1y ago

Google Decides To Pull Up The Ladder On The Open Internet, Pushes For Unconstitutional Regulatory Proposals

www.techdirt.com Google Decides To Pull Up The Ladder On The Open Internet, Pushes For Unconstitutional Regulatory Proposals

It’s pretty much the way of the world: beyond the basic enshittification story that has been so well told over the past year or so about how companies get worse and worse as they get more and more …

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1y ago

Google pulls up the ladder on open internet, pushes unconstitutional regulation

www.techdirt.com /2023/10/23/google-decides-to-pull-up-the-ladder-on-the-open-internet-pushes-for-unconstitutional-regulatory-proposals/

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1y ago

Google pulls up the ladder on open internet, pushes unconstitutional regulation

www.techdirt.com /2023/10/23/google-decides-to-pull-up-the-ladder-on-the-open-internet-pushes-for-unconstitutional-regulatory-proposals/

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50 comments

All companies want open standards and regulation of the big players when they’re small. All companies want high barriers to entry and regulation of the small players when they’re big.
All companies want what is best for them. In that matter, they differ very little from people.
- Corporations are people didn't you know?
  
  Not in the country I live, luckily.

This is the year of enshittification, isn't it? Damn every company has pushed the pedal to the metal on it
- The cat's out of the bag. Gotta grab everything before folks try to stop them.
- It's because interest rates went up and the free VC money tap was turned off so all these companies have to actually turn a profit, so they're squeezing us with every lever they control.
- It definitely feels like a transition period for the whole Internet. Tech platforms finally reached their maximum user potential and scale, so now it's time to turn the screws.
  They all think we need them, so now we figure out if they're right.
  
  They weren't. Source: time traveler from the future

I used to give Google money for services (Drive and YouTube), but I've already stopped doing that because of their evil ways. This just hammers it home that much more.
Edit: The shitty part is what a cool company it used to be. And to watch it destroy itself like this is just sad.
- This is my biggest complaint. They were the best way to access the sum of all human knowledge. Now I NEVER find things relevant to my search, just things that can be sold to me. Things like the “-“ character no longer work. I still get the excluded term in top results. It garbage now and everyone at google is to blame not just the executives.
  
  I took my money from YouTube and started giving it to Kagi. 🙂👍

Honestly, this is about what I expect from Google nowadays. It's surprising when they manage to live up to the "Don't be Evil" motto they used to have.
- There's a reason they got rid of that motto.
  
  They never got rid of it though. I don't understand why people keep repeating this. See the final paragraph here: https://abc.xyz/investor/google-code-of-conduct/
- Expect this and they killing some of their products.

It's-not-corruption-if-it's-law approach?
- It’s a form of regulatory capture and is taught is all business schools.
  
  At this point what they learn in business schools is the full bestiary of legal and illegal tricks and scams you can use to extract money from us cattle and contribute as little as possible to the upkeep :(

Regulatory capture seems about on par for Google these days. I suppose I'll be switching back to OnePlus for Android devices; that'll be about it for Google stuff in my home.
- Assume that all devices ship with spyware
  
  Suddenly, I miss the old days of Android. I suppose it's back to CyanogenMod or whatever it is these days

Everyone seems to be missing an obvious detail- there was a related and even more dangerous piece of legislation reintroduced recently. It's known as the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), and that would have immense impacts on Google's (specifically, YouTube's) operations.
This is an example of them trying to claim the other bill isn't needed, because they can self-regulate. You'll notice how this also purports to protect kids, but in a way that is much easier and cheaper for Google to implement.
- Its deeply worrying development seeing Google came out with the narrative saying they are against mandated age verification while secretly saying they do support it atleast that what I get from this article.

50 comments