When retaliating against Trump, I hope the EU targets digital services.
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@gbargoud @randahl @singlepenny @pluralistic that is naive. The Europeans also have their own copyright lobbies, which are if anything even more rabid than US ones.
Just one example: France has a levy on all storage devices, funneled directly into the pockets of copyright collection agency SACEM. Thus the SD card in your digicam or the database drives in your hospital are taxed to fund Nicolas Sarkozy's wife Carla Bruni or Taylor Swift (with a hefty commission taken by the self-dealing scum at SACEM, of course).
@fazalmajid @gbargoud @randahl @singlepenny
The EU also has a gigantic fossil fuel lobby who entirely and 100% ate shit the minute the Russian gas went away and everyone started shivering in the dark.
Having spent years in Brussels (and in Geneva, at WIPO) as EFF's European Director, directly fighting these lobbyists, I think it's entirely plausible that they, too, will have to eat shit the instant that Trump bricks all of Denmark's IT.
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@fazalmajid @gbargoud @randahl @singlepenny
The EU also has a gigantic fossil fuel lobby who entirely and 100% ate shit the minute the Russian gas went away and everyone started shivering in the dark.
Having spent years in Brussels (and in Geneva, at WIPO) as EFF's European Director, directly fighting these lobbyists, I think it's entirely plausible that they, too, will have to eat shit the instant that Trump bricks all of Denmark's IT.
@fazalmajid @gbargoud @randahl @singlepenny If you think that copyright lobbyists have special powers that make them more able to resist the changes precipitated by existential crises than *oil* lobbyists, well, let's just say I think you're wrong.
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@fazalmajid @gbargoud @randahl @singlepenny If you think that copyright lobbyists have special powers that make them more able to resist the changes precipitated by existential crises than *oil* lobbyists, well, let's just say I think you're wrong.
@pluralistic @gbargoud @randahl @singlepenny well, in the French case, they were literally in bed with the president...
I hope you're right, but they have been in the lobbying game for a very long time (Beaumarchais, 1777) and even though entertainment is an economically marginal industry (at one point the Telcos made more from 2 weeks' SMS revenue than Hollywood did in an entire year), the star power means it is also the tail that wags the dog.
The fossil fuel lobby has managed to gut the EU 2035 ICE car ban, by the way, even though that guarantees the eventual death of the European car industry. Also, Germany shut down nuclear plants to restart coal-fired ones, so I wouldn't declare victory on that front just yet.
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When retaliating against Trump, I hope the EU targets digital services.
Tariffs on Amazon and Facebook incentivises a digital decoupling from the the US, it shows Trump's oligarchs, that supporting Trump is the road to ruin, while NOT preventing the poor from putting food on the table.
Hit those Zuckerbergs.
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@ReggieHere every single one of us is responsible for not making this wet dream come true. We would create a 1984 / Matrix dystopia mash up. @randahl
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@randahl and maybe small action for everyone... Download and share to other social media... Have your kids make a tiktok...
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When retaliating against Trump, I hope the EU targets digital services.
Tariffs on Amazon and Facebook incentivises a digital decoupling from the the US, it shows Trump's oligarchs, that supporting Trump is the road to ruin, while NOT preventing the poor from putting food on the table.
Hit those Zuckerbergs.
@randahl Not tarrifs: appropriate taxation, that is not removed later in some stupid capitulation
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When retaliating against Trump, I hope the EU targets digital services.
Tariffs on Amazon and Facebook incentivises a digital decoupling from the the US, it shows Trump's oligarchs, that supporting Trump is the road to ruin, while NOT preventing the poor from putting food on the table.
Hit those Zuckerbergs.
@randahl The Danes could simply decide to not sell the USA any more Ozempic (or reduce it by 90%, leaving legitimate medical need untouched - same for all the insulin they sell to the USA).
See how loudly people start screaming to the government for their GLP-1 -
@randahl and maybe small action for everyone... Download and share to other social media... Have your kids make a tiktok...
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@randahl
Also ESPECIALLY Franchises and physical services such as fastfood, coffee, delivery, rentals, ride hail, Hilton etc. These are parasites. They underpay, use fake royalties and other schemes to export profits without or little tax. They often require a local to rent the premises and put up capital.Actually BAN the stupid parasites.
@raymaccarthy until then, EU consumers should simply boycott them all [I'm doing my part, had budgeted around €3.500 to be spent in 2025 on US products and services, ended up spending only €123 because of contracts/subscriptions I couldn't stop until February, after that it dried up and in 2026 I will spend zero).
@randahl -
If Trump is seriously threatened by EU sanctions, especially those sanction effect the tech sector, he has the option of switching Europe off.
He can switch off at will any European or EU government or agency selectively. He can shut down any company or group of companies.
Literally, those organisations would switch on their computers and nothing would work. Or he could just shut down access to data. Or flight bookings. Or whatever he and the technokings decide.
Nicolas Guillou, French ICC judge sanctioned by the US: 'You are effectively blacklisted by much of the world's banking system'
Six judges and three prosecutors at the International Criminal Court have been sanctioned by the Trump administration. In an interview with Le Monde, Guillou discusses the impact of these measures on his work and daily life.
Le Monde.fr (www.lemonde.fr)
@iinac @randahl
A simple question is why should Europe sanction American digital services?
The current situation leads every reasonably thinking European citizen to find alternative analog and digital products.
So if these alternatives have a wide user base will evolve and become better, compared to what they are now.
So if people get used to these alternatives, then there is no way back. -
@iinac @randahl
A simple question is why should Europe sanction American digital services?
The current situation leads every reasonably thinking European citizen to find alternative analog and digital products.
So if these alternatives have a wide user base will evolve and become better, compared to what they are now.
So if people get used to these alternatives, then there is no way back.I agree. That's what should happen. Brazil have gone down this road and developed much more independent digital services. I'm not sure what analogue services remain.
The problem is Europeans haven't got alternatives. It is easier to find Indian IT alternative services than European ones.
The US could literally switch your phone off, stop mapping services, shutdown email systems, cloud storage, switch off business finance software, sales platforms, even specialist software such as video editing, defense systems or social media etc etc.
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@randahl The Danes could simply decide to not sell the USA any more Ozempic (or reduce it by 90%, leaving legitimate medical need untouched - same for all the insulin they sell to the USA).
See how loudly people start screaming to the government for their GLP-1 -
When retaliating against Trump, I hope the EU targets digital services.
Tariffs on Amazon and Facebook incentivises a digital decoupling from the the US, it shows Trump's oligarchs, that supporting Trump is the road to ruin, while NOT preventing the poor from putting food on the table.
Hit those Zuckerbergs.
@randahl And as a bonus maybe I won't have to use fucking Teams or Outlook any more, free at last.
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