EU unveils ‘revolutionary’ laws to curb big tech firms’ power - The Guardian
EU unveils ‘revolutionary’ laws to curb big tech firms’ power - The Guardian
Digital Markets Act aims to allow more competition and let consumers delete preloaded phone apps
- New regulations will target six major tech companies to improve consumer experience and data privacy. These include Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, and Microsoft.
- Pre-installed apps like weather and email that are difficult to delete will be disallowed, aiming to promote interoperability and reduce "gatekeeping" activities.
- Companies will be prohibited from monetizing user data collected from phone apps for advertising purposes.
- The regulations will encourage competition by allowing alternative payment systems, benefiting startups and consumers.
- The European Commission aims to empower consumers and ensure tech giants adhere to European rules, providing immediate accountability for any issues.
Once more, the EU being leader when it comes to users' rights and keeping the big companies accountable for their shady practices. 👍
Sometimes i wish i lived there :')
160I plan on moving there as soon as possible when I graduate high school. Real tired of America
20Theres plenty of places that need workers, in the EU!
Depending on your education it will be easier or harder, of course (also which country you plan on going to)
7France welcomes you with open arms, feel free to dm me :)
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One urgent thingis that the EU follow the UK in abandoning the ill-conceived "client-side scanning", aka Chat-Control.
11Both have laws like that in the making and beside tiny formalities the UK sadly didn't abandone it at all! :/
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Glad the EU is cracking down on tech companies. They have done a good job fighting for consumer rights. Even improving them in nations outside the EU both by forcing companies to make global changes and by inspiring local legislation. It's something they should be proud of.
83I am
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Reading the guardian article I was like meh.. some stuff is good and anything is better than nothing but then I read the actual DMA
“Fines: of up to 10% of the company’s total worldwide annual turnover, or up to 20% in the event of repeated infringements
Periodic penalty payments: of up to 5% of the average daily turnover
Remedies: In case of systematic infringements of the DMA obligations by gatekeepers, additional remedies may be imposed on the gatekeepers after a market investigation. Such remedies will need to be proportionate to the offence committed. If necessary and as a last resort option, non-financial remedies can be imposed. These can include behavioural and structural remedies, e.g. the divestiture of (parts of) a business.”
Fuck ya break up some of these fuckers if they keep breaking the rules and percentages of worldwide turnover? I can only get so errect
Even though this is EU based, if they actually follow through with the fines and possible breaking companies up I can’t see why the companies would not just make this a worldwide standard… I could be wrong of course cuz corporations are shit
30Permanently Deleted
20EU comes to the rescue! Again!
15The European Commission aims to empower consumers and ensure tech giants adhere to European rules, providing immediate accountability for any issues.
Part of this "adhering to European rules" means complying with EU laws on "disinformation" and giving police forces of EU refined backdoor access to take down content.
4I'm fine with (takedown-only) backdoors only for the big tech companies, as long as you're allowed to self host without backdoors.
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
The package of laws will also pave the way for more competition in some of the areas most closely guarded by the tech firms, including Apple Wallet and Google Pay.
The Digital Markets Act (DMA), the second big package of EU laws to hit tech firms in two months, defines a series of obligations that gatekeepers need to comply with, including not engaging in anti-competitive practices.
The DMA aims to undo the gatekeeper or controlling position that large tech companies have commanded in the last 10 years and gives the European Commission the power to conduct market investigations and design remedies if the firms fall out of line.
The tech companies – including Apple, Google and Amazon – have six months to comply with a full list of dos and don’ts under the new laws, after which they could be fined up to 10% of their turnover.
The laws will initially apply to six companies: Alphabet (which owns Google), Amazon, Apple, ByteDance (the owner of TikTok), Meta (Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) and Microsoft.
He described the DMA as an “important milestone” that would put consumers and concerned parents back in the driving seat, guarding against abuse and endless hours of content aimed at children on the likes of TikTok.
The original article contains 692 words, the summary contains 209 words. Saved 70%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
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-4I don't really understand how this is a material change from what AOSP gives you right now? Can anyone explain?
For example: AOSP has been available to EU start-ups for over a decade for free and open source but none have built alternative payment systems or email or maps or advertising services on top of it in a cohesive way before. What is this law going to allow them to do that they couldn't before? 🤔
-10Stock Android on every phone sold in EU will have to offer those features. There's a big difference for a start up between targeting AOSP and targeting all Android phones in EU. That's exactly the point of this law: making gatekeepr devices/services equally accessible to competition.
21
I know that I can uninstall first-party apps on iOS (for years now). I think Android users can, as well. It seems like, other than the monetization bit, this bill simply codifies things that already exist. Am I getting that right?
If so, they are praising themselves for saying "you have to" about things that already exist. Don't get me wrong, it's important to prevent backsliding (I hate that word), but c'mon. And yes, the anti-monetization bit matters, it should be there, I just think this is overblown reporting.
-15Have you ever touched a Google phone? You CAN'T uninstalled preinstalled apps on ether of them, if you don't root your device third party app stores suck, the law allows you to get rid of preinstalled bloat, messager interoperability is included and so on, that's a huge law and the first against silicon valley giants with enforcment that will actually hurt them!
13It's not just that. Apple can't self preference their own app store on iOS for example. They not just have to allow other app stores or just installing stuff, they also can't have their own store as a default. They also have to enable people to use browsers other than Safari.
10
So liberals are the new fascists
-18Are you just commenting 'hot takes' in random posts?
13I miss the good old days when corpos could pay in scrip and shoot strikers.
5
Tyrannical government overreaching and stifling innovation. This is what happens when you don’t have the second amendment and civil rights for corporations.
-18The innovation: So, we hasn't implemented any of the features our rival has for 5 years, but take this one that makes you harder to switch.
11Sometimes a big company has to stagnate for a while for the innovation to manifest over time. Big government regulations like this don’t give them that chance.
-10
Tell me, how does allowing users to uninstall apps stifle innovation?
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