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As a European I have to ask the very same questions about US apps and European interests. Even though I personally do not harbour strong suspicions towards the

As a European I have to ask the very same questions about US apps and European interests. Even though I personally do not harbour strong suspicions towards the US, it's not a given that the US will always act favourably towards the EU, Europe as a whole, or any one particular EU country in the future. Especially in light of recent elections.

lupusreal 2y ago
Europe should ban American social media companies. They'd be doing themselves a favor, and a favor to most Americans as well (who, shareholders excepted, do not personally benifit from these tech corps being so massive.)
- mu53 2y ago
  I think every country should develop their own social media. It would be best if it was federated-like services that smaller countries could just run the plain open source version of. Any democratic country that has a large portion of their population using american social media is essentially a modern US colony.
  - fsflover 2y ago
    > I think every country should develop their own social media. There is Mastodon already, which is federated. EU already set up their own servers.
    - johnzim 2y ago
      It is federated and it has benefits but the UX is garbage for average people and the actual protocol isn't one that'll scale. You don't need an A+ protocol to get great if your product is good enough / dead simple to use but neither of those things apply to Mastodon, as much as I'd like them to.
      - fsflover 2y ago
        I don't see how Mastodon's UX is worse than the one of Twitter, which is good enough, judging by the number of users.
- gibsonpil 2y ago
  That would result in a domino effect that would inevitably result in the internet being segregated by nationality.
  - jordanb 2y ago
    The walled gardens would be. On the other hand it would likely drive interoperability.
- petre 2y ago
  Add Tiktok to those as well. In fact it should be the first one banned along with Meta.
Workaccount2 2y ago
Joe Biden cannot call up facebook and tell them to show everyone on Instagram ponies tomorrow. However, if Xi Jinping calls up Bytedance and tells them to show everyone ponies tomorrow, your tiktok feed will infact be all ponies tomorrow.
- mu53 2y ago
  The revelations from the twitter files show that this is true. Social media works in tandem with US Federal Agencies to review what people see or don't.
  - EasyMark 2y ago
    and checks and balances allowed it to eventually come out, even though i think facebook knew they could fight it in court. In China that is not an option, Xi and his circle say is what happens with no recourse other than a straight up rebellion by the people of China.
- boohoo123 2y ago
  You'd be surprised on how much government has their hands in US big tech companies.
- 383toast 2y ago
  Via various incentives and regulation, they kind of can
  - cloverich 2y ago
    Which can be openly discussed, critiqued, etc. Or in the case of X, bought up by a private citizen and turned into a completely different animal. There's important and significant similarities, but they are worlds apart.
baranul 2y ago
Good observation and argument. US politicians might be in for a rude surprise, if this effort to ban boomerangs on them, in the form of other countries making the same arguments and wanting to ban popular American made and controlled software.
- EasyMark 2y ago
  I think this is a positive. We should be happy other countries reducing the tentacle lengths of US social media vorps (or Chinese social media like tiktok)
EasyMark 2y ago
As a US citizen I would support your right to limit facebook/twitter/etc exposure to your citizens, especially with the incoming administration. That's why I think it's also appropriate for the US to oppose a adversarial government injecting propaganda here, especially to our most vulnerable to it.

lupusreal 2y ago

Europe should ban American social media companies. They'd be doing themselves a favor, and a favor to most Americans as well (who, shareholders excepted, do not personally benifit from these tech corps being so massive.)

mu53 2y ago
I think every country should develop their own social media. It would be best if it was federated-like services that smaller countries could just run the plain open source version of. Any democratic country that has a large portion of their population using american social media is essentially a modern US colony.
- fsflover 2y ago
  > I think every country should develop their own social media. There is Mastodon already, which is federated. EU already set up their own servers.
  - johnzim 2y ago
    It is federated and it has benefits but the UX is garbage for average people and the actual protocol isn't one that'll scale. You don't need an A+ protocol to get great if your product is good enough / dead simple to use but neither of those things apply to Mastodon, as much as I'd like them to.
    - fsflover 2y ago
      I don't see how Mastodon's UX is worse than the one of Twitter, which is good enough, judging by the number of users.
gibsonpil 2y ago
That would result in a domino effect that would inevitably result in the internet being segregated by nationality.
- jordanb 2y ago
  The walled gardens would be. On the other hand it would likely drive interoperability.
petre 2y ago
Add Tiktok to those as well. In fact it should be the first one banned along with Meta.

Workaccount2 2y ago

Joe Biden cannot call up facebook and tell them to show everyone on Instagram ponies tomorrow. However, if Xi Jinping calls up Bytedance and tells them to show everyone ponies tomorrow, your tiktok feed will infact be all ponies tomorrow.

mu53 2y ago
The revelations from the twitter files show that this is true. Social media works in tandem with US Federal Agencies to review what people see or don't.
- EasyMark 2y ago
  and checks and balances allowed it to eventually come out, even though i think facebook knew they could fight it in court. In China that is not an option, Xi and his circle say is what happens with no recourse other than a straight up rebellion by the people of China.
boohoo123 2y ago
You'd be surprised on how much government has their hands in US big tech companies.
383toast 2y ago
Via various incentives and regulation, they kind of can
- cloverich 2y ago
  Which can be openly discussed, critiqued, etc. Or in the case of X, bought up by a private citizen and turned into a completely different animal. There's important and significant similarities, but they are worlds apart.

baranul 2y ago

Good observation and argument. US politicians might be in for a rude surprise, if this effort to ban boomerangs on them, in the form of other countries making the same arguments and wanting to ban popular American made and controlled software.

EasyMark 2y ago
I think this is a positive. We should be happy other countries reducing the tentacle lengths of US social media vorps (or Chinese social media like tiktok)

EasyMark 2y ago

As a US citizen I would support your right to limit facebook/twitter/etc exposure to your citizens, especially with the incoming administration. That's why I think it's also appropriate for the US to oppose a adversarial government injecting propaganda here, especially to our most vulnerable to it.