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E.U. Prepares Major Penalties Against X

(www.nytimes.com)
139 points dotcoma | 2 comments | 06 Apr 25 17:47 UTC | HN request time: 0.571s | source
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twalkz ◴[06 Apr 25 18:21 UTC] No.43603601[source]▶
I guess at some point the EU has to do something if they want companies to keep implementing these regulations under the calculus of “cost of implementation vs. cost of fines that arise from non-compliance”.

I would love to believe that some companies would follow these regulations even without severe threat, because they’re the right thing to do for users, but I know in a lot of cases it can take significant time, effort, and money to keep up with every regulation coming out of the EU

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onlyrealcuzzo ◴[06 Apr 25 18:23 UTC] No.43603619[source]▶
Companies don't really care about "the right thing to do for users."

They care about maximizing profits from you.

If you're hoping companies are going to "do the right thing for you" on their own, you're probably going to be disappointed.

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fullshark ◴[06 Apr 25 18:34 UTC] No.43603748[source]▶
Once upon a time these companies valued their user base, afraid they would leave and find another way to use their time. I guess they’ve got the data that their users are all addicted and will never do that. At least until they push too hard.
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mentalgear ◴[06 Apr 25 18:41 UTC] No.43603829[source]▶
Unfair business practices and quasi monopolies (Microsoft), waled gardens (apple), and in the past 15 years advanced data analysis let's those companies exactly calculate how far they can make their users "suffer/bleed/annoy" and stop just right before the breaking point.

Also, if real competition arises, it's just bought and merged (Facebook buying instagram) since anti-trust laws have not been properly applied, especially in the digital sector.

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1. nradov ◴[06 Apr 25 19:33 UTC] No.43604234[source]▶
It's really tough to apply anti-trust law to companies that aren't selling commodities. What would or wouldn't count as a competitor to Instagram? Since it's free for end users, the customers are mostly advertisers. And they have a zillion other channels to get their message out. Meta hardly has anything approaching a monopoly for either advertisers or consumers. Consumers frequently post pictures on X, LinkedIn, Google Photos, Strava, Snapchat, etc.
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2. xethos ◴[07 Apr 25 01:53 UTC] No.43606741[source]▶
> It's really tough to apply anti-trust law to companies that aren't selling commodities.

The EU, rather famously, managed with Microsoft. It's mostly the US that's beholden to large corporations over people, rather than it being an intractible problem.

> Meta hardly has anything approaching a monopoly for either advertisers or consumers

Meta does not command the lions share of the time spent on social media, but claiming >20% of revenue is oligopoly territory [0,1]

> Consumers frequently post pictures on X, LinkedIn, Google Photos, Strava, Snapchat

Do you really belive LinkedIn and Google Photos compete with SnapChat and Facebook for "Sharing photos with friends on social media"? If so, you might as well throw Flikr and Imgur on your list, though I wouldn't count them in the same market either.

[0] https://www.emarketer.com/content/meta-s-ad-revenue-share-va...

[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/242549/digital-ad-market...