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by ernirulez 1522 days ago
EU is becoming more like an authoritarian state. They put constraints on companies but allow governments to have full control and surveillance over their citizens. It's so hopocrit
5 comments

I don't see how it's hypocritical to give democratically elected governments different possibilities that random private companies.

It's government's job to put constraints on companies, stopping them from becoming the absolute assholes they become if they have no limitations. That does not make them authoritarian.

Some people are sad that they can't set up businesses which exploit the populace as easily in the US I guess?
Sure. On the other hand you can usually chose which companies to interact with. When it comes to governments the relationship is not optional. Your government usually have more ways to affekt your life than most private companies has (like no fly lists).

A few years ago the true extent of the Swedish program for tracking left wing sympathisers became known. It ran from the sixties up until 1998. For example, if your car was seen outside of a left wing publication you could end up on a list somewhere. That caused you to be automatically excluded from 5-10% of all jobs without you never finding out about it until 20-30 years afterwards. Imagine wanting to become a police officer, a pilot or and engineer and never understanding that the reason you didn't get an interview was because you had parked in the wrong spot one day years before. Or that your sister briefly dated a left wing journalist at some point.

I find it funny the right has so much fear that whats happened to the left for generations will begin happening to them.
The tyranny of majority is a real threat. Power should be "shared" (or under contention). Companies just want to take your cash, governments can take your freedom.
We live in a society with money is inherently connected to the freedoms you have, and companies want to draw you in so that you have to use their product. Basically every job that doesn’t require a bachelor’s degree nowadays requires you to have a cellphone to communicate with them. So if you don’t have a cellphone (so realistically being under the control of Apple or Google) and you don’t have the qualifications to get a college degree, you can’t get a job.
As a EU citizen, I fully expect my country and the EU to "put constraints" (i.e. regulate) on companies, so everything seems to work as expected.
You're saying governments shouldn't have the ability to govern its people, or inquire as to how global scale companies impact their citizens? That doesn't make any sense whatsoever.
"... allow government to have full control and surveillance over their citizens."

This is hyperbole.

This suggestion is the logical next step of the part of GDPR where it says that citizens should be able to understand how automated decisions are made about theme and their data. This is about transparency for citizens, not governments dictating how algorithms should work.

Not trying to defend the EU here, but isn't this true of every government?