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I think it's actually quite common for a country to dictate what it's citizens and companies can do outside of its borders. For example, * A US company can be
by hunter23 8y ago
I think it's actually quite common for a country to dictate what it's citizens and companies can do outside of its borders.
For example,
* A US company can be prosecuted on corruption charges if it bribes an official out of its borders. This is even if what they do is not considered bribery in the country itself; you are bound to the US law even when you are doing business outside of it. The US has used this approach to clamp down corruption cases of companies in developing countries.
* Trade embargos work this way. We have an embargo on Iran and ban US based companies from doing business with them, even if its through a subsidiary that operates outside our borders
* US citizens are required to pay taxes when they live in another country (we are the only country to tax globally)
* As a US traveler, you have to follow some US laws even when you are in other countries. The US has used this to combat sex tourism. So while it may be easy to go around the country's age of consent laws while you are visting, you can still be prosecuted in the US. This is to prevent child sex trafficking etc.
Nomentatus has listed other examples in this thread.
Enforcement, on the other hand is pretty difficult. I don't see how Canada force Google to do things outside of it's borders - the worst they can do is kick Youtube out their country.
- endangered 8y ago* That is a US company * The ban affects US companies * The taxes affect US citizens * The laws affect US citizens This has nothing to do with this decision. What Canada is aiming to do is to force a non-Canadian company to follow Canadian law even if it does not operate at all in Canada.
- lovich 8y agoIt's interacting with Canadian citizenship and being paid by Canadian companies for advertising. If it's literally doing no operations inside of Canada then they have nothing to worry about because Canada couldn't do anything to them. Its pretty hypocritical of companies to rely on local laws to protect them but then act like all their customers on the internet don't exist in any real space and aren't under a nation states juridisction. I'd prefer a completely free internet, but you don't get to have it both ways
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- hunter23 8y agoJust to be clear I was responding to the OP's statement "One nation does NOT have the authority to dictate what a company can do outside of it's borders and concerns". This is incorrect - a nation regularly forms laws on what its companies and citizens can do outside of its borders and concerns. Now what you are staying is something completely different from the OPs argument - you are stating "Google is not a Canadian entity so neither Op's or my arguments matter". I am not a legal expert so I have no idea but the statement that Google "does not operate at all in Canada" seems misleading as I know that Google has offices based in Canada. They have Canadian citizens working in Canadian offices under a registered entity so I am not sure why you are saying that Google "does not operate at all in Canada".
- 8note 8y agoGoogle makes money advertising to Canadians. that sounds a lot like operating in canada
- kahnpro 8y agoThen Google needs to close its Canadian offices, and stop providing services to Canadians.