media platforms owned by foreign countries is a danger for any democracy. There's a reason the US wants to capture Tiktok, Iran is shutting down the internet, and China has The Great Firewall.
Since the US is turning away from Europe's interests, it's just logical that American platforms will be restricted in one way or another. I don't see any way around it.
Re: Cloudflare CEO on the Italy fines
#813Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is one of the consequences of outsourcing this (and other capabilities) to the private sector. Many governments simply don’t have the skill and political will to invest in these kinds of capabilities, which puts them at the mercy of private actors that do. Not saying this is good or bad, just trying to describe it as I see it.
Governments just can't come to grips with how much money software engineers make. Paying a contractor $x million? Yeah no problem, projects are projects, they cost what they cost. Does that $x million pay for 5x fewer people than it would in construction or road repair? We don't know, we don't care, this is the best bid we got for the requirements, and in line with what similar IT projects cost us before. Paying a ju…
Not just governments, that same kind of greed exists in private companies too.
The only way to make good money while being an employee is to have your buddy spin up a "vendor" offering overpriced bullshit and shill it within your company. In exchange, you also spin up a "vendor" and your buddy shills it at his company.
Re: Cloudflare CEO on the Italy fines
#814Let's be a bit more honest here, I think the Italian law is badly defined, but I also think the american perspective is wrong. We (all tech people everywhere me included) argued for a lot of time for free speech on the internet, but the result currently is that we built a system that is free speech for Russian and Chinese bots and actors. In Europe we are under daily attack from Russian accounts that spread massive a…
Freedom of speech is binary, there aren't any acceptable degrees of it: either you have it, or you don't. If there is disinformation, the solution is to counter it with actual information, to give the people better tools to identify it (like X's community notes), and to educate the general population so they will have better critical thinking. Restricting freedom of speech is never a solution. How long until dissenti…
Community notes typically kicks in after the tweet has already gone insanely viral. It’s not useless, but I wonder about its effectiveness.
I see your point about free speech but I think it has to be more nuanced. For example, where has continuing stupid anti vaxer debate left the Americans?
Re: Cloudflare CEO on the Italy fines
#815Earlier quoted context omitted.
Governments just can't come to grips with how much money software engineers make. Paying a contractor $x million? Yeah no problem, projects are projects, they cost what they cost. Does that $x million pay for 5x fewer people than it would in construction or road repair? We don't know, we don't care, this is the best bid we got for the requirements, and in line with what similar IT projects cost us before. Paying a ju…
> Paying a junior employee $100k? "We can't do that, the agency director has worked here for 40 years, and he doesn't make that much." I can assure you that junior software engineers in Italy or anywhere else in the EU make nowhere near that amount of money. In fact, few of even the most senior software engineers make that amount of money anywhere in the EU (in Switzerland or the UK they might see such salaries, at t…
And they get exactly what they pay for. There's zero reason for a competent professional to stick around with that kind of pay any longer than strictly necessary (aka until their own gig or freelancing takes off).
Re: Cloudflare CEO on the Italy fines
#816American services leaving the European market would be a blessing for european IT, but alas the europeans are not kicking then out, instead milking for fines.
I WISH cloudflare did all the things they threaten to do, but they won't
Re: Cloudflare CEO on the Italy fines
#817Regardless of whether the law is absurd or not (I honestly have no idea, but we've seen some crazy stuff lately in the EU), its kinda precious that a CEO only complains about it when his company is fined. I'm certain it is also quite reassuring for any paying Cloudflare customer that the company strategy is driven by the CEO Twitter rants; That if by some reason doesn't want to play ball with local laws (as draconian…
When I read this I was thinking that I'd be grateful for the CEO of a company I worked for to write this.
As long as they don't go off the rails like Musk and others have, its good to see them pasionate and fight for the company. The reverse is MUCH worse.
Re: Cloudflare CEO on the Italy fines
#818Earlier quoted context omitted.
He did mention that they were fighting the law before they were fined and they plan to challenge the fine in court. He has also been vocal about other similar legislation before they were enacted or the company got fined (not sure about this specific one though). So I don't think it's fair to characterize it as he "only complains about it when his company is fined".
He also said this: > In the meantime, we remain happy to discuss this with Italian government officials who, so far, have been unwilling to engage beyond issuing fines. which, although his rant really pisses me off, further proves your point.
Curious, why does his rant piss you off?
Re: Cloudflare CEO on the Italy fines
#819Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm a team lead in an American organization that relies heavily on Cloudflare's Project Galileo[1], and I read that post with growing dread. My first thought was that this guy doesn't sound very much like a CEO. Let me rephrase that: He sounds like the kind of unhinged CEO of orgs I try to stay away from (X, for instance). Then I read what you're talking about: > [...] we are considering the following actions: [...]…
> If my state had a similar spat with Cloudflare would we be in danger of losing the infrastructure we've grown to depend on? Absolutely. And if any of their competitors claims they can guarantee that they won't ever (have to) pull out somewhere for political reasons, they're lying or ignorant. You cannot escape politics. One election or new law can redraw the landscape overnight. Also I doubt you "depend" on any sin…
Exactly, I can't believe the braindead takes being spouted on this thread. Is HN really filled with people that can't think critically the second they leave their terminal?
Re: Cloudflare CEO on the Italy fines
#820Earlier quoted context omitted.
The are fining his company 213% of yearly Italian revenue. He is not the one escalating.
He took a risk in ignoring a law instead of exiting the market. They did not escalate, they applied the law. What we need is an international legal framework for the Internet. And that includes compromises on all sides. China, EU, Russia, US and others have very different understanding on what is right. But hey, I think US politics is America first and cancel all international treaties. Sounds like more problems like…
Sure, next we should implement global communism and live in peace and harmony forever! That is most definitely feasible