Elon Musk: Always A Douche

[viper37]

Meta wants to start charging verified accounts, just like Twitter.
12$/months.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/19/23606268/meta-instagram-facebook-test-paid-verification

[Grey Fox]

It's a good idea. They are increasingly cut off from the data tit by legislation from all over the world. Especially the EU rules that has far reaching regulatory capture.

[Sheilbh]

It's a good idea. They are increasingly cut off from the data tit by legislation from all over the world. Especially the EU rules that has far reaching regulatory capture.

Ish.

We've yet to really see the impact of that on Facebook. GDPR came into effect in 2018. There's been an investigation by the Irish regulator (Facebook's European regulator). Facebook made an utterly doomed argument about how they use data but the other European regulators have forced the Irish one to issue a decent fine and order Facebook to stop it - but it's on one specific point. The other European regulators also instructed the Irish regulator to look into Facebook's wider data practice; the Irish regulator has asserted that they have no basis for that investigation and are challenging the ability to be instructed in that way in the CJEU. That'll take at least another 18 months to 2 years. They should have an impact and in the long term they might, but Facebook have a very supportive regulator in their corner who is going to bat for them (and who also regulates Apple and Google, while Amazon are regulated by Luxembourg).

The bigger impact in terms of their ad revenue and use of data has been Apple's privacy rules (like the pop up about tracking across apps). My understanding is acceptance on that is about 20-30% while cookie banners on web (one part of European law) is over 70%. I think Facebook have called out the fact that their entire business model for people on iOS devices is fucked in their earnings call a while ago. Of course Apple's privacy rules mean Apple is creating a very nice walled garden where it takes a cut at every point.

[Zanza]

The Irish being the lackeys of American corporate interests is one of the more disappointing aspects of the EU. Although when it comes to taxation, the Dutch are apparently even worse.

[Sheilbh]

The Irish being the lackeys of American corporate interests is one of the more disappointing aspects of the EU. Although when it comes to taxation, the Dutch are apparently even worse.

I suppose the point is they're not American corporate interests, but Irish. Those companies employ many people, bring a lot of money and investment into Ireland and genuinely have big bases there (under EU law they need to - an address isn't enough to get regulated solely by that member state).

Agree on the Dutch and Luxembourgish in terms of tax but the Irish are still pretty bad. Irish GDP is so shaped by international companies transferring profits there that GDP isn't a reliable figure - whenever you talk about Ireland you normally use GNP - to the extent that it's now showing up in Eurostat statistics for the Eurozone - especially since the pandemic when Irish GDP has grown by 30% (but the Irish economy and well-being of the population hasn't):


I think they probably need to start using GNP for Ireland or excluding them from the figures when it's becoming noticeable like that. Ireland should not be that visible on Eurozone stats.

To defend Ireland a bit though, in tech it's not just them. The French investigated Criteo which is a huge player in the adtech world - they are one of the companies that broadcast our personal data out into the world. They're a French company and a bit of a national champion for the tech sector. They were given some instructions on how to correct what they do and a very minimal fine. There's no doubt from anyone I've spoken to that if it was an American company the French regulator would've been pushing for many multiples of that fine. I think it's a wider problem of industries capturing regulators and, as I say, from an Irish perspective Facebook, Google etc are Irish national champions too.

I've been reading Empire of Pain and it's part of what makes me wonder about how we tolerate that base layer of corruption in our societies. It describes for example lawyers going from law firms to regulators to working for companies they previously regulated (normally after a year off in between) and vice versa. All of that is absolutely normal everywhere. Law firms, consultants and others will send people on secondment to regulators and/or clients where they'll get good contacts and legitimately better understand them; from the regulators' perspective they need to understand what's going on in the private sector. But ultimately I think the play there is basically corruption. It's BAU for many industries and professions and you almost don't notice until you see it laid out like in Empire of Pain and the consequences are the opioid epidemic.

[The Larch]

Elon now has opinions on history as well.

[Josquius]

I look forward to a historian over analysing and tearing that apart.

[frunk]

What did Rome win?

[The Minsky Moment]

What did Rome win?

The match against RB Salzburg. 2-0

[HVC]

It's all well and good until German efficiency overwhelmed Roman engineering.

[The Larch]

It's all well and good until German efficiency overwhelmed Roman engineering.

You know what really did the Roman Empire in? Tax dodging by the rich elites. 

[crazy canuck]

It's all well and good until German efficiency overwhelmed Roman engineering.

You know what really did the Roman Empire in? Tax dodging by the rich elites. 

 

[The Minsky Moment]

The rise of a city, which swelled into an empire, may deserve, as a singular prodigy, the reflection of a philosophic mind. But the decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate use of social media. Unconstrained tweeting ripened the principle of decay; the causes of destruction multiplied with the extent of trolling; and as soon as time or accident had removed the supports of screen time, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its own weight. The story of its ruin is simple and obvious; and instead of inquiring why the Roman empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long. The victorious legions, who, in distant wars, acquired the vices of mobile smartphones, first oppressed the dignity of felines, and afterwards violated the majesty of Godwin. The emperors, anxious for their personal safety and the public peace, were reduced to the base expedient of Covfefe; the vigor of content moderation was relaxed, and finally dissolved, by the partial institutions of the Edgelords; and the Roman world was overwhelmed by a deluge of incels.

Edward Gibbon

[Razgovory]

[Richard Hakluyt]