Johnny Ryan is director of Enforce, a unit of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties
With some very civil libertarian ideas:
But now more than ever, Europe should hold large US tech firms accountable for anti-competitive market rigging, snooping on Europeans, and preying on our children. Brussels must hold Ireland accountable for failing to enforce Europe’s digital rules on US firms. Enforcement is not enough, however. Europe must progressively replace all non-EU “big tech” platforms and cloud services over the next decade with homegrown alternatives.
Can’t have the Yanks providing things the peeps like.
Along with the anti-coercion instrument, Europe should shut down social media “for you”-style algorithms, that recommend content the user has not asked for, on European soil until they are proven safe for democracy. Citizens – not the algorithms of foreign oligarchs beholden to foreign interests – should have the freedom to decide for themselves what they see and share online.
Civil liberty means only being allowed what the EU bureaucracy thinks you should have or see.
Provided most European governments agree, the European Commission could kick US goods and services out of Europe’s market, or apply tariffs to them. It can strip their intellectual property rights, block their investments and require reparations as a condition of readmittance to Europe’s market.
This is civil liberty apparently.
For decades Brussels has claimed that its market of 450 million rich people gives it unanswerable sway in trade negotiations.
Which is one of those areas where this whole idea goes wrong. The benefit of trade is the imports, not the existence of consumers. Forgetting that is what leads you into this sort of nonsense.
But then Ireland, eh? They didn;t so much get rid of the overwhelming influence of the Catholic Church in what you may see or do as switch that religious extremism to the EU. The attitude is still there – the priesthood should be controlling your life.
LOL. After the craven acceptance of Trump’s tariffs, I can’t see the tinpot dictators blocking US access to the EU. If anything, they’ll take more of it.
Enforce, a unit of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties
Do they have spiffy uniforms?
Suggested logo…
“Europe must progressively replace all non-EU “big tech” platforms and cloud services over the next decade with homegrown alternatives.”
This I want to see. The bureaucrats replicating Facebook. It would take years to build it, but that’s assuming you get some really good people. And that it starts soon rather than the bureaucrats having endless meetings. I know this stuff, and I couldn’t easily build Facebook because doing ridiculously high volume internet stuff for billions of people is a whole niche in itself. It’s what Silicon Valley does now. It’s their particular niche. They don’t do medical software or engine management software. They do the large scale public computing. Anyone who has those skills goes there, there’s a cluster of specialism there. Like people who want to make supercars goes to Modena, which is where Maserati, Pagani, Ferrari and Lamborghini all are. Or the high concentration of luxury brogues in Eastern Northamptonshire.
Oh and look at porn. Half the UK traffic to Pornhub is down. Which is the most likely? a) people are wanking less or b) people have installed a VPN? The public are going to tell you to get fucked and still use Facebook.
Watch it, the UK will be watching to see whatever stupidity the EU come up with and look to implement it here.
These people are untrainable. Trump will slap them with 100% tariffs.
Two months ago he said this. EU has double-ought zero leverage on this.