EU considers tariffs on digital services Big Tech
EU considers tariffs on digital services Big Tech
www.techzine.eu
EU considers tariffs on digital services Big Tech
141 comments
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Yes. Tech billionaires are the ones who stood behind Trump proudly on inauguration day, so let's start using Canadian/European options. Plenty of them match what those tech companies offer anyway.
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I believe this is how we can cripple the US.
I just switched my services over and there are some great alternatives, we have just been pre-programmed to use the American default brands.
Adobe, Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon all easy to replace.
The only challenging one so far is YouTube, content is just lacking elsewhere, but atleast with adblockers YouTube isn't getting my money.
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As an American, I'm already subscribed to !buycanadian@lemmy.ca and !buyeuropean@feddit.uk.
I'll eat those tariffs to ensure the companies that stood at Trump's side feel it in their stock portfolios.
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As an American I'm here for it and encourage it. These greedy evil fuckers need to be brought down and if we have to burn it all down so be it, so we can rebuild better. What we have now is clearly not functioning for anyone but the 1%.
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Anyone who can should backup their favorite channels with yt-dlp while you can. Don't forget to embed the subtitles and metadata. I intend to put up torrents soon and others should as well. If you wish to support the original channel put document with links to patreon or whatever that creator uses.
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Any recommendations? It seems a lot of my alternatives are turning heel and I would like more options. Preferably ones not likely to turn heel.
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TBF, just leaving YouTube would be better. There's plenty of information out there which don't need some glorified video hosting platform (books, blogs, wikis and so oh). I really struggle trying to understand people's addiction to YT...
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yes, there are clearly unfair trade practices here. EU has been making money for Google and Amazon, but the US are not using our services. I hear the best solution to this are tariffs: EU users have to pay to use gmail until enough US users start using EU email providers and we rebalance the services trade!
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I agree with your point but you mentioned the services that are literally the hardest to find alternatives for. Need to use photoshop professionally, good luck getting around adobe. Sys admin only allows microsoft because he doesn't want to manage a bazillion different setups, get used to windows buddy. I could go on with examples...
Getting rid of those predatory megacorps is worth the fight, but it's a fight. And it's not getting easier just by calling it easy.
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Depending on what content you watch, Nebula might be a good choice.
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Deleted meta acccount with a note referencing trump and zuck. Not much but its what I had to do
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Don’t use tariffs. Legalize jailbreaking and adversarial interop instead. Disregard American DRM.
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The real money is in AWS, azure,GCP. No one cares about your iPad. Tariff the big 3 hosting providers and see how quickly shit hits the fan.
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Put a tariff on the companies that was pro-Trump, and who was at his inauguration.
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Would probably end the Internet faster than China can cut intercontinental cables. I'm here for it but the fallout would be positively insane.
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Bonus: It might make some companies move to non-US hosters, making their data way safer.
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Don’t just legalise jailbreak (which was never illegal anyway 😂), but force device manufacturers to unlock root as soon as they end support for the device.
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You know jailbreaking isn't illegal right? It's the same is removing one of those void if removed stickers, you won't get tech support anymore but who cares about Apple tech support?
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Those stickers have no legal weight anyway, at least in the United States. The manufacturer has to prove that you damaged the device, whether the sticker is there or not. They can not refuse service just because a sticker is missing.
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It's not illegal but manufacturers are making it harder to impossible. That must be illegal.
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Isn't it sometimes? Like if involved breaking something encrypted, I thought it was. And possibly other cases as well. At least in the US thanks to the DMCA and others.
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There's also patent invalidation on pharmaceuticals
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And legalize piracy of US-created media content such as movies and TV series.
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Yeah, let's have a go with the ACI (anti-coercion instrument) and see if we can't make their patents free game. Playing to Trump's tune is unlikely to work out well
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Maybe fix the Irish tax loophole first?
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Exactly. Never do anything until you can do everything all at once. If you can't wave a magic wand and solve all problems everywhere, it's best to just keep the status quo.
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Or, you know, do two things at once. It's not uneard of for a huge governmental entity to be able to do that. And it's stupid to repaint the ceiling when you have a leaky roof.
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A slap on the wrist for two of the tech giants is great progress. I would consider this a start, but not done yet.
The linked article supports this as well:
Tove Maria Ryding from the European Network on Debt and Development, an association of trade unions and non-governmental organisations, welcomed the ECJ's decision but stressed "our tax problem is more than just one rotten apple".
She said the case addressed tax matters dating back over 20 years and was "a perfect illustration of the chaotic corporate tax system we have".
“What we urgently need is a fundamental reform that can give us a tax system that is fair, effective, transparent and predictable," she said.
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Do it, fuck up Twitter, Amazon, meta, and everyone else that shared a stage with trump.
The only language they know is $, if trump is bad for their money, they'll go against trump.
These are people obsessed with wealth over every thing else, it's not hard to manipulate them, but when rational adults regain power, we need to tax the ever loving shit out of them because no matter what happens, they'll always choose "more money".
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I wouldn't go as far as saying it's very easy to manipulate American oligarchs. However, they are relatively provincial and lack the capabilities to deal with truly complex challenges.
