Big Tech needs to knows its place. Yes especially you Apple. Make sideloading available globally.
And stop charging a "Core Technology Fee". And allow JIT compiling for non-browsers so emulators for newer systems can perform well.
Wow. I have no idea what a "Core Technology Fee" is. Guess I'll stick with Android.
Big tech can go F itself.
All big tech has done is stolen our data and lied to us for their own needs.
Make all software FOSS
If it's not FOSS, it's not yours.
That's not true. Try also destroyed really good things, like the internet as a whole.
Please, remember to vote on the European elections! We do need the EU to keep taking actions like this
As an American, please vote. Our country is owned by the corporations, at least yours can bring them to heel sometimes.
:`-( I miss voting in the European elections! 🏴🇪🇺💪
What parties should we vote for to make sure they keep protecting consumers?
Volt wants:
To make digital rights binding. They call for a "Declaration on European Digital Rights and Principles".
Tax revenues from digital technologies where they are generated.
Guarantee net neutrality and reject contradictory laws.
Enact laws against the unethical use of AI.
anything but the right-wing ones.
European elections have this advantage that the morons don’t even go to vote nor know what is going on.
It’s the sole reason why is it going so good, obfuscation. Anything outside of the country is too much too grasp for the rightists.
There’s some kind of deep moral to this and I am not sure it is a good one
I don't think that's true at all.
When the UK was in the EU, UKIP was their largest party. For France, Le Pen's National Front party was the largest. And they aren't alone. There's a number of right wing EU parties.
And it's due to get worse, if we bring data into it. Many countries in the EU are swinging to the right. Polling is indicating right wing parties will have a solid majority in the EU parliament this year.
There’s a rule banning “self-preferencing.” That’s when platforms push their often inferior, in-house products and hide superior products made by their rivals.
Spaz isn't going to like this.
He wouldn't if it applied to him. Unfortunately, reddit is not a gatekeeper in the sense of the DMA and due to its management it's also unlikely to ever reach that position :)
Unless the saga continues, they didn't "hide" the competition, they paywalled their access.
There's nothing wrong, per se, with charging access to the API. Where they went wrong was setting an exorbitant price. That was clearly anti-competitive. They knew the pricing they set wouldn't be sustainable to any third party developers. Then he started shit talking the Apollo developer...
To this articles question on why apple should care about EUs 500 million citizens when they have trillions of Dollars. Well given that the USA only has 333 millions I would say they should care a lot.
Apple needs to realize that the EU doesn’t care if they left. They barely pay any taxes in the EU and don’t even create much economic value. Since most Apple jobs in the EU are in retail, businesses administration and tax evasion. They don’t produce shit here.
Meta tried to do the same. The EU response was to ask when they'd leave to plan the going away party. Meta was a lot less confrontational after that.
I think that the EU is fully aware that what makes those extra powerful is network effect. And, once they're gone, something else pops up in their place. The case of Germans using WhatsApp for example would become inconvenient for them for fifteen whole minutes, then they'd jump into an alternative, and business as usual, without Faecesbook/Merda meddling.
But what about the blue chat bubbles?!
edit: /s
Nobody cares about that in EU
At least in germany, nobody cares. We are using WhatsApp over here most of the time
“Don’t blame me, I voted for Kodos!”
WhatsApp is owned by Meta.
We know, the EU also told meta to behave. Meta then threatened to leave and everyone was like "ok, when?". Because we'll just switch to the next best thing. So meta behaved. Sort of, it's an ongoing thing.
Its a regional thing. In europe whatsapp is more generally used then in the usa :)
As of the second quarter of fiscal year 2024, the Americas held around 41 percent of the revenue, whereas Europe came in second with roughly over 26.5 percent.
As the second largest revenue generator, Europe has a powerful voice.
25% less revenue is 25% revenue lost. I don't think the shareholders would welcome that.
The EU is only one chunk of Apple’s “Europe” segment, which is defined as “European countries, as well as India, the Middle East and Africa.”
I'd heard Apple Maps was bad, but I didn't know it was that bad.
I would have never expected the EFF to use a lame click-bait headline like this one.
The article is ok (summary of the current state of things) but the title is completely out of place.
Apple’s going to fight all of this tooth and nail, country by country, to the end of time. Anything less and they risk a shareholder lawsuit.
This is billions and billions of dollars we’re talking about, not chump change.
Apple get get out of my face. In EU, it's not even close as popular as in NA. I wouldn't care if they stopped selling products here
In general the article seems to be a summary of current legislative actions that are ongoing between big tech and EU. Though in the article it's worded with the much more fitting 'game of chicken between EU and Big Tech' rather than something like the title, but I guess "drop dead has a better ring to it"...
I general the article has a lightly optimistic tone, which I very deeply hope holds true.
The Internet is a perfect example of why we can't have nice things, or rather, why anarchy could never work.
That's what the Internet used to be, and what it largely is. And it worked quite well, until people realized the Internet could be monetized beyond just being an extension of your brand.
Now it's quite obvious that regulation is necessary. People are idiots and they can't be trusted with a dopamine-injection-button run by greedy corporations. That gives those companies really unprecedented power.
I feel like trying to make the big fish act in our interest and not theirs is fighting windmills.
Better kill the big fish.
Not directly on topic - note how all the socialist revolutionaries always start with killing the smallest fish and hate it the most. The big ones they try to convert.
On meta’s while it is flagrant screw you, they may have a valid argument. Human beings don’t actually need any kind of social media to survive, ergo it is a convenience or luxury that could be charged for.
I’m certainly not agreeing with them, but they may be banking on that style argument and their ungodly amount of money to fight it.
Where they lose totally though is the off service data harvesting that isn’t even remotely “implied okay”
Yes. But we have all gotten pretty used to things on the Internet not costing money. If they start costing money, many people will either not want to or be able to use them.
Really the regulation should be about requiring social media companies to interoperate similar to regulation on the phone companies. You should be able to switch to another social media platform without losing your ability to communicate with your friends on the old platform similar to how you can still call your friends after you change phone companies.
Then is if the social media companies want to charge money people could change to another platform without losing their contacts.
Basically the only reason I still have facebook is to talk to chat with people on there that I can't contact through other means.
I hope the EU retaliates in an incredible show of force
Me to Big Tech: "Drop Dead"
When the Parasite Class objects so vehemently to something that is impacting their obscene profits and sociopathic control, you know that something is being done correctly.
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
