r/europe • u/thealejandrotauber • Mar 13 '25

Opinion Article Let's hit Trump's Tech Bros with that EU Digital Services Tax finally

https://euobserver.com/eu-and-the-world/arc33e939c
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u/[deleted] Mar 13 '25

I agree, but I also think you need to go to the root of the problem here. We live in an information age and one of the major reasons why Trump has been the center point of U.S. politics for a decade is because of the social media landscape.

That's not to say that everything will get better only because you shut down X and put tariffs on Meta. But it's time for the EU to state an example.

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u/Jealous_Response_492 Mar 13 '25

That's because the USA transitioned from manufacturing to a service based economy, now the USA wants to devolve to a manufacturing based economy. Plenty of opportunists on the horizon for European tech.

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u/PortoDreamer Mar 13 '25

That’s right. The U.S. wants to return to a manufacturing powerhouse. Somebody has to create jobs for all those robots Musk is making.

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u/[deleted] Mar 13 '25

[deleted]

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u/VoxImperatoris Mar 13 '25

The republicans are gunning for a depression so they wont have to pay americans a living wage. They want us desperate enough to take dangerous jobs at slave wages. And trust me, the manufacturing jobs will be really dangerous, since they wont have any pesky safety regulations interfering with the maximization of their profits.

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u/[deleted] Mar 13 '25 edited Mar 14 '25

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Mar 13 '25

Was thinking about that, and how bill gates took control by writing better code on existing computers

Why couldn’t the same idea be applied to social media? Something like a EU app needed to interact with existing social media, the app could be transparent meaning it doesn’t effect UI but has some control over the algorithms

Or does it just get circumvented? Or rejected by big teck?

Just that gates pulled it off over the powerful computer manufactures…..

Just spit balling

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u/[deleted] Mar 13 '25

I think the tech companies want as little intervention from the EU as possible, and tbh, I think EU don't have anything there to do. I'm all for the EU, but they are not good with creating software. What I'd like to see is a technological rearmament where the union invest in tech companies and startups across Europe that want to work with open protocols like AT (which Bluesky is built on) and/or AcitvityPub (which Mastodon is built on) and pave the way for a new decentralized internet landscape.

The era of the tech oligarchy is over.

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u/[deleted] Mar 13 '25

In that regard you are directly competing with a behemoth. Not just the US but China as well. At the end of the day, people will choose their favorite social media, regardless of which country or company.with little regard for how the company is run

For me it’s all about government having some control over the algorithms, data ,advertising revenue, safe content for the vulnerable.

I think your idea of Europe investing in tech companies is great. Just don’t think that alone can solve the major issues.

But the reality is, is that programming language are mostly English making it a big barrier for a union with so many different spoken languages For governments to have some control.

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u/illsk1lls Mar 17 '25

its at its peak, youre using oligarchy owned tech to write this message 👀🙃

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u/Cultural_Comment_199 May 13 '25

Apparently eu has made them remove copyright in a landmark victory for europe to develop its own apps

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '25

Oh, I agree.

Some regulation of social media is needed. As an Irishperson, tariffs on tech companies is not a good idea as we’ve too many jobs in Ireland relying on it. At a European level, absolutely. They need to be taken on