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US tech firms share Dutch regulator officials' names with Senate

dutchnews.nl

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Re: US tech firms share Dutch regulator officials' names with Senate

#41

Post by skippyboxedhero »

bob001 wrote: post #32
skippyboxedhero wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason Germany didn't prepare for it was because multiple leading politicians were bought and paid for by Russia. Be totally clear about that. Former German president was working for Gazprom on the project whose stated aim was to facilitate an invasion of Ukraine at some point (which Trump pointed out, and EU politicians literally laughed at him). The issue with the EU is that they lack the capacity for any kind…

> The reason Germany didn't prepare for it was because multiple leading politicians were bought and paid for by Russia. Be totally clear about that. Former German president was working for Gazprom on the project whose stated aim was to facilitate an invasion of Ukraine at some point (which Trump pointed out, and EU politicians literally laughed at him). To add to your point, despite this the German population seems t…

As the other answer says, surely this would always be the case. People do not deal with government regularly and there is a strong disincentive to report upon this.

I think you see the same thing in every Western democracy where people believe there is no corruption or believe in rather comical forms of corruption, but the corruption is actually systemic and a function of some political configuration that can't really stand change. This is certainly the case in Germany where you have this odd alliance between unions and billionaires that has basically led to, despite the amazing talent of their people, amazingly poor policy delivery.

Re: US tech firms share Dutch regulator officials' names with Senate

#42

Post by bob001 »

Eridrus wrote: post #9

I don't know what the US thinks it will gain by targeting civil servants. They are not the ones with the power to decide what happens, and retaliation would mean more anti-US people selecting themselves into these projects.

> retaliation would mean more anti-US people selecting themselves into these projects.

Very few people are martyrs or want to become martyrs. Even fewer in places where life is generally fine and for a cause that isn't dire to their loved ones.

Re: US tech firms share Dutch regulator officials' names with Senate

#43

Post by dgellow »

phatfish wrote: post #36
skippyboxedhero wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is difficult to think of an economic region that is more opposed to free trade than Europe (that isn't a comedy country). Possibly some countries in South America? Trade within Europe has massive restrictions. I have no idea why, given the stated aims of Europe...we are posting this on a post about the Netherlands trying to protect office software ffs, people think this isn't the case. One of the reasons why the E…

The only people that think global free trade is a good thing are the top .001% net worth individuals which use it to wield power. Trading blocks (like the European single market) are specifically designed to protect their members from shit that global corporations or other nations attempt to get away with. I'm not sure what "Trade within Europe has massive restrictions." means without context. Compared to some Randia…

> I'm not sure what "Trade within Europe has massive restrictions." means without context.

We actually do have a good amount of issues regarding internal trades, according to https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2025/7792....

“The International Monetary Fund estimates that the persistent barriers to the EU single market still represented the equivalent of a 110 % tariff on services.”

There is a good amount of work to be done to complete the single market, what we currently have is way too fragmented

Re: US tech firms share Dutch regulator officials' names with Senate

#44

Post by phatfish »

skippyboxedhero wrote: post #29
pjc50 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Whitehouse really really hates the idea that the EU can decide, not them, what is allowed .. in the Netherlands. Where the EU and the Dutch government get to decide what happens. That's what national sovereignty means.

I would read the links in the article. The problem is that social media companies worked with civil servants in European countries to remove posts being made people outside Europe. This also happened in the UK where there were parts of the government that were able to make requests directly to social media companies to remove posts on their platform, regardless of where the poster was from. For obvious reasons, the l…

Honestly, rather a "unelected EU bureaucrat" (What does this even mean? Are we going to individually elect the entire civil service, or require elected officials to delegate nothing and personally review every decision?) than an American tech-bro governing my internet usage.

Re: US tech firms share Dutch regulator officials' names with Senate

#45

Post by graemep »

miohtama wrote: post #10
microtonal wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They all talk about the importance of European digital sovereignty and then continue to do the exact opposite behind the scenes. To be honest and I say this as a Dutch person, this is typical Dutch (government). Basically two rules in Dutch politics: (1) always choose the option that pleases the US the most; (2) always postpone solving issues to the latest possible moment (US dependence, nitrogen deposition, childcar…

It's not only Dutch. Instead of building sovereignity, the EU thought they could regulate their way and force everyone to bend the knee because of their share as a trading partner. This started 20 years ago. However what has happened is that the EU's soft power is crumbling, but the politicians have hard to grasp with the reality they could somehow dictate things globally. AI will only further accelerate this. Only w…

Europeans (and not just the EU) think they still have the influence on the world they had in the 1980s when their economies were a much larger proportion of the global economy. Europeans have no idea what the world looks like from Asia which contains most of the world's population and generates a third of global GDP.

