The EU moves to kill infinite scrolling • Hacker News Board

Re: The EU moves to kill infinite scrolling

#541

Post by grumbel » Sat, Feb 14, 2026, 7:34 AM UTC

jjcm wrote: post #64

Here's the actual statement from the European Comission: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_... It's important to note they aren't creating laws against infinite scrolling , but are ruling against addictive design and pointing to infinite scrolling as an example of it. The wording here is fascinating, mainly because they're effectively acting as arbiters of "vibes". They point to certain feat…

> "well what specific laws would I write to combat addictive design?"

Expand the GDPR "Right to data portability" to publicly published content for third parties, i.e. open up the protocols so you can have third party clients that themselves can decide how they want to present the data. And add a realtime requirement, since at the moment companies still circumvent the original rule with a "only once every 30 days" limit.

Also add an HTML tag and HTTP header and force companies to declare all their ads in a proper machine readable way.

The core problem with addictive design isn't the addictive design itself, but that it's often the only way to even access the data. And when it comes to communication services that benefit from network effects, that should simply not be allowed.

Re: The EU moves to kill infinite scrolling

#542

Post by reycharles » Sat, Feb 14, 2026, 7:40 AM UTC

s_dev wrote: post #531

poncho_romero wrote: post #25

I hope this goes through. Trillion dollar companies are waging a war on our attention, using everything at their disposal to make these apps addictive. It isn't a fair fight and the existence of infinite feeds is bad both for people and democracy. Regulating consumer products that cause harm to millions is nothing new.

I installed a Firefox plugin that makes YouTube shorts display as normal videos. I was genuinely shocked how much of a difference it made to my habits.

Would you mind sharing the name of that plugin? Thanks!

Re: The EU moves to kill infinite scrolling

#543

Post by trymas » Sat, Feb 14, 2026, 7:42 AM UTC

tokyobreakfast wrote: post #96

happytoexplain wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is unrealistic.

It's unrealistic to not install TikTok? Laws are not created to be malleable about the population's trivial mental illnesses. We don't need new laws on the books because some people are incapable of turning their phones off. They have addictive personalities and will fulfill this by other means, while everyone high-fives claiming success.

Let’s make crack/heroin legal then.

Why waste space on the law books about population’s trivial illnesses (addiction).

Re: The EU moves to kill infinite scrolling

#544

Post by bluescrn » Sat, Feb 14, 2026, 7:47 AM UTC

There is no infinite scrolling.

There’s a finite (albeit vast) amount of content to serve up.

Re: The EU moves to kill infinite scrolling

#545

Post by thfuran » Sat, Feb 14, 2026, 7:51 AM UTC

Funes- wrote: post #158

jjcm wrote: post #64

Here's the actual statement from the European Comission: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_... It's important to note they aren't creating laws against infinite scrolling , but are ruling against addictive design and pointing to infinite scrolling as an example of it. The wording here is fascinating, mainly because they're effectively acting as arbiters of "vibes". They point to certain feat…

>"well what specific laws would I write to combat addictive design?" Hear me out: banning advertising on the Internet. It's the only way. It's the primordial domino tile. You knock that one over, every other tile follows suit. It's the mother of chain reactions. There would be no social media, no Internet as we know it. Imagine having TikTok, YouTube or X trying to survive on subscriptions alone in their current iter…

Not just the internet. Ban third-party advertising everywhere.

Re: The EU moves to kill infinite scrolling

#546

Post by seydor » Sat, Feb 14, 2026, 7:53 AM UTC

enaaem wrote: post #535

seydor wrote: post #508

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The wording is vague enough so they canm milk american/chinese companies for fines in a few months. EU being sad again

America forced the sale of Tiktok and China doesn't even allow American social media companies. I would argue the EU is late to the game.

you can't milk it if you ban it

Re: The EU moves to kill infinite scrolling

#547

Post by Scarblac » Sat, Feb 14, 2026, 7:53 AM UTC

gchamonlive wrote: post #225

Funes- wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"well what specific laws would I write to combat addictive design?" Hear me out: banning advertising on the Internet. It's the only way. It's the primordial domino tile. You knock that one over, every other tile follows suit. It's the mother of chain reactions. There would be no social media, no Internet as we know it. Imagine having TikTok, YouTube or X trying to survive on subscriptions alone in their current iter…

Infrastructure costs money. There's no way around it. I'm all up for banning ads. But there should be another viable business model to replace it.

Users can pay for services they use.

If that's not viable enough, so be it.

Re: The EU moves to kill infinite scrolling

#548

Post by AlecSchueler » Sat, Feb 14, 2026, 7:56 AM UTC

mschild wrote: post #537

AlecSchueler wrote: post #532

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> gives poor people access to lots of shit that they otherwise wouldn’t have Addiction is a precursor to poverty. If we accept the domino theory of "online advertising -> addictive design" then the fundamental evil becomes clear. Holding people in poverty in order to profit from their time and attention.

But the most valuable ad targets are people with money unless my product specifically targets low-income individuals (pay day lenders, etc).

I think that's debatable, there's arguments like quantity over quality to be made, but I also think it's somewhat beside the point of "ad supported services are a favour to the poor."

Re: The EU moves to kill infinite scrolling

#549

Post by thfuran » Sat, Feb 14, 2026, 7:56 AM UTC

virgildotcodes wrote: post #529

Funes- wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"well what specific laws would I write to combat addictive design?" Hear me out: banning advertising on the Internet. It's the only way. It's the primordial domino tile. You knock that one over, every other tile follows suit. It's the mother of chain reactions. There would be no social media, no Internet as we know it. Imagine having TikTok, YouTube or X trying to survive on subscriptions alone in their current iter…

I’ll probably be crucified for this but I think the free w/advertising model is not fundamentally evil, and gives poor people access to lots of shit that they otherwise wouldn’t have, keeps the rest of us from death by 1,000 monthly subscriptions.

>I think the free w/advertising model is not fundamentally evil

I think it's fundamentally anti-competitive.

Re: The EU moves to kill infinite scrolling

#550

Post by Scarblac » Sat, Feb 14, 2026, 7:56 AM UTC

andsoitis wrote: post #471

lcnPylGDnU4H9OF wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ostensibly not, if it is outlawed.

But under what principle would you allow advertising, in general, online? That seems like an arbitrary penalty. What harm is being prevented by banning advertising, in general?

Allowing advertising quickly makes everything about getting more eyeballs and therefore more income from advertising. Users aren't the customer, they are the product.

That directly leads to all these addictive dark patterns.