but France has much bigger problems than "Big Tech". Their economy is in free fall and was before COVID and there's a growing Nationalism movement that's kinda scary (if you know history you know that Germany going after the Jews in WWII was a bit of a surprise, and everybody thought the French would do it if anyone).
This feels like a distraction as well as an attempt by the Establishment to take back the Internet. I've said this before, I'll say it again: If the 1% understood what the Internet was they
Just as long as they do not end up doing what the UK did [theguardian.com] where Amazon has ended up paying nothing while the smaller traders that use it are getting hit by the tax.
Indeed. It is easy to sound tough on regulation when the businesses doing all the actual work are based elsewhere because your own regulatory environment is a disincentive to businesses in your own region. But if you push and push, all stick and no carrot, all you'll ever do is regulate somewhere else's big tech business, because you'll never have that kind of tech sector of your own.
It seems like a better plan than the US one of removing Section 230 protection and letting them flounder.
This should achieve the same goal by opening up the market. The political leanings of Twitter will become irrelevant because there will be a healthy market for micro blogging services. Interoperability will ensure that even if Facebook decides to ban anti-vaxx posts you can join an anti-vaxx friendly social network and still communication with your friends and family on other sites.
That's unlikely. The EU market is huge for them. But what they might do is respond by investing less in their facilities within the EU, say, or by building or moving strategic assets elsewhere. They don't have to pull some all-or-nothing take their ball and go home move here.
This feels like a distraction as well as an attempt by the Establishment to take back the Internet. I've said this before, I'll say it again: If the 1% understood what the Internet was they
Indeed. It is easy to sound tough on regulation when the businesses doing all the actual work are based elsewhere because your own regulatory environment is a disincentive to businesses in your own region. But if you push and push, all stick and no carrot, all you'll ever do is regulate somewhere else's big tech business, because you'll never have that kind of tech sector of your own.
It seems like a better plan than the US one of removing Section 230 protection and letting them flounder.
This should achieve the same goal by opening up the market. The political leanings of Twitter will become irrelevant because there will be a healthy market for micro blogging services. Interoperability will ensure that even if Facebook decides to ban anti-vaxx posts you can join an anti-vaxx friendly social network and still communication with your friends and family on other sites.
That's unlikely. The EU market is huge for them. But what they might do is respond by investing less in their facilities within the EU, say, or by building or moving strategic assets elsewhere. They don't have to pull some all-or-nothing take their ball and go home move here.