4 ms·

It's a country with 20% of the population of the USA. That's not exactly a tiny country. > If the EU or US were proposing such a law, you should take it seriou

It's a country with 20% of the population of the USA. That's not exactly a tiny country. > If the EU or US were proposing such a law, you should take it seriously Judging from a few quick searches, there are more Facebook employees in the UK than in Ireland which is their main base of EU operations. They also have a presence in Switzerland (also not EU). FB apparently have some employees in Germany to comply with local hate speech laws, do marketing and HR work, but it doesn't seem like anything they'd miss much if they had to exit especially as they're laying people off anyway. Now that said, I think Meta can win against the UK govt if they want to duke it out but the idea that the UK is a "tiny country" vs the EU is not reflective of Meta's actual exposure. The EU is not a particularly attractive place for tech firms to hire.

outside1234 4y ago
97% of WhatsApp are outside the UK. They would drop the UK in a heartbeat. They also know this happening would topple the government in the UK. So it will never occur if they threaten it.
- 323 4y ago
  But a lot of people outside UK talk with people inside UK. A ban would touch a lot more people than 3%.
  - sangnoir 4y ago
    That's the same argument made in the article: they'd rather drop the UK and keep E2EE than weaken E2EE to keep the UK market.
- justsomehnguy 4y ago
  May I ask where did you got 97%?
- hackernewds 4y ago
  > They also know this happening would topple the government in the UK. Let's not get carried away. There are other apps with equal parity. Most people in SE Asia use Line perfectly well. There's also Signal and Telegram
sangnoir 4y ago
> Judging from a few quick searches, there are more Facebook employees in the UK than in Ireland which is their main base of EU operations. Regardless of employee count in the UK office, it's only 2% of the market. I have no doubt about the choice I'd make if were faced with the same choice: especially since companies already have plans to decrease headcount.

outside1234 4y ago

97% of WhatsApp are outside the UK. They would drop the UK in a heartbeat. They also know this happening would topple the government in the UK. So it will never occur if they threaten it.

323 4y ago
But a lot of people outside UK talk with people inside UK. A ban would touch a lot more people than 3%.
- sangnoir 4y ago
  That's the same argument made in the article: they'd rather drop the UK and keep E2EE than weaken E2EE to keep the UK market.
justsomehnguy 4y ago
May I ask where did you got 97%?
hackernewds 4y ago
> They also know this happening would topple the government in the UK. Let's not get carried away. There are other apps with equal parity. Most people in SE Asia use Line perfectly well. There's also Signal and Telegram

sangnoir 4y ago

> Judging from a few quick searches, there are more Facebook employees in the UK than in Ireland which is their main base of EU operations. Regardless of employee count in the UK office, it's only 2% of the market. I have no doubt about the choice I'd make if were faced with the same choice: especially since companies already have plans to decrease headcount.