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by biggestdecision 2345 days ago
The world economy runs on Google/Microsoft/Apple/Amazon. Imagine if any one of them were to fail, it would be catastrophic.

That said I'm not sure I trust the current American political climate to step in and regulate, and I'm not sure they have a right to... The influence of these businesses extends far outside the borders of the United States.

2 comments

These regulations already exist and come up all the time.

US and EU have different payment process requirements. Same for data collection. There are numerous examples and all platforms find a way to implement them and comply.

Having some creator and merchant protections is not a technical issue. The US could legislate to protect US users and they could comply only in the US. No big deal.

Adtech is a pretty big bubble. Failure would be disruptive. But from a long-term perspective I'm not convinced adtech is desirable or needed. Let's go to Luna and the icy moons instead.
As long as people who have next to nothing (a large portion of the world) can access valuable resources for free in exchange for looking at advertising, it is quite necessary. Even those who do have disposable income in first world countries are not interested in paying for a subscription to resources they rely on a daily basis. Ads are a necessary evil.
Perhaps. But I contend that they are ineffective.