4 ms·

Why care what the UK has to say about US matters? Especially about whether a social media company can own a meme gif repo... There's got to be much more press

Why care what the UK has to say about US matters? Especially about whether a social media company can own a meme gif repo... There's got to be much more pressing matters for them right?

tjpnz 4y ago
>Why care what the UK has to say about US matters? Because the UK could ban Meta from operating there if it didn't comply.
- hunterb123 4y ago
  FB should call their bluff and tell them to spin up a version of China's great firewall and try to block people then. I guess UK does already have a firewall with it's nanny-state porn filters though. I can see it now, "All of UK blocked FB today because of meme gif service purchase" Great headline, wonderful use of regulation /s Meanwhile you have actual problems going on and a crashing economy, but at least we prevented a meme service from being bought!
  - dom96 4y ago
    Meta also has offices and thousands of employees in the UK. Presumably the UK government could ban them from operating in the UK completely which would be a pretty big hit to those employees and all the teams that are based there.
    - hunterb123 4y ago
      The question is if the UK wants to really destroy thousands of jobs over a gif service acquisition, especially in this economy. I would hope they wouldn't do that to their own people. You're not really hurting FB, you're hurting your own citizens. Is that really the best use of regulation, political power, etc? Can FB buy Tenor then? Is any gif service off limits? Who can buy Giphy? Any other social media?
      - handelaar 4y ago
        Someone's clearly not familiar with the UK government's approach to jobs and the economy
        bpye 4y ago
        Boris "Fuck Business" Johnson was only recently PM - https://www.ft.com/content/8075e68c-7857-11e8-8e67-1e1a0846c475 https://www.ft.com/content/8075e68c-7857-11e8-8e67-1e1a0846c...
  - benwad 4y ago
    The UK doesn't need to block Facebook, they can just ban advertisers from buying any ad space on there. FB could still provide a service in the UK but it wouldn't make them any money.
    - robertlagrant 4y ago
      > they can just ban advertisers from buying any ad space on there So for example, Apple US couldn't buy ads on Facebook, because it shows ads to UK users? How do you envisage this working?
      - tjpnz 4y ago
        The idea would be to prevent UK residents from purchasing ads or other products and services from Meta. There are various ways of enforcing that.
        robertlagrant 4y ago
        > FB could still provide a service in the UK but it wouldn't make them any money. I was replying to this. If they can still show non-UK ads to UK residents then they can still make money.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- JumpCrisscross 4y ago
  > the UK could ban Meta from operating there if it didn't comply They'd fine them. American courts generally recognize British judgements [1]. [1] https://harrisbricken.com/blog/recognition-of-foreign-judgments-in-united-states-courts/ https://harrisbricken.com/blog/recognition-of-foreign-judgme...
sofixa 4y ago
> Why care what the UK has to say about US matters? Because US regulators are too lazy/corrupt/starved to do the job they exist to do. Someone has to reign in oligopolies amassing even more power and dominance, and it obviously isn't going to be the US, so whoever wants to step in, be our collective guest. This time it was the UK, next up is the EU Digital Markets and Digital Services Acts. And yes, there are much more pressing matters, which others are dealing with. A competition comission doesn't have other duties than to block such obvious abuses.
- hunterb123 4y ago
  > Because US regulators are too lazy/corrupt/starved to do the job they exist to do. Personally the fact that the US regulators aren't wasting time monitoring gif repo purchases is a good thing in my book. > Someone has to reign in oligopolies amassing even more power and dominance Quite a hyperbole for a gif repo purchase. Can FB purchase Tenor then? Who could purchase Giphy, any other social media giant? This is all virtue signaling because they know certain people will eat it up.
  - sofixa 4y ago
    > Personally the fact that the US regulators aren't wasting time monitoring gif repo purchases is a good thing in my book. Good thing they're spending that time productively... Not blocking any egregious merger/acquisition from the past decade? > Quite a hyperbole for a gif repo purchase. Can FB purchase Tenor then? Who could purchase Giphy, any other social media giant? Facebook, or any other social media giant, shouldn't be allowed to expand in distributors to their competitors. Giphy is used by everyone, Facebook tracking Telegram users isn't something anyone needs. Anyone can purchase Giphy as long as it doesn't give them an unfair advantage, so nobody in the chat market. > This is all virtue signaling because they know certain people will eat it up. Who are those certain people?

