I had to update the pic; forgot the biggest culprit -Microsoft. They got slapped with a fine of $731 million. I try not to think about this company at all but I had to fix it. The meme gods had to be appeased.
Also, I remember that Nextflix only bent the knee by agreeing to 30% of their content being local, but really tempted to add 'em.
Hopefully the Next Flex will be Netflix - for the meme-ability. Elon won't do it, he would have already done. He is just exercising free speech, nothing more. If he does get in the ring, then I'll join X ๐ฌ & pay his subscription for a year. ๐
Thing about that one is that the whole scanning thing will extremely likely get overturned by the courts and thus this whole thing would collapse. If they ever get a majority at all.
I realised something. If all of these big tech firms collectively banded together and left the EU market in joint protest towards their regulations, how quickly would these countries go into civil unrest?
It would be nice with alternative platforms, but I think each and everyone of the originals would break the coalition attempting to screw the rest over and gain the market, long before alternatives could be made.
I mean, the established userbase and subsequently communities. That's why I still look at Reddit sometimes, there are some communities that aren't effectively on the Fediverse due to lack of users.
But yeah. forcing the entire population out of a social media plattform by leaving the EU would change this quickly.
People might actually get some rest. The last few years have been hectic due to social media.
I see your point though. Like how people took to the streets to protest the change of coca cola in '85. One protester went as far as say:
โThis makes me angry. I'm angry, and I'm mad. I feel injured. Betrayed. Like a sacred trust has been violated ... People are having anxiety headaches. They've been placed in a distressed state."
... because New Coke didn't taste the same - they had to go back to coke 'classic'. ๐คทโโ๏ธ
I didn't even add all the companies, running out of floor space lol. I only added those with multi-million euro fines. Many omitted for settling unspecified amounts.