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> sites with more that two million users in Germany must take down posts containing hate speech or other criminal material within 24 hours. Censorship and fine
by wyager 9y ago
> sites with more that two million users in Germany must take down posts containing hate speech or other criminal material within 24 hours.
Censorship and fines galore. Just this week: a €2.4B fine from the EU for Google's integrated shopping view. A Canadian ruling stating that Google had to enforce Canadian censorship worldwide. And now, huge fines for content that the German government finds objectionable.
How long before google, Facebook, etc. retreat to the US entirely (or even to some liberal island nation)? Sooner or later, the economic benefit of a data company having a physical presence somewhere is outweighed by the cost of overbearing censorship laws. Maybe it's time for the Sultanate of Kinakuta to become a reality.
Google and Facebook should start investing heavily in anti-censorship technology a la Tor and I2P. Sadly, I fear that this may soon become necessary in "liberal" nations like Germany. It's already necessary in the U.K., with draconian anti-pornography and anti-cryptography laws.
- m12k 9y agoAs much as I'd be impressed if Europe managed to pull a China and replace the unicorns from SV with homegrown (and tax-paying) alternatives, I doubt that's ever going to happen. Google and FB have such ridiculously high profit margins that this is still just nibbling at the edges of it.
- wyager 9y ago€2.4B is a very large chunk of Google's annual profit. How much do these companies gain from having a legally vulnerable physical presence in the EU? I'd guess not more than a few billion dollars a year. The primary benefits are hiring, taxes, and maybe some CDN improvements, but those can be worked around.
- germanier 9y agoThe primary benefit is having an entity to bill their customers (i.e. advertisers). And no, the shop next door will never go through the hassle to wire money to the US (which can be seized in transfer anyway).
- wyager 9y agoGreat, this opens up an opportunity for Bitcoin transfers to Kinakuta.
- mirimir 9y agoHey, if they got together, they could buy a small country. Love that Sultanate of Kinakuta reference :)
- cronjobber 9y agoThat would be fun, what with the ultimate dispute resolution procedure against a sovereign Google being the lobbing of heavy ordnance at Kinakuta Googleplex until they cease and desist :)
- mirimir 9y agoThey would need nukes, for sure ;)