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Say No to Palantir in Europe

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31–40 of 187 posts

Re: Say No to Palantir in Europe

#31

The UK has decided to terminate Palantir contracts when they become due for renewal. Not before time.

Not before handing over an enormous cache of NHS patient data to them during the pandemic. If memory serves, this was not kept on NHS hardware or even NHS controlled compute.

Re: Say No to Palantir in Europe

#32
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a European issue because we look to the US and now appreciate more than ever the need to introduce barriers to stop temporary fascist governments doing the same permanent damage they have done in the US. Our democratic systems are just as vulnerable to populist leaders taking power. One of those barriers we must erect is the elimination of corporation with unfettered access to institutional data that can be used…

It's quite odd how Europeans will see and describe themselves only in terms of being a US vassal.

they functionally have been since ww2. why is it odd that they have a clear understanding of their relative position to the hegemonic power?

Re: Say No to Palantir in Europe

#34
post #11

Sure, Europe should absolutely be saying no to Palantir. However > A powerful company enables genocide in Gaza, helps ICE separate families, and fuels Trump’s war with Iran So does Google, so does Meta, so does Oracle. What do you think all that Palantir software runs on in the clouds? On Palantir's own huge datacenters? They don'thave those. The huge bulk of it runs on it on clouds provided my Microsoft, Amazon, Goo…

Indeed. It is very disappointing that they chose that as the opening paragraph of their "Why" section, without even making the attempt to relate those points as to why Palantir in Europe would be bad for European citizens.

As someone who strongly supports European digital sovereignty and eliminating dependency on the US, I'm frankly very tired of so damn much of the activist discourse around these issues revolving around US-centred topics. Yes, sure, Gaza is not the US, and the US-Israel war with Iran is bad for Europe, but those are damn well not the reasons we should say no to Palantir.

If the Israel-Gaza conflict hadn't reignited a couple of years ago and thus Gaza wasn't on everybody's minds, and if the Iran attacks hadn't (yet) happened, should we then have nothing to say as to why we don't want Palantir than it's provision of services for internal US immigration policies? Maybe I should be grateful they haven't also listed Palantir being involved in period-tracking of American women in the wake of the reversal of Roe-vs-Wade.

Jesus Christ, won't the most vocal pro-European activists please stop making everything about US talking points, and start being able to take a stance from basic principles and our own interests?

Re: Say No to Palantir in Europe

#35
post #2

[flagged]

Public opinion can def have effect if you live in a democracy. Politicians rather pay more for something else if they think it will help them / avoid hurt them. Might not work in America though.

>"Public opinion can def have effect if you live in a democracy."

Having ability to choose between 2 sides of the same ass does not look like much of democracy. Never mind the money the candidate has to have and where this money comes from. And what happens to this democracy when the bills come due and the interest on government borrowing "on behalf" can no longer be paid.

Re: Say No to Palantir in Europe

#37
post #11

Sure, Europe should absolutely be saying no to Palantir. However > A powerful company enables genocide in Gaza, helps ICE separate families, and fuels Trump’s war with Iran So does Google, so does Meta, so does Oracle. What do you think all that Palantir software runs on in the clouds? On Palantir's own huge datacenters? They don'thave those. The huge bulk of it runs on it on clouds provided my Microsoft, Amazon, Goo…

The owners of the other companies are at least not as openly opposed to democracy, though.

Meta sure causes more damage right now, but banning Palantir, which wouldn't even cause big problems, is an absolute no-brainer

Re: Say No to Palantir in Europe

#38
post #11

Sure, Europe should absolutely be saying no to Palantir. However > A powerful company enables genocide in Gaza, helps ICE separate families, and fuels Trump’s war with Iran So does Google, so does Meta, so does Oracle. What do you think all that Palantir software runs on in the clouds? On Palantir's own huge datacenters? They don'thave those. The huge bulk of it runs on it on clouds provided my Microsoft, Amazon, Goo…

Indeed. It is very disappointing that they chose that as the opening paragraph of their "Why" section, without even making the attempt to relate those points as to why Palantir in Europe would be bad for European citizens. As someone who strongly supports European digital sovereignty and eliminating dependency on the US, I'm frankly very tired of so damn much of the activist discourse around these issues revolving ar…

One at a time. Just because you can’t stop all crime doesn’t mean you don’t try to stop any crime. What is it with HN bros and their love of fallicies?

Re: Say No to Palantir in Europe

#39

The UK has decided to terminate Palantir contracts when they become due for renewal. Not before time.

Do you have a reference for this? There's been a lot of talk from ministers about reviewing contracts when break clauses allow, but I haven't seen anything definitive and this still seems to be a matter for individual departments.

Re: Say No to Palantir in Europe

#40
post #4

Europe can regulate anything out. Palantir should be no different.

No we can't. In the early 2000s we desperately tried to get our governments to be less dependent on Microsoft and we completely failed. Europe is not a federation like the US, worse many of the countries in Europe themselves are governed much like federations. We are easy prey for big American corporations. It's easy for Palantir to sell their product and then a thousand little government organizations will claim there simply is no alternative at the same quality level.
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