Why care what the UK has to say about US matters? Especially about whether a social media company can own a meme gif repo... There's got to be much more pressing matters for them right?

tjpnz 4y ago

>Why care what the UK has to say about US matters? Because the UK could ban Meta from operating there if it didn't comply.

hunterb123 4y ago
FB should call their bluff and tell them to spin up a version of China's great firewall and try to block people then. I guess UK does already have a firewall with it's nanny-state porn filters though. I can see it now, "All of UK blocked FB today because of meme gif service purchase" Great headline, wonderful use of regulation /s Meanwhile you have actual problems going on and a crashing economy, but at least we prevented a meme service from being bought!
- dom96 4y ago
  Meta also has offices and thousands of employees in the UK. Presumably the UK government could ban them from operating in the UK completely which would be a pretty big hit to those employees and all the teams that are based there.
  - hunterb123 4y ago
    The question is if the UK wants to really destroy thousands of jobs over a gif service acquisition, especially in this economy. I would hope they wouldn't do that to their own people. You're not really hurting FB, you're hurting your own citizens. Is that really the best use of regulation, political power, etc? Can FB buy Tenor then? Is any gif service off limits? Who can buy Giphy? Any other social media?
    - handelaar 4y ago
      Someone's clearly not familiar with the UK government's approach to jobs and the economy
      - bpye 4y ago
        Boris "Fuck Business" Johnson was only recently PM - https://www.ft.com/content/8075e68c-7857-11e8-8e67-1e1a0846c475 https://www.ft.com/content/8075e68c-7857-11e8-8e67-1e1a0846c...
- benwad 4y ago
  The UK doesn't need to block Facebook, they can just ban advertisers from buying any ad space on there. FB could still provide a service in the UK but it wouldn't make them any money.
  - robertlagrant 4y ago
    > they can just ban advertisers from buying any ad space on there So for example, Apple US couldn't buy ads on Facebook, because it shows ads to UK users? How do you envisage this working?
    - tjpnz 4y ago
      The idea would be to prevent UK residents from purchasing ads or other products and services from Meta. There are various ways of enforcing that.
      - robertlagrant 4y ago
        > FB could still provide a service in the UK but it wouldn't make them any money. I was replying to this. If they can still show non-UK ads to UK residents then they can still make money.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
JumpCrisscross 4y ago
> the UK could ban Meta from operating there if it didn't comply They'd fine them. American courts generally recognize British judgements [1]. [1] https://harrisbricken.com/blog/recognition-of-foreign-judgments-in-united-states-courts/ https://harrisbricken.com/blog/recognition-of-foreign-judgme...

sofixa 4y ago

> Why care what the UK has to say about US matters? Because US regulators are too lazy/corrupt/starved to do the job they exist to do. Someone has to reign in oligopolies amassing even more power and dominance, and it obviously isn't going to be the US, so whoever wants to step in, be our collective guest. This time it was the UK, next up is the EU Digital Markets and Digital Services Acts. And yes, there are much more pressing matters, which others are dealing with. A competition comission doesn't have other duties than to block such obvious abuses.

hunterb123 4y ago
> Because US regulators are too lazy/corrupt/starved to do the job they exist to do. Personally the fact that the US regulators aren't wasting time monitoring gif repo purchases is a good thing in my book. > Someone has to reign in oligopolies amassing even more power and dominance Quite a hyperbole for a gif repo purchase. Can FB purchase Tenor then? Who could purchase Giphy, any other social media giant? This is all virtue signaling because they know certain people will eat it up.
- sofixa 4y ago
  > Personally the fact that the US regulators aren't wasting time monitoring gif repo purchases is a good thing in my book. Good thing they're spending that time productively... Not blocking any egregious merger/acquisition from the past decade? > Quite a hyperbole for a gif repo purchase. Can FB purchase Tenor then? Who could purchase Giphy, any other social media giant? Facebook, or any other social media giant, shouldn't be allowed to expand in distributors to their competitors. Giphy is used by everyone, Facebook tracking Telegram users isn't something anyone needs. Anyone can purchase Giphy as long as it doesn't give them an unfair advantage, so nobody in the chat market. > This is all virtue signaling because they know certain people will eat it up. Who are those certain people?