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> Google said Mr. Pichai and Mr. Breton “had a frank, but open conversation about plans to update digital policy in Europe.” This (and the rest of the article)
by rpastuszak 6y ago
> Google said Mr. Pichai and Mr. Breton “had a frank, but open conversation about plans to update digital policy in Europe.”
This (and the rest of the article) reads like it was discussing a conflict between the leaders of two different countries, but let's stop for a second and remind ourselves that we are talking about a a) political unit governing the lives of 450m people and b) a company.
No company should be big enough to be considered an equal partner in a conversation like this. This kind of narrative is not new, but it's becoming a norm that people take for granted without realising how perverse it is.
- SpicyLemonZest 6y agoI can’t get behind this vision of the government as something that’s fundamentally above the rest of us. I’d argue that every company should be considered an equal partner in a conversation like this, to the greatest extent feasible. (And I’d argue the EU official here seems to agree - he mentions in the article that he wants to “hear and listen to everybody”.)
- __m 6y agoTheir employees can vote like the rest of us does
- lowdose 6y agoIf Mr. Pichai would say he is currently begging Mr. Breton to leave Google as is he would give Alphabet stockholders sufficient reason to annul him.
- vasco 6y ago"No company should be big enough to..." is a bit of a philosophical musing, but since the world we have has allowed for companies grow to this size and to own and dominate our data as they have, what other solutions would you have in mind to update digital policy that don't involve also speaking to the people at the helm of the very organizations that are holding most of said data? You wouldn't at least discuss the topic with them?
- asddubs 6y agoI don't think it's meant to be a criticism of the act itself, but what the fact that it's necessary represents. I imagine the proposed solution would be closer to "break up google" than "stop talking to google"
- arvinsim 6y agoWhy not just break up all tech giants? Why single out Google?
- mam2 6y agoIt would make more sense to just tax them..
- ben_w 6y agoI’m sure you could invent any reason if you needed to, given this is a political question rather than a purely economic one. For example, while I think of Apple as just a luxury goods company, the fact they make high-end phones means they are an obvious security target for anyone who wants to hack high-value individuals in general. I can easily believe some would want to take it into government ownership just for the increased government oversight opportunities alone, even in a liberal capitalist society.
- saurik 6y agoBecause we are talking about Google today: they were the subject of the article; we shouldn't have to generalize every single statement.
- kinkrtyavimoodh 6y ago> we are talking about Google today We were talking only about Google yesterday and probably will tomorrow too, but sure "we are talking about Google today".
- 6y ago
- onetimemanytime 6y agoJack Ma,too, thought he was big enough to take on China's leaders. It didn't worked out as planned. All EU has to do is let the process play itself and unleash the dozens of EU agencies that deal with these things.
- hrktb 6y agoThere’s occasions where a single entity will basically dictate how a country gets structured [0] in key aspects. To me the most important part is how long that power is concentrated (a few years ? decades ? three generations ?) and how it ends up counterbalanced. It seems to be about time for Google and Amazon. [0] https://www.britannica.com/biography/J-P-Morgan https://www.britannica.com/biography/J-P-Morgan
- eznzt 6y agoI can choose to drop Google any second. Dropping the EU government, on the other hand... Also, the EU has failed to produce any viable alternative to Google mostly because of our shitty laws. Let's not pretend the hegemony of Google is some kind of imperialism that was forced on us.
- krzyk 6y ago> I can choose to drop Google any second. Good luck with that, Google is everywhere (search, maps, mobile phones, and many more). You have to make a lot of effort to avoid it. It is far easier to drop EU government because elections happen every few years. In case of Google you don't have elections (or maybe you have, but it is shareholder voting, so more like plutocracy).
- emteycz 6y agoYou don't have to make any effort to avoid it. Picking up your phone is effort you're making to meet it, simply stop doing that.
- zepto 6y agoYou can switch to Bing or DDG in less than one second. Good luck doing that with the EU.
- krzyk 6y agoTry searching in bing for movie trailers or for other videos (e. g. home workout) how many results will be for YouTube? And you still think there is no effort? I can move out of EU or vote to change it. I don't have that power with Google.
- zepto 6y agoYou are seriously saying it’s easier to move out of the EU or to replace the EU government, than it is not to use Google?
- kinkrtyavimoodh 6y ago> We are talking about a a) political unit governing the lives of 450m people and b) a company. No, We are talking about a a) political unit governing the lives of 450m people and b) a company affecting the lives of 2 billion.