They aren’t attacking the business model, they are specifically attacking Facebook because it is distorting the market and destroying competition.
This isn’t exclusive to Facebook.
But this rule is all but exclusive to companies that are so big they are operating in a non-competitive market as defined by new EU regulations. Companies can still do it, Facebook and five others can’t. If your platform gets so big that people can’t find alternatives easily, you get on the list, and you can’t do that any more either.
Offering an ad free experience for a subscription fee is an extremely common practice. Do people really expect to be able to use an entertainment platform for free?
There is no requirement on Facebook to offer a free service. They can ask for as much money they want or not ask for money. They just can’t make data harvesting mandatory for any customers. This is not a judgment of the business model, this is just acknowledging that some platforms have become so big that you can’t live your life without them, so their interest to free commerce and self-determination is secondary to the basic right to privacy that all EU citizens have.
What you’re saying is true, but in my book, a market is not free because of the lack of regulations.
Free markets are not stable things, and without regulation, they fail. Regulation keeps markets free. My definition of a free market is the econ 101 one, which is many competing companies, who all are individually unable to affect market prices. Not the weird ancap one, where we throw the reins in between the horses and let companies consolidate into a fascist dictatorship.
A lot of them are affiliated with the government of Ireland, which acts as a tax and legislatory haven for most of these companies in the EU. Only recently have member state data protection authorities started to bring cases forward, and IIRC Meta tried to argue itself out of a fine issued in Norway by saying that it needs to be fined in Ireland.
Sorry about that, I misunderstood your argument to mean “this game’s theme should be universally condemned by the general public” instead of “I personally condemn the theme of this game”.
I guess most games and media and art in general will seem wild to an audience that is viewing it through a different cultural lens. I’m still amazed C&C Generals got released as it did.
They do try to show the problems inherent in the US prison system. That said, there is a similar game about building a cult compound, which is also fun.
That said, how is this worse than the whole slew of games about US soldiers killing people across the world, almost always portrayed as the cool protagonists?
I guess it’s better than the UK for now, and there have been no attempted fascist coups for quite a few decades now. Even if we’re totally glass-half-empty, the EU is at least slamming on the brakes on the descent, while the UK is tearing their brakes off, and the US is deliberating whether using the brakes would hurt rich people.
An extreme (and hilarious) example of the power of hypertargeting was featured in AdWeek last year, when a marketing pro targeted his roommate with ads so specific the poor guy thought he was being cyberstalked.
Yeah, it’s hilarious, not at all depressing. I’m laughing all the way to a fascist dictatorship.
There is some EU law about data portability. Also, the legislative stance they have taken recently is that if you build a de facto monopoly, additional laws apply to you that don’t apply to companies in real competitive markets. Like the fact that WhatsApp has to provide a public API so you can send and receive messages to/from their platform from outside their walled garden, but Signal for example doesn’t have to do the same.
Wouldn’t be surprised if something like this passed in the EU in the near future.
Mostly these:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Meta_Platforms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Amazon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Apple https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Alphabet
This is a non-exhaustive list of around 500 corporations that could be selling services on their own, that could compete in the same market these four are in. This is what you could “vote with your wallet” for.
Point is, every time a product gets traction in a market where big companies desire dominance, they get bought up or priced out. These companies don’t operate in a functioning market.
Man, we just had a scandal about Facebook tracking on the IRS website. You don’t need TV to live your life, but you definitely need to file your taxes and do stuff on the Internet to live a happy life.
“Vote with your wallet” is neoliberal bullshit. Just check recent FAANG acquisitions to verify that.
Not in Europe, that’s a US thing.