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by kristianc 43 days ago
Sovereignty is mostly just a protectionist racket. European firms struggle to compete with dominant US platforms, framing industrial policy as "sovereignty" rather than protectionism just sounds more strategic and security-oriented. I've seen US platforms bend over backwards to meet the requirements and they still choose their preferred winner. Predictably the goalposts keep moving.
2 comments

EU doesn't have enough money to just buy the competition
EU had more money than China yet shipped fewer dominant software platforms
China doesn't allow foreign social media on their territory at all. US had one for a short time, then panicked and forced them to sell. EU can neither buy American platforms, nor does it want to build a great firewall of Europe, so it's trying to find other ways to get in control
> nor does it want to build a great firewall of Europe

Oh yes they are. Just more stealthily via ID doxing age verification and speech censorship regulations.

That's a huge stretch. Age verification is a worrying, but a wordwide trend, several US states introduced it as well.

The first country to introduce it was Australia, which is only related to Europe by participating in Eurovision

>That's a huge stretch.

It isn't.

> but a wordwide trend

And that's supposed to make it ... FINE?

LIke "Hey, the entire world is becoming an authoritarian surveillance state, what do you expect the EU to do? NOT do it?"

YES! That's what I expect. I don't want the EU becoming China but with a blue flag.

Yeah money is just a fancy paper if you can't translate it to actual productivity.
money and credit are different things. EU has credit.
This seems a bit tone deaf. Trump can force American tech companies to hand over data or disable accesss of European accounts. Eg a year ago he didn’t like what some judges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague (NL) were doing so he had Microsoft block their email access.

Sure it vibes very well with protectionists but the sovereignty angle is real. The USA is no longer a reliable partner.

(And just before someone mistakes my comment as having any stance on W Social, I do not)