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The EU and the West are over-playing their hands with this in my opinion. They'll get burned by this at some point, at which point it'll be too late; and maybe
by csomar 3y ago
The EU and the West are over-playing their hands with this in my opinion. They'll get burned by this at some point, at which point it'll be too late; and maybe then they'll recognize that the reason they have had such control was just the fact they were first. Not some universal physics law that such companies can only exist in the Western sphere.
The recent Middle-East events had some troubling intervention (in Twitter/Meta). The "other side" wanting to voice its opinion is now being pushed more to other platforms. There aren't many (mainly Telegram and Tiktok) but nothing creates a market than sequestration. China did this to create a local market. The EU is forcing this on the global south.
What's next? De-platform such sites/apps from the major PaaS (AWS/Azure/etc...)? This might slow things down but it'll create a market for alternative hosting platforms. Then what's next? Ban hardware? This will boil down to chips. Maybe the US is ahead on this and realizes this is the only frontier that's left.
- barrysteve 3y agoThey want to overplay their hand. An oppressive internet that they can bully, works for them. An internet that withdraws into itself and the EU returns to pen and paper + dumb phones works for them. The US is all on this. As long as the US owns the internet and big tech, they are happy to let other countries do the dirty work of setting boundaries. The long term solution is to 'manualize' tech. Make all tech we touch, open and ready to modify, run at full capacity and be easily controlled by a single man. The only way to keep tech free, is to take it out of the System's hands and put it into the hands of the average joe, for his control. And feed the machines silence.
- csomar 3y agoThey are under-estimating the level of development in tech in the "global south" which has a differing agenda. There is now enough talent and capital in the global south to kick-start tech companies and actually it's cheaper there. The problem is that they need time to catch up to the Western big tech. Why would anyone use a local chat/social app if Twitter and Instagram exists. Now, if they are being deplatformed, it'll be a different situation.
- OfSanguineFire 3y agoThe Global South is overwhelmingly fond of WhatsApp, to the point that it has basically replaced the PSTN in some countries. And if this EU legislation passed, Meta would almost certainly get on board in order to not lose the European market. Where do you see deplatforming, or the shaking of WhatsApp’s monopoly and room for a local competitor to grow?
- logicchains 3y ago>Where do you see deplatforming, or the shaking of WhatsApp’s monopoly and room for a local competitor to grow? In the Middle East and North Africa (and Russia) Telegram seems to be competitive with WhatsApp in popularity, because people trust it more than the US-owned WhatsApp.
- OfSanguineFire 3y agoI have spent a lot of the last five years traveling the MENA region by bike, and the random local people I meet overwhelmingly want to exchange WhatsApp contact info (and are shocked to discover I don't have it, as I use only Signal). Sure, Telegram is around too, but WhatsApp's position is strong, and in any event Telegram is not a locally developed solution. Your claim that people trust Telegram more is a stretch. I daresay the masses in the Global South think little about where their apps come from and are poorly informed about tech matters, just like in the Global North.
- csomar 3y agoTelegram is now based in Dubai.
- OfSanguineFire 3y agoAs a legal formality. A journalist who visited the registered address in Dubai fairly recently found no one at home. The app is honestly regarded as a Russian product.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]