United States & European Union are going to team up to take down big tech

AppleInsider

Plans are underway to coordinate efforts between the European Union and the United States to take on big tech regulation, which could accelerate not just the law institution, but enforcement as well.

The U.S. and EU plan to team up and take on big tech

A U.S.-EU Trade & Technology Council meeting is set for September 29, and a draft memo for that meeting suggests cooperation between the two governments. Since the U.S. and EU goals align, there are multiple examples of where the two entities could cooperate more.

"We have identified common issues of concern around gatekeeper power by major platforms and the responsibility of online intermediaries," says the memo, seen by Reuters. "This includes in particular the responsibility of online intermediaries to safeguard democratic processes from the impact of their business activities. Areas of common ground... include content moderation and fair competition."

The council has ten working groups, one which focuses on tech company regulation that the memo says will "exchange information on our respective approaches to technology platform governance, seeking convergence where feasible." It will tackle areas such as hate speech, algorithmic amplification, and data access for researchers.

The U.S.-EU Trade & Technology Council will meet for the first time on September 29 in Pittsburgh. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, and the European Union's trade chief Valdis Dombrovskis are scheduled to attend along with European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestage.

Both the U.S. and the EU seek to regulate big tech on many fronts, from advertising monopoly to USB charger uniformity. As a result, a team-up of regulators could spell problems for Apple, Google, and others in the near future.

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mark fearing

But media consolidation in the US in fine? And high speed internet access being under the control on one company in most places is fine. F them.

larryjw

Except for the war machine, tech is the only area where the US has the advantage. And, they want to take it down.

I wonder who these politicians are working for. 

hucom2000

larryjw said:

Except for the war machine, tech is the only area where the US has the advantage. And, they want to take it down.

I wonder who these politicians are working for. 

I don’t think this is a productive angle to look at things.

It’s about the power of monopolies. Their influence is just as destructive within the US as it is abroad. You cannot have a vibrant, thriving domestic tech-sector if it’s dominated by one or two monopolistic companies. 

The path to continued, long-term world-dominance in technology might precisely be to combat monopolies.

tundraboy

Facebook, really, is the only big tech that needs attention.

And big Pharma, again, gets a pass.

jungmark

Success isn’t against the law. Customers can make their own choices. It’s how VHS beat Betamax. How bluray beat Hd dvd. 

mac_dog

hucom2000 said:

larryjw said:

Except for the war machine, tech is the only area where the US has the advantage. And, they want to take it down.

I wonder who these politicians are working for. 

I don’t think this is a productive angle to look at things.

It’s about the power of monopolies. Their influence is just as destructive within the US as it is abroad. You cannot have a vibrant, thriving domestic tech-sector if it’s dominated by one or two monopolistic companies. 

The path to continued, long-term world-dominance in technology might precisely be to combat monopolies.

Then the government should apply this regulation/control to ALL sectors of business. The players behind the scene are the sectors that haven’t yet been affected by tech—yet. The auto, big pharma, Wall Street, oil, news—these are the “silent” players pulling the strings of the politicians that are calling for regulation. 

rob53

mac_dog said:

hucom2000 said:

larryjw said:

Except for the war machine, tech is the only area where the US has the advantage. And, they want to take it down.

I wonder who these politicians are working for. 

I don’t think this is a productive angle to look at things.

It’s about the power of monopolies. Their influence is just as destructive within the US as it is abroad. You cannot have a vibrant, thriving domestic tech-sector if it’s dominated by one or two monopolistic companies. 

The path to continued, long-term world-dominance in technology might precisely be to combat monopolies.

Then the government should apply this regulation/control to ALL sectors of business. The players behind the scene are the sectors that haven’t yet been affected by tech—yet. The auto, big pharma, Wall Street, oil, news—these are the “silent” players pulling the strings of the politicians that are calling for regulation. 

Agree but they aren’t silent about pulling the strings. We know all the players because they’ve been buying off politicians for years. 

slow n easy

tundraboy said:

Facebook, really, is the only big tech that needs attention.

And big Pharma, again, gets a pass.

I’m not sure how I feel about Facebook. Let’s suppose that there were 5 separate companies serving the role of Facebook’s main function. Everyone you knew would be connected to these various different companies. Wouldn’t that be much more inconvenient to connect with people instead of now where there is basically a single standard where everyone goes to connect?

I’m thinking of video calls. Video calls haven’t really taken off because there are all of these competing systems. FaceTime, Skype, Zoom, etc. If you want to video call somebody then you both have to connect using the same system. I’ve always thought I of that as a confusing mess.

OutdoorAppDeveloper

I just hope that this is for the stated reasons and not something else. It would be very bad if governments will end up stifling innovation in service of "fairness". It would be the worst thing imaginable if governments are reigning in technological advancements so they can control it themselves. Note to Apple: If you like having control over what users do with their devices, how would you feel if governments applied the same control to you? This is not a rhetorical question.

