On the other hand, this seems like an easy way to avoid addressing Europe's lack of it's own tech industry.
If Europe wants more ethical tech, they should make an honest effort to create an environment that supports that. I.e., invest in their own tech industry.
I agree with you, investing in ethical tech is an important step.
However if you look at what is happening today, with everyone having a google/instagram/etc account, and the power these companies have over the competition (because of unethical tactics) it is not feasible to actually compete with them.
Legislation is needed to make *everyone* in the tech industry that operates in europe at the same (ethical) level.
This may not be directly applicable to the linked article, but I'm mainly thinking of the DMA and DSA which will go into effect in a couple of months.
We also need to legislate against walled gardens to let other technologies flourish.
Breaking down companies would also be great. YouTube has been mostly crappy but operated at a loss , only alive due to backing by the Google colossus: how do you compete against that?
> If Europe wants more ethical tech, they should make an honest effort to create an environment that supports that. I.e., invest in their own tech industry.
Which is difficult if tech has been monopolised by US companies that break the laws, so they're addressing that for a start, as to level the playing field (both with GDPR and other regulations such as the Digital Markets Act).
> On the other hand, this seems like an easy way to avoid addressing Europe's lack of it's own tech industry.
The only reason the US has its tech industry is:
- lax laws for everything: from data protection to labor laws
- unlimited investor money that can sustain unprofitable businesses for decades Most of the top HN darling have never been profitable, and have been losing billions of dollars for years. The rest haven't been profitable for most of their existence
On top of that it helps to have a huge largely homogenous market
This made me think of Elephant in Cairo [1] and Pachydermic Personnel Prediction [2]. Specifically, it reminded me of what the classification says about the job of a politician:
> Politicians don't hunt elephants, but they will share the elephants you catch with the people who voted for them.
Along these lines, we'd have something like
> Europeans don't invent new tech, but they will regulate the tech you invented.
As a fellow European, I struggle to feel any pride or happiness about this.
If Europe wants more ethical tech, they should make an honest effort to create an environment that supports that. I.e., invest in their own tech industry.