3 ms·

ah, a classical govt shakedown in progress

by alt_f4 7y ago

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
sctb 7y ago
Could you please work on increasing the information-to-inflammation ratio of your comments? https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- alt_f4 7y ago
  Alright, here's the timeline EU is not happy that American tech companies aren't paying enough in revenue to the state. Furthermore, they are also helping spread "fake news" that are helping topple the people in power and electing the opposition parties. "Fake", of course, are news that doesn't work towards the goals of the people in charge. American tech companies are using legal structures and rules that are completely legal in the EU and help move revenue to places with minimal withholding. Of course, many other businesses use the same rules, including ones that are backing the people in power. So, the EU does not want to reform the rules where big corps can get out of paying their fair share, but instead institutes GDPR and Copyright reform. Both rules are designed to beat American tech companies into compliance with the people in charge. Or else, endless investigations and billion dollar fines follow. This is achieved under the guise of "privacy" (oh, the privacy of a cookie banner) and "author rights" (upload filters). This way the EU govts achieve their goal of censoring the information flow on the big platforms, all the while raising additional revenue that eventually can be used to fund overpriced government tender contracts that are awarded to well-connected companies. In other words, a shakedown. How's that for information-to-inflammation ratio?
  - mrunkel 7y ago
    It's still a rather aggressive take on the GDPR. The GDPR has nothing to do with taxation and would be a terrible system of taxation. GDPR is about protecting data. If it was just about taxing big US tech companies, why would they target their own businesses? They could have easily have carved out exceptions for that. The whole tax haven schemes are being addressed through other measures, including the proposed per transaction taxes in lieu of income taxes.
    - alt_f4 7y ago
      > GDPR has nothing to do with taxation Fines of up to 4% of global turnover for a company like Google are more than they've actually been able to collect via traditional direct taxes. Again, I'm not saying Google shouldn't have to pay more. But I'd rather the EU closed their legal loopholes. > If it was just about taxing big US tech companies, why would they target their own businesses? They could have easily have carved out exceptions for that. Because it is not necessary to carve out those exceptions. DPC has discretion on how it wants to allocate its resources and they most definitely will go after companies with the ability to pay and companies that help spread information that is not appropriately censored. Decisions on what is "appropriate" are up to the people in charge, the EU has few freedom of speech protection laws. I believe, in a few years, when historical data from the fines is available, it will become clear this regulation is disproportionately affecting American companies. > The whole tax haven schemes are being addressed through other measures, including the proposed per transaction taxes in lieu of income taxes. That's just a show, it won't go anywhere.
      - SmellyGeekBoy 7y ago
        > I believe, in a few years, when historical data from the fines is available, it will become clear this regulation is disproportionately affecting American companies. Affecting the companies with the most revenue, biggest influence and worst track records for mishandling personal data? That just shows that the law is working as intended. The fact that most of these companies happen to be based in America is irrelevant. If anything it highlights just how poor the culture around the handling of personal data actually is in America.
  - thejohnconway 7y ago
    > How's that for information-to-inflammation ratio? Still very low. What evidence do you have for any or this? There's a comment up thread which says fines handed out to European companies have actually been higher than American ones. I think you need to bring that sort of evidence to the table, not just state what you believe in a longer form.
    - alt_f4 7y ago
      A reasonable person can parse the info I've outlined, do their own research and come up with their own conclusion. It is not my responsibility to spoon-feed you data or write a research paper. Do it with that what you want, it doesn't matter to me.
  - pjc50 7y ago
    All of this conveniently ignores everything that everyone has said about their reasons for promoting GDPR, and the history of data protection and privacy in Europe, in favour of injecting your own explanation of "what's really happening". Copyright reform is rather different - I suspect you'll find that among the people lobbying for that are quite a lot of multinational/American record labels and film industry, as well as German and Spanish publishers.

ah, a classical govt shakedown in progress

by alt_f4 7y ago

ah, a classical govt shakedown in progress

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

sctb 7y ago

Could you please work on increasing the information-to-inflammation ratio of your comments? https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

alt_f4 7y ago
Alright, here's the timeline EU is not happy that American tech companies aren't paying enough in revenue to the state. Furthermore, they are also helping spread "fake news" that are helping topple the people in power and electing the opposition parties. "Fake", of course, are news that doesn't work towards the goals of the people in charge. American tech companies are using legal structures and rules that are completely legal in the EU and help move revenue to places with minimal withholding. Of course, many other businesses use the same rules, including ones that are backing the people in power. So, the EU does not want to reform the rules where big corps can get out of paying their fair share, but instead institutes GDPR and Copyright reform. Both rules are designed to beat American tech companies into compliance with the people in charge. Or else, endless investigations and billion dollar fines follow. This is achieved under the guise of "privacy" (oh, the privacy of a cookie banner) and "author rights" (upload filters). This way the EU govts achieve their goal of censoring the information flow on the big platforms, all the while raising additional revenue that eventually can be used to fund overpriced government tender contracts that are awarded to well-connected companies. In other words, a shakedown. How's that for information-to-inflammation ratio?
- mrunkel 7y ago
  It's still a rather aggressive take on the GDPR. The GDPR has nothing to do with taxation and would be a terrible system of taxation. GDPR is about protecting data. If it was just about taxing big US tech companies, why would they target their own businesses? They could have easily have carved out exceptions for that. The whole tax haven schemes are being addressed through other measures, including the proposed per transaction taxes in lieu of income taxes.
  - alt_f4 7y ago
    > GDPR has nothing to do with taxation Fines of up to 4% of global turnover for a company like Google are more than they've actually been able to collect via traditional direct taxes. Again, I'm not saying Google shouldn't have to pay more. But I'd rather the EU closed their legal loopholes. > If it was just about taxing big US tech companies, why would they target their own businesses? They could have easily have carved out exceptions for that. Because it is not necessary to carve out those exceptions. DPC has discretion on how it wants to allocate its resources and they most definitely will go after companies with the ability to pay and companies that help spread information that is not appropriately censored. Decisions on what is "appropriate" are up to the people in charge, the EU has few freedom of speech protection laws. I believe, in a few years, when historical data from the fines is available, it will become clear this regulation is disproportionately affecting American companies. > The whole tax haven schemes are being addressed through other measures, including the proposed per transaction taxes in lieu of income taxes. That's just a show, it won't go anywhere.
    - SmellyGeekBoy 7y ago
      > I believe, in a few years, when historical data from the fines is available, it will become clear this regulation is disproportionately affecting American companies. Affecting the companies with the most revenue, biggest influence and worst track records for mishandling personal data? That just shows that the law is working as intended. The fact that most of these companies happen to be based in America is irrelevant. If anything it highlights just how poor the culture around the handling of personal data actually is in America.
- thejohnconway 7y ago
  > How's that for information-to-inflammation ratio? Still very low. What evidence do you have for any or this? There's a comment up thread which says fines handed out to European companies have actually been higher than American ones. I think you need to bring that sort of evidence to the table, not just state what you believe in a longer form.
  - alt_f4 7y ago
    A reasonable person can parse the info I've outlined, do their own research and come up with their own conclusion. It is not my responsibility to spoon-feed you data or write a research paper. Do it with that what you want, it doesn't matter to me.
- pjc50 7y ago
  All of this conveniently ignores everything that everyone has said about their reasons for promoting GDPR, and the history of data protection and privacy in Europe, in favour of injecting your own explanation of "what's really happening". Copyright reform is rather different - I suspect you'll find that among the people lobbying for that are quite a lot of multinational/American record labels and film industry, as well as German and Spanish publishers.