They operate in an environment with no real risk. They've never dealt with any real challenges. The US judicial system is a joke (even in China, Alibaba's Jack Ma immediately regretted going on a public chimp out). US society is either openly supportive of corruption and criminality or lacks the capability (true desire and risk tolerance) to address corruption.
This is not to underestimate American oligarchs. They are extremely sophisticated and absolutely committed to their "number go up" fetish, but you also have to be real about what they are.
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lol holy shit do it. DO IT. This will utterly FUCK the profit model of more things than I can quickly explain
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Let's just hope they move fast and aren't afraid to break things.
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This in combination with deregulating the single market and allowing EU tech startup to thrive would finally give birth to real competitors on our continent
GoEU
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Pardon my ignorance but what does deregulating the single Market mean?
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There is a big push from EU at the moment to reduce "red tape" to make it easier for business, see for example mastodon post from EC a few hours ago: https://ec.social-network.europa.eu/@EUCommission/114280068967975617
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Good on you EU! I think a majority of the world would like to see Big Tech brought down a couple hundred pegs.
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All it takes is a critical mass of users to make their own Facebook. A continental divide seems like a good place.
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When America sends their users, they're not sending their best. They're sending trolls, shitposters, influencers. They're bringing Ben Shapiro and Alex Jones. And some, I assume, are good users.
Edit: The original quote (about Mexicans) is from 2015. Feel old yet?
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This isn't as much about the social media platforms, competing with those is relatively feasible. This is more about the professional infrastructure market. Microsoft Azure, AWS and Google Cloud. There isn't really a European competitor there, the US dominates this market. We have a huge trade deficit on these services, which Trump "conveniently" didn't include in his trade war analysis.
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ahh... I was wondering when people were going to start talking about Tariffs in relation to streaming services and purchasing software...
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You're thinking too small. Think of taxes on Enterprise software.
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Yeah and make it 200%
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Sounds like a good idea, hit them where it hurts! I left Big Tech a while ago, but if the EU can hit them with tariffs and hurt people like Zuck and (F)Elon, awesome!
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Should be two pronged - tariffs on cloud and other services while fostering competitive local alternatives. While it's possible knock up a cloud out of anything there is nothing in Europe as coherent as the offerings by Amazon, Google or Microsoft. And there should be.
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For now it’s a lot of mights and very few dids. Just make companies that are that huge to pay higher taxes to operate in the EU. It’s not a tariff is contributing their fair share to the social network of the EU. And ffs, reign in any country allowing these companies to operate in tax havens in the EU
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hell, it's about time
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Break up Ticketmaster!
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Newspapers, magazines, TV, film, movies, broadcasts are all regulated nationally and internationally
The same should be done for corporate social media companies who basically deliver all or most news content and information to people everywhere today.
The current state of the world is like being in the 1900s and only having six major newspapers in the world owned by big corporations and none of the content they publish or share is regulated or controlled.
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Why not legalising piracy for media made in the US? Imagine if all movies and TV series were suddenly public domain in Europe...
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Do it, the USA lost their industrial base to the shareholders and services is all they have. Let it rip!
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Okay, Orangeman! Now it's getting personal...
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I was afraid of this... I support it but don't need it. Oh well... Fuck the USA anyway!
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Yes PLEASE
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!lemmysilver
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Thank you for voting. You can vote again in 24 hours. leaderboard
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FUCKING DO IT
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Amen!!!
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Show this to Varoufakis.
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How would this affect the big players? Like MS -you buy from the European branch and they use buy from US. So hitting them with tariffs would hurt MS more than their customers?
I understand they will raise prices, but its not like with physical goods where the same item is resold. They use other ways to transfer money because tax
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The purpose of tariffs (in a normal world) is to make it harder for domestic entities to buy international goods. Typically, this will spur growth of a particular sector of industry within a country over time.
The way Trump is using them as a battering ram in an attempt to punish other countries, rather than incentivize steady growth, is why the US market is tanking and likely headed to another recession (or worse).
By retaliating in kind, the EU will be incentivizing their citizens and companies not to buy from the US. This will hurt companies that are based in the US, like Google, Microsoft, Meta, etc., further sending the US economy into freefall and bolstering the European economy, since they aren't trying to punish every single trade partner in existence.
There may be other ways they try to move money around to avoid the tariffs, but governments are aware of how big businesses operate and often try to close those kinds of loopholes. Since this has become a global political issue, I would imagine they'll be keeping a more watchful eye than normal on things.
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It becomes very hard to tariff intangible services like those provided by tech, or financial securities.
If the datacenter is in the EU and that EU data center is servicing EU does it get tariffed? I think they should just do shit like requiring certain infrastructure and job investments in the EU or pay higher tax rates on revenue.
Current US tax policy, GILTI and FDII already kinda incentivize offshoring for multinational companies based in the US. Companies that deal largely in intangible good are already outsourcing jobs. EU forcing them to speed up this process puts both Trump and the multinational companies in a double bind.
Neither can really make a move in their best interest without pissing the other off.
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141 comments