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Critics say EU risks ceding control of its tech laws under U.S. pressure

politico.eu

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Re: Critics say EU risks ceding control of its tech laws under U.S. pressure

#91

Post by anthk »

szszrk wrote: post #62
mikkupikku wrote: post #58

After decades of trying and broadly failing to regulate American tech corps, at what point does the EU admit that leveling fines against Meta will never stop Meta from being Meta, that American megacorps are essentially ungovernable in Europe (or elsewhere for that matter) and the best course of action is to ban and block them in Europe? Just more fines. Bigger fines, surely this will work eventually... It's been 20…

My monkey brain would love to see if corporate strategy would work here: For repeating offenses fines should rise much faster, multiplied by 10x-100x every time, until we find fines so big they are physically unable to pay even if corps would consider liquidating their all global assets. Then lower it just slightly, so that being operational in Europe would produce no financial benefits and see if they'll comply, or…

Block FB at IP level. Every domain, from FB to WA to IG and whatnot. No access from Europe unless you comply with privacy laws.

Re: Critics say EU risks ceding control of its tech laws under U.S. pressure

#92

Post by anthk »

tokai wrote: post #80
SunshineTheCat wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you're seeing here is why the US has such a massive amount of leverage over the EU. The US has for some time fostered an environment where people build and grow businesses. I've started many myself, some totally for fun. And as it happens some of those US businesses have grown into massive corporations, and yes, some not so great ones too. I think the EU in general (not everyone of course) leans more in the real…

>I think the EU in general (not everyone of course) leans more in the realm of letting the government take care of everything. Your understanding of business in EU countries seems to be make-believe and personal fantasy.

>"The goverment take care"...

So, like Boeing and tons of corpos too big to fail.

Re: Critics say EU risks ceding control of its tech laws under U.S. pressure

#93

Post by dehrmann »

troyvit wrote: post #75
mikkupikku wrote: post #58

After decades of trying and broadly failing to regulate American tech corps, at what point does the EU admit that leveling fines against Meta will never stop Meta from being Meta, that American megacorps are essentially ungovernable in Europe (or elsewhere for that matter) and the best course of action is to ban and block them in Europe? Just more fines. Bigger fines, surely this will work eventually... It's been 20…

This talk from Cory Doctorow made the rounds on HN when it happened: https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/01/39c3/#the-new-coalition In it he espouses going a little further. He posits that other countries should repeal their versions of the DMCA and just start jailbreaking American megacorps' app stores, hardware, software, etc. and providing their own, much cheaper (or free) versions. Free trade has already broken down,…

Except it's already possible to install a third-party app store or OS on Android devices. The process isn't trivial, but it's officially supported.

Re: Critics say EU risks ceding control of its tech laws under U.S. pressure

#94

Post by [deleted] »

vintermann wrote: post #49
pjc50 wrote: post #21

Specifically, this is another Parliament vs Commission issue. The Commission loves to have little deals away from the public where everything is quietly smoothed over, while the Parliament is trying to build popular legitimacy.

Also, I'm not sure there's much pressure involved. Mass surveillance is a thing "centrist" EU politicians very much want themselves.

[deleted]

Re: Critics say EU risks ceding control of its tech laws under U.S. pressure

#95

Post by Arubis »

Ceding? Any legal control the EU has over tech has been slowly drawn out of the US’s grasp. It was just that the US dominance over legal control of all these networked interconnections wasn’t so actively and visibly utilized until more recently.

Re: Critics say EU risks ceding control of its tech laws under U.S. pressure

#96

Post by FpUser »

elric wrote: post #78

The European Commission and Council are becoming increasingly unpopular among my peers. Sentiment towards the Parliament is generally still positive. But it's clear that two thirds of the Trilogue essentially don't give a shit about European people, their rights, their freedoms or their wellbeing. Things like Age Verification and Chat Control are going to blow up in their faces. I don't get how blind these institutio…

>"two thirds of the Trilogue essentially don't give a shit about European people, their rights, their freedoms or their wellbeing"

Every bureaucracy works for themselves eventually. The EU's main task is to make superstate they can control. Since they are trying to eliminate / reduce rights of member countries one can imagine what kind of concerns they have towards individual people and their freedom.

Re: Critics say EU risks ceding control of its tech laws under U.S. pressure

#98

Post by SllX »

troyvit wrote: post #75
mikkupikku wrote: post #58

After decades of trying and broadly failing to regulate American tech corps, at what point does the EU admit that leveling fines against Meta will never stop Meta from being Meta, that American megacorps are essentially ungovernable in Europe (or elsewhere for that matter) and the best course of action is to ban and block them in Europe? Just more fines. Bigger fines, surely this will work eventually... It's been 20…

This talk from Cory Doctorow made the rounds on HN when it happened: https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/01/39c3/#the-new-coalition In it he espouses going a little further. He posits that other countries should repeal their versions of the DMCA and just start jailbreaking American megacorps' app stores, hardware, software, etc. and providing their own, much cheaper (or free) versions. Free trade has already broken down,…

Or: a guy who is anti-copyright is performing an angle shoot to see if he can get some legislators to bite.

The EU taking staunchly anti-American positions and targeting American businesses looking for a way to “legally” rob them blind is probably not going to work out for them in the long run.

Re: Critics say EU risks ceding control of its tech laws under U.S. pressure

#99

Post by mikkupikku »

dehrmann wrote: post #93
troyvit wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This talk from Cory Doctorow made the rounds on HN when it happened: https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/01/39c3/#the-new-coalition In it he espouses going a little further. He posits that other countries should repeal their versions of the DMCA and just start jailbreaking American megacorps' app stores, hardware, software, etc. and providing their own, much cheaper (or free) versions. Free trade has already broken down,…

Except it's already possible to install a third-party app store or OS on Android devices. The process isn't trivial, but it's officially supported.

Haven't you heard? Google is changing their traditional policy on """side loading""" apps and are, quite soon from now, planning to lock the whole thing down and make users submit to anal probing to opt out. Android has been good but times are changing and we need to stop trusting old institutions.

Re: Critics say EU risks ceding control of its tech laws under U.S. pressure

#100

Post by rescbr »

troyvit wrote: post #75
mikkupikku wrote: post #58

After decades of trying and broadly failing to regulate American tech corps, at what point does the EU admit that leveling fines against Meta will never stop Meta from being Meta, that American megacorps are essentially ungovernable in Europe (or elsewhere for that matter) and the best course of action is to ban and block them in Europe? Just more fines. Bigger fines, surely this will work eventually... It's been 20…

This talk from Cory Doctorow made the rounds on HN when it happened: https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/01/39c3/#the-new-coalition In it he espouses going a little further. He posits that other countries should repeal their versions of the DMCA and just start jailbreaking American megacorps' app stores, hardware, software, etc. and providing their own, much cheaper (or free) versions. Free trade has already broken down,…

> Free trade has already broken down, what do they have to lose?

The US parking an aircraft carrier nearby so the crew can enjoy a sunny vacation.

Or meddling with elections.

Or both.

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