It's too early to tell. My feeling is that you will be right on May 25th, 2018. Nothing significant will change in the short term. But my feeling is also that t

It's too early to tell. My feeling is that you will be right on May 25th, 2018. Nothing significant will change in the short term. But my feeling is also that the parent will be right on May 25th, 2021, if the EU chooses to enforce the GDPR vigorously and if the experience doesn't force the EU to revise - or at least "interpret" - the GDPR. Let's first be totally clear: GAFA isn't suspending their EU operations, nor is any other company that 1) has already an established EU base and 2) can afford the cost of compliance. What I think will happen is that new players will stay out of the EU, because of the perceived risk (accurate or not) and the cost of compliance. So I do agree with the parent that the GDPR will eventually lead to a slow pauperization of the internet in the EU, the only difference with China being that it is self-inflicted rather than self-imposed. Note that there are very few regulations out there (EU or US) that have actually helped the internet. Most of the regulation that was drafted in good faith turned out to bring more harm than good to the internet, the recent FOSTA bill being a prime example. At this time, I have no indication to believe that the GDPR will succeed where most other bills have failed. But if it turns out otherwise, I'll be the first to admit that I was wrong.