The EU is using populist claims to introduce laws with ideological bias (big corp bad, America bad, America corp super bad). Everyone knows the digital act was never meant to be a fair set of rules, it was introduced to punish US companies at will.
At the same time, most governments, public offices, agencies and businesses in Europe would not be able to operate normally without access to American software.
The problem is that it is way easier to (over)regulate and tax, than to create a strong environment for business and innovation to thrive, in order to grow your own tech giants.
I don't see how your comment is adding value to the discussion besides claiming emotionality and an absurd reference to FOX news, which implies that my opinions are not welcome here and I should go elsewhere with them.
My post is my opinion, offering an entry point for a discussion to those who might have a different opinion from mine.
The opinion is so detached from reality that it’s not going to result in a useful discussion.
There’s nothing about America in the consumer protection laws. It doesn’t matter if the service provider is a corporation or a non profit.
You can have any opinion you want but if you don’t ensure the quality of it, people will call it out for what it is.
In some circles you can defend lack of intellectual rigor with „any opinion is valid” and „you just don’t like my politics”, but that’s useful for electoral politics, not for intellectual inquiry.
> The opinion is so detached from reality that it’s not going to result in a useful discussion.
Maybe you should try.
> There’s nothing about America in the consumer protection laws. It doesn’t matter if the service provider is a corporation or a non profit.
Thierry Breton and his "the sheriff is in town".
Jean-Noël Barrot: "Apply with the Greatest Firmness"
Axel Voss, German MEP, called for the EU to use the DSA against (what he calls) fake news and platform owners like Elon Musk interfering in elections. This explicitly links the DSA to regulating US tech companies (particularly X).
Pedro Sánchez (Spanish Prime Minister) proposed using the DSA to regulate social media, fight bots, fake profiles, and go after tech barons undermining democracy - US platforms, of course.
You may agree or disagree with my views being right or wrong, but it is clear that the leitmotif seems to be EU politics vs US big tech here.
When it comes to election interference it’s more like EU vs Russia. Who owns the platforms is secondary, it’s not like TikTok should be allowed to do election interference because it isn’t American.
You’ll learn in the course of your future experience that not every discussion will introduce a new perspective into your life. And you usually can tell very early when that’s the case.
Are you saying that if a business (or individual) wants to pay the lowest tax possible (legally, that is) it should be a reason for more taxation? Is that what taxation is about, revenge?
Can't deny that some EU politicians (mostly conservative ones, surprise, surprise) have a hidden agenda behind it.
The statement that gov & businesses in Europe would not be able to operate normally without American software is easy to disprove. Just look at how easy the Chinese or the Russians could shed or avoid their dependency on crappy Microsoft or expensive US cloud providers. The problem is just that many European politicians are so technically inept they believe it themselves.
The real problem was that Silicon Valley was flooded with capital and bought out all competitors. Or undercut with free. Or all kinds of other Microsoftlike practices. So nobody was left in the EU to advocate for better rules.
That's just a US propaganda myth people can't stop parroting.
The SV ecosystem is definitely better funded, but there is no lack of digital start-ups in the EU.
Consider what happened to Nokia. The first business blunder caused it to be sold to US and gutted. Now if someone else wants to make smartphones in EU, has to start from scratch. But if that happens to US company, everything(at least the IP) stays in the US.
Nokia is a strange story. I remember when it happened, and absolutely everybody knew it would kill the company to sell it to Microsoft. So of course the leaders and owners of Nokia knew the same thing. My guess is that they decided that they couldn't compete with the iPhone and decided to cash out what they could. Maybe Microsoft could help them with shuttling money to offshore accounts or some other under the table services? Nokia was publicly traded, so it could have been a great robbing of small time investors. But did Microsoft really get anything out of the deal that was worth the price?
I had the Nokia N9 at the time, which was years ahead of its time and one of the most well designed smartphones so far, both in hardware and especially in software. Modern iOS and Android still look dated in comparison.
At the same time, most governments, public offices, agencies and businesses in Europe would not be able to operate normally without access to American software.
The problem is that it is way easier to (over)regulate and tax, than to create a strong environment for business and innovation to thrive, in order to grow your own tech giants.