12Strangers

If the US and the EU were corporations this would be a textbook case for antitrust laws.

elijahg

slow n easy said:

tundraboy said:

Facebook, really, is the only big tech that needs attention.

And big Pharma, again, gets a pass.

I’m not sure how I feel about Facebook. Let’s suppose that there were 5 separate companies serving the role of Facebook’s main function. Everyone you knew would be connected to these various different companies. Wouldn’t that be much more inconvenient to connect with people instead of now where there is basically a single standard where everyone goes to connect?

I’m thinking of video calls. Video calls haven’t really taken off because there are all of these competing systems. FaceTime, Skype, Zoom, etc. If you want to video call somebody then you both have to connect using the same system. I’ve always thought I of that as a confusing mess.

Why should Facebook be the only company people connect through? What if someone can't access FB for whatever reason, they're screwed. What if people don't like the business practises of FB, and so refuse to use it? They're screwed. That is why it's good to have choice. 

Facetime is popular, and now it's on the web too it will probably increase in popularity further. It was going to be open source but due to patent issues that didn't happen. Zoom seems pretty popular too, it's not hard to download an app to become compatible if you don't have it. 

jimh2

elijahg said:

slow n easy said:

tundraboy said:

Facebook, really, is the only big tech that needs attention.

And big Pharma, again, gets a pass.

I’m not sure how I feel about Facebook. Let’s suppose that there were 5 separate companies serving the role of Facebook’s main function. Everyone you knew would be connected to these various different companies. Wouldn’t that be much more inconvenient to connect with people instead of now where there is basically a single standard where everyone goes to connect?

I’m thinking of video calls. Video calls haven’t really taken off because there are all of these competing systems. FaceTime, Skype, Zoom, etc. If you want to video call somebody then you both have to connect using the same system. I’ve always thought I of that as a confusing mess.

Why should Facebook be the only company people connect through? What if someone can't access FB for whatever reason, they're screwed. What if people don't like the business practises of FB, and so refuse to use it? They're screwed. That is why it's good to have choice. 

Facetime is popular, and now it's on the web too it will probably increase in popularity further. It was going to be open source but due to patent issues that didn't happen. Zoom seems pretty popular too, it's not hard to download an app to become compatible if you don't have it. 

Phone call, email, text, iMessage, FaceTime, letter, in person. Take your pick. 

bluefire1

I hope the issue of big tech censorship is dealt with forcefully. Too often, censored statements labeled “misinformation” are acknowledged as fact months later (e.g. Facebook censoring NY Post articles on Hunter Biden’s laptop; when evidence increasingly pointed to Covid having originated in a Wuhan lab). 

Even comments about people questioning the need for the Covid vaccine if they had the disease and have natural immunity are being censored. These are topics ripe for discussion, not censorship. When a handful of companies control the social media outlets of billions of people, it becomes a compelling argument to have governments step in and question their decisions.

lkrupp

hucom2000 said:

larryjw said:

Except for the war machine, tech is the only area where the US has the advantage. And, they want to take it down.

I wonder who these politicians are working for. 

I don’t think this is a productive angle to look at things.

It’s about the power of monopolies. Their influence is just as destructive within the US as it is abroad. You cannot have a vibrant, thriving domestic tech-sector if it’s dominated by one or two monopolistic companies. 

The path to continued, long-term world-dominance in technology might precisely be to combat monopolies.

But there are NO monopolies in big tech, just people like you claiming there are. You don’t even understand what a monopoly is. The old AT&T (Ma Bell) was a real monopoly create by and regulated by the Telecommunications Act of 1934.

Give us an example of a big tech monopoly. it ain’t Apple, it ain’t Google, it ain’t Microsoft, it ain’t Oracle, or Amazon or any of the others. And claiming Apple is monopoly within its own ecosystem is about as dumbshit as it gets.

viclauyyc

Imagine if iPhone has 60-70% or more  market share, I bet these politicians will want apple to make iiOS into open source, so other phone makers can use it for free. 

viclauyyc

slow n easy said:

tundraboy said:

Facebook, really, is the only big tech that needs attention.

And big Pharma, again, gets a pass.

I’m not sure how I feel about Facebook. Let’s suppose that there were 5 separate companies serving the role of Facebook’s main function. Everyone you knew would be connected to these various different companies. Wouldn’t that be much more inconvenient to connect with people instead of now where there is basically a single standard where everyone goes to connect?

I’m thinking of video calls. Video calls haven’t really taken off because there are all of these competing systems. FaceTime, Skype, Zoom, etc. If you want to video call somebody then you both have to connect using the same system. I’ve always thought I of that as a confusing mess.

Problem with FB and larger extended google, is not that they control all these major social media app. It is the way they harvested and use our data.