When retaliating against Trump, I hope the EU targets digital services.

[om@witter.cz]

@randahl
The best retaliation would be to *allow* competition from local companies, namely by scrapping the anti-circumvention provisions of our copyright law. It is an indiscriminate law forbidding infinite number of (otherwise) perfectly legal activities with one’s device that should have never been mandated in the first place. It allows many abuses like monopoly on app distribution, bricking of medical ventilators etc.:

https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/01/39c3/#the-new-coalition #EndAnticircumvention #RepealArticle6 #BigTech

[dave@europhiles.uk]

@randahl
100% agree. Fair and legal taxation of digital and online services.

[carsten@minnesotasocial.net]

@randahl and maybe small action for everyone... Download and share to other social media... Have your kids make a tiktok...

[paul_stilgar@mastodon.social]

@bigbelgianbopper @randahl

And these companies need the European money ….

#boycottusa

[swggrkllr3rd@mastodon.world]

@carsten @randahl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmFVQKfELpE

[ilka4you@mastodon.social]

@randahl and clouds! Besos' dream is to have no more personal computers in households but instead everything in his clouds.

Imagine this horror & terror coming true.

[jhb17@mastodon.online]

@randahl

I've been waiting - hoping - to see the EU ban Twitter. Send a message that no man is too big to get around the EU digital laws.

[bsdphk@fosstodon.org]

@randahl

Also: A really good time to enact the Tobin-Tax.

[cstross@wandering.shop]

@om @randahl That's valid, too, but it's not an instant solution. (EU corps can't just throw a switch and offer a no-DRM-on-this-tractor-engine product: there are massive startup/R&D costs). Whereas tariffs on use of US big tech *is* a fast smackdown (although there's a secondary chilling effect on the EU companies paying for them).

[gbargoud@masto.nyc]

@randahl @singlepenny

@pluralistic has a bunch of suggestions about removing all of the laws protecting devices from being jail broken that the US has bullied pretty much every country into adding to their books as a start

[btel@mastodon.social]

@randahl massive financial and visibility support to free and open source European alternatives would be just enough

[reggiehere@mastodon.social]

@bsdphk

I've yet to see a time that wasn't!

@randahl

[spmrider@berlin.social]

@randahl They made a pilot, but neither could someone make an Excel sheet on the effects, nor could someone present the results with Powerpoint. So nobody knows what they found.

[reggiehere@mastodon.social]

@randahl

Europe should look to our niece (the USA) for the solution and treat American digital services in the same way that America treated TikTok.

[n1xnx@tilde.zone]

@randahl
Also, I recommend Cory Doctorow's suggestion to revoke anti-circumvention laws and encourage reverse engineering of digital products. Hits the tech titans in the monopoly, where it will hurt most, and offers economic benefits.

[lemgandi@mastodon.social]

@randahl

REPEAL ANTI-CIRCUMVENTION LAWS

". . . if someone threatens to burn your house down unless you follow orders, and then they burn it down anyway, you really don't have to keep following their orders."

( Cory Doctorow )

[sidereal@kolektiva.social]

@ReggieHere @randahl what happened with tiktok in the USA was that Trump started to criticize it, then Biden started legislation against it because he did whatever Trump wanted. Trump used this as an example of how Biden was out of touch and aping him, and then by the time the legislation passed, Trump was in power again and used “bringing back Tiktok” as some propaganda victory. I don’t know why you would want to emulate anything about this but go for it.

[reggiehere@mastodon.social]

@sidereal @randahl

The ban on TikTok is still ongoing and due to be completed by Jan 23rd 2026.

TikTok is still operational in the United States because it is due to be divested from ByteDance into U.S. control under the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (2024).

Since all US social media companies are tools for foreign influence and propaganda, the exact same security concerns apply in Europe.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/application-of-protecting-americans-from-foreign-adversary-controlled-applications-act-to-tiktok/

[karppinen@mastodon.online]

@randahl @masek absolutely, but right now we're just totally fucked in terms of reliance on AWS and Azure, essentially nothing in Europe will work if cloud access is disrupted. So digital services has an escalation ladder that is especially dangerous to Europe. I hope that changes soon, but it won't change soon enough

[raymaccarthy@mastodon.ie]

@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.