Re: US tech firms share Dutch regulator officials' names with Senate

#46

Post by skippyboxedhero »

phatfish wrote: post #36
skippyboxedhero wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is difficult to think of an economic region that is more opposed to free trade than Europe (that isn't a comedy country). Possibly some countries in South America? Trade within Europe has massive restrictions. I have no idea why, given the stated aims of Europe...we are posting this on a post about the Netherlands trying to protect office software ffs, people think this isn't the case. One of the reasons why the E…

The only people that think global free trade is a good thing are the top .001% net worth individuals which use it to wield power. Trading blocks (like the European single market) are specifically designed to protect their members from shit that global corporations or other nations attempt to get away with. I'm not sure what "Trade within Europe has massive restrictions." means without context. Compared to some Randia…

Services trade within Europe is often less free than services trade outside of Europe. The reason why is because there is a strong political constituency within Europe to ensure that certain kinds of sinecure jobs are not impacted by competition (and yes, as you helpfully point out, to blame that on "global corporations"...and people wonder why Europe had such a long period of dictatorships in the 20th century, "globalism", right? wink, wink).

Re: US tech firms share Dutch regulator officials' names with Senate

#47

Post by dgellow »

embedding-shape wrote: post #23
dgellow wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> always postpone solving issues to the latest possible moment Germany has the exact same issue. Always looking to keep the status quo for as long as possible. It’s really a structural problem, it’s the result of the political system, elected leadership, demographics (mostly the voting population aging rapidly). I expect the same issue is shared by most Western European countries

Isn't this simply a "human thing", keeping the status quo for as long as possible? I see the same European country I'm from, where I'm living currently, the South American country my wife is from and every single country I visit. Maybe another framing, is there any countries where this isn't true? Where truly the default is to go against the status quo and continuously improve no matter what? I know there are a few c…

Some countries with different politics like China do not seem to suffer the same issues, or at least not yet. Or maybe the country is defending a different status quo (the mono-party)? But they seem to be eager to develop the infrastructure and country as a whole.

Not that I would want to live under their political system, to be clear. I wish we could have a democratic system AND also be eager to develop our regions instead of being so protective of everything

Re: US tech firms share Dutch regulator officials' names with Senate

#48

Post by skippyboxedhero »

dgellow wrote: post #43
phatfish wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only people that think global free trade is a good thing are the top .001% net worth individuals which use it to wield power. Trading blocks (like the European single market) are specifically designed to protect their members from shit that global corporations or other nations attempt to get away with. I'm not sure what "Trade within Europe has massive restrictions." means without context. Compared to some Randia…

> I'm not sure what "Trade within Europe has massive restrictions." means without context. We actually do have a good amount of issues regarding internal trades, according to https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2025/7792... . “The International Monetary Fund estimates that the persistent barriers to the EU single market still represented the equivalent of a 110 % tariff on services.” There is a good am…

That is politically impossible. Everyone knows it is impossible because if you open up some countries to free services trade then the political basis for the EU and the traditional governing countries would collapse.

The limitations on trade within Europe are intentional design. The attempts to stop the economy from collapsing with these massive government spending packages are the death throes.

Re: US tech firms share Dutch regulator officials' names with Senate

#49

Post by NoLinkToMe »

softwaredoug wrote: post #8
petcat wrote: post #2

> However, stopping working with Microsoft and other US tech companies is not an option in the short term, he told the magazine. > Van der Burg is currently grappling with the issue of Solvinity, a Dutch cloud service provider which is widely used by government departments including the Digid identity system, and which is on the verge of being sold to a US company. > The Dutch tax office is also currently switching t…

Ironically GOP talks about European sovereignty over their own defense, but economically want to treat them like a vassal

This is by the way how the defense was treated for decades as well. US resisted the EU from building a formidable army, instead they preferred a vassal state defense, enough to deter others from messing with Europe, not enough for Europe to be independent, and buying almost exclusively from US defense companies propping up US military R&D and financing factories during peacetime.

Now that the US has pivoted to Asia since Obama, they expect the EU to fill the gap they leave behind. But that’s new, the US wanted it exactly like it was pre 2014 or so.

Re: US tech firms share Dutch regulator officials' names with Senate

#50

Post by dgellow »

skippyboxedhero wrote: post #48
dgellow wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not sure what "Trade within Europe has massive restrictions." means without context. We actually do have a good amount of issues regarding internal trades, according to https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2025/7792... . “The International Monetary Fund estimates that the persistent barriers to the EU single market still represented the equivalent of a 110 % tariff on services.” There is a good am…

That is politically impossible. Everyone knows it is impossible because if you open up some countries to free services trade then the political basis for the EU and the traditional governing countries would collapse. The limitations on trade within Europe are intentional design. The attempts to stop the economy from collapsing with these massive government spending packages are the death throes.

I mean, it is extremely difficult, but the whole union was seen as impossible the last century. With strategic developments over decades I don’t think it’s impossible
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