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Control over access to information is power. Of course governments want to control it, before corporate power over it becomes so strong that governments lose control for good.
 
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We're coming closer and closer to a day where it will simply be cheaper for US companies to divest completely from the EU and ignore their regulations.

If it wasn't for European GDPR you wouldn't even be able to control your own data and how it was shared. That is the actual dystopian society you want to live in, where companies are above the common man? I say we owe the Europeans more than we know.
 
These big corporations trying be more political than trade & business. They try to create controversial content, promote politically motivated content against local governments, silently promote riots and violence in the name of freedom of speech, while control all content if is against their ideologies.....glad to see France is standing up against big bullies....
 
If it wasn't for European GDPR you wouldn't even be able to control your own data and how it was shared. That is the actual dystopian society you want to live in, where companies are above the common man? I say we owe the Europeans more than we know.
GDPR did nothing for me but give me the pleasure of pressing "yes accept cookies" on every website now. Usually multiple times. What else can I do now... I guess download .zips of my fake data from Facebook if I'm ever really bored.

I already control my own data. I don't put my stuff on Facebook then complain about it. Don't need my own government to "assist" with that, especially don't need a foreign one. What they're doing is a combination of protectionism and censorship in disguise, has nothing to do with looking out for common people. FB wasn't even opposed to GDPR, seemed more like they were happy to watch it hinder potential new competitors.
 
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We're coming closer and closer to a day where it will simply be cheaper for US companies to divest completely from the EU and ignore their regulations.
People can blame EU , but the issue is actually US based , the fact that Congress has made it a crusade against big tech makes it a viable option for the rest of the world , US gov cant say "hey EU leave our tech companies alone , if you want to keep selling your Mercedes and BMW`s in our country (and all the rest of EU goods)" because congress are saying that US tech are a problem and should be dealt with.

The end of the road for breaking up the US companies will not be new mega US companies that competes or new mega EU companies , it will be a Korean and CN based mega tech corp getting even bigger - the east already controls the production of most goods , giving it the reigns on leading the tech design will make the west and US weaker then ever , I dont see how folks in Brazil are going to pick a broken up Apple over an even stronger Samsung or Xiamoi.

CN doesnt seems to care about any of that competition roadblocks , and Samsung seems like a crazy big corp in Korea that can do anything they want including bribing politicians for years.
 
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I dont agree or disagree on what EU are doing.

But just to use the same analogy with some MR folks, "it is their Platform, Apple can do whatever they want with it, if you dont like it. Get out."

It is their countries, they can do whatever they want with it, if you dont like that market, get out.
 
I dont agree or disagree on what EU are doing.

But just to use the same analogy with some MR folks, "it is their Platform, Apple can do whatever they want with it, if you dont like it. Get out."

It is their countries, they can do whatever they want with it, if you dont like that market, get out.
Sure thing , global economic wars are ongoing for years now across the globe, EU are coming up short in most of them , no one can blame them if they try to do whats best for their own interests , my take on it , is that taking out US tech out of the EU will not result in EU tech companies flourishing in that void and will have consequences for EU companies doing business in the US.
 
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Actually, it is Poland that has done it right. They will fine any Yankee company that remove a message that is within the law. No more American christian crusades against European art with bare titties… no more "liberal" censorship of views they don't like.
 
"Likewise, last year, Apple adjusted its App Store search algorithm so that fewer of its own apps appear at the top of search results." I'm calling BS on that. the only time apple software search comes up first is if you use the name of th application itself (Numbers, pages, Music, Mail,Maps, etc.). Any cursory review of keyword searches like docs, Excel, word, sheets, Spotify, etc. do not yield Apple apps first, and never have.

So either apple has pushed down its own apps when you search on the name of the app itself, or this supposition is wrong (it is wrong). That would be like searching for Excel and not seeing results of Excel.

I’m not sure if this is deliberate or rather a side effect of the horrible search algorithm Apple has. Searching in iTunes, Maps, the App Store, ... frequently produces strange or zero results. Not even in the same league as Google in terms of relevance. Unfortunately.

We're coming closer and closer to a day where it will simply be cheaper for US companies to divest completely from the EU and ignore their regulations.

France. lol. Apple should pull out of the EU. Let them all go back to using the MiniTel.

i assume these are the last twitches of the long lost American dream? It’s funny how you think unbridled capitalism and the deregulated free market are the way forward. While it only increases the gap between the rich and the poor, the educated and the uneducated and favours big conglomerates that crush the competition. While offering worse service for higher prices. Give me Europe’s fast and cheap internet connections without spyware any day.
 
I dont agree or disagree on what EU are doing.

But just to use the same analogy with some MR folks, "it is their Platform, Apple can do whatever they want with it, if you dont like it. Get out."

It is their countries, they can do whatever they want with it, if you dont like that market, get out.
Yep. But that means the "don't like it" part is still there, and some of us want a better outcome for the world, which does not involve the EU and US trade warring. Likewise, I have gripes with Apple's ecosystem and choose not to participate in some ways, but I still wish they'd be better.
 
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i assume these are the last twitches of the long lost American dream? It’s funny how you think unbridled capitalism and the deregulated free market are the way forward. While it only increases the gap between the rich and the poor, the educated and the uneducated and favours big conglomerates that crush the competition. While offering worse service for higher prices. Give me Europe’s fast and cheap internet connections without spyware any day.
The regulation and other govt intervention is what favors the big conglomerates. Take away FAANG's tax breaks, take away other big companies' bailouts, and smaller but more competent companies will kill them off more frequently. Stop the Fed "printing" money, and wealth stops being systematically redistributed to the rich. Simplify the tax code, and lots of avoidance and the resulting corruption goes away (some wealthy people actually pay insane taxes, others pay no tax).

Btw, Internet is physically easier for Europe because of how dense the populations are. Around here we have local internet monopolies, which implies that they do need to be regulated.
 
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Interesting that it's always Apple, Facebork, Google and Amazon who's always in the bullseye.
Microsoft is never included in the bunch. Funny how times have changed.

I know, MS should be thrown in with that bunch. MS is back to their old crap ways too. I can't get Windows without Edge and Cortona popping up everywhere! Edge is engrained right back into windows, you can't even uninstall it. The worst part is, you can sometimes make other apps as default, but its not 100% that way, MS will still push Edge if it wants and constantly berate you to use it. Its just this simple, make every OS open, so you can use whatever assistant, whatever app you want as the default. If I have iOS and don't want Siri, fine, let me choose Google Assistant. If I am on Android and don't want Google Assistant, let me choose another.. oh wait they already allow that. If I am on iOS and don't want Apple Maps as my default, let me choose another. If I am on Android and don't want Google Maps, let me choose another.. oh wait they already allow that. Apple and MS have a lot to answer for as well imo!
 
The mighty Microsoft fell as a big tech titan. They still make gobs of cash but people don’t think Microsoft when it comes to innovative trends.
They are laughing the whole way too, getting away with crap that they did back in the day with IE, now doing with Edge.. Its so funny, MS is just as evil a company now as before, if not more so. Like in Australia, they say, oh go and ban Google Search, Bing will fill the gap.. lol... no one wants Bing, they have to pay off the Australian government to try and get market share. It's hilarious the things MS gets away with now.
 
It’s France and it’s big tech. France in particular is super protectionist with its tech firms, but protectionism doesn’t play well in the EU. So they’ll always crouch it in consumer-friendliness. But stuff like sharing users’ private data with competitors is where the pro-consumer mask slides off and you can see it’s about protectionism.
 
EU at its best: bureaucratic ...
It does not surprise at all that innovation there is so far behind, they put more hurdles up than removing ...
 
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