@aral @EU_Commission Not so much what you see out of that hearing yesterday...

@aral @EU_Commission don't forget John Mastodon! Or is he European?

@aral @EU_Commission

#Github is an important one that's missing on the #Microsoft entry.

Looks so deceptively open to the naive eye, but is a huge trap of walled garden lock-in, esp. with all the stuff that's being added right now to this all-pervasive platform.

#FreeYourCode or otherwise #GiveUpGithub I'd say to all the many governmental institutions in the #EU that are considering it in their - well-meant - efforts to move towards #FOSS. Before the next problem is at your doorstep.

@aral @EU_Commission all the more reason to use federated and open source alternatives where possible

@aral
I'd say apple is very much missing from that list.
@EU_Commission

@aral @EU_Commission Many EU members are allied with the US via NATO. I doubt the EU would see any of those social media companies you listed as a national security threat

@aral @EU_Commission well this is funny because after Schrems II they should all be banned across EU 🙂

@aral @EU_Commission there's CAATSAп act on the issue. There's some recent decree that forces any Chinese company to leak all data to the military. Add 2+2. Another variable is Xi glorifying Putin's war crimes lately

@aral @EU_Commission #BanThemALL #BanImperialists

@aral @EU_Commission zuck didnt sell his shares we demanded @charles_ex @aloa5

@aral @EU_Commission would be faster listing the EU based businesses. The list is short. All but those are exporting data (most of them even lost control of what data they gather and/or manage)

@aral
@EU_Commission

TikTok is guitly of the same crimes comitted by Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google and Microsoft.

@aral @EU_Commission Amen.

@aral Most software and hardware adds an identifier to whatever they work with. Russia is reported to be trying to end the use of Microsoft operating systems and programs due to security concerns. There is no privacy.

@aral @EU_Commission
And we will just pretend Facebook, Google, and Twitter aren't spying on everyone. This is just racist bullshit. Zuckerberg and Theil can spy on us and give the info to the government without a warrant, but we draw the line at being watched by Chinese people.

@aral @EU_Commission I think the difference is TikTok is a literally useless platform that does nothing except rot your brain. It is safe to ban with literally zero negative and many positive consequences.

The whole 'spying on you' thing should be secondary to the fact that it is a platform tailor-made to cause ADHD in young people. At least other platforms are a mixed bag of good and bad, tiktok is 100% all bad because its format doesn't allow for good.

@aral except that's not their real motivation to target TikTok
@EU_Commission

@aral you left out Amazon 😉

@aral The EU Commission will be OK with that provided the tech platforms share that collected data with them.

@aral @EU_Commission

Microsoft Windows is the only one on my list, think they want to connect to my phone. Linux looks better even more now.

@aral @EU_Commission they turn a blind eye to things they do. blood money with western values make more sense for them. @EU_Commission @Curia booo, yall hypocrites

@aral @EU_Commission - you mean this EU Commission, that runs their webiste via Amazon Cloudfront with Amazon issued SSL certificate?

The same, that routes their emails via Proofpoint cybersecurity company based in California and owned by private equity firm.

(Yes - every email sent to or from major European regulatory body, goes thru servers owned by American company /localized in Netherlands/. If both ends don't use PGP - in plain text, plainly readable to whoever have access there)

@aral @EU_Commission Apple missing 🍎

@aral @EU_Commission The US refuses to understand the THREAT we US companies do the same thing…..
But as long as it’s your own country doing it….
It’s all OK!
See East Germany, USSR, North Korea, Nazi Germany, etc…..
See it’s all ok!

@aral @EU_Commission
TikTok is a boogeyman intended to scapegoat the Chinese Communist Party while giving right-wing tyrants free rein. We've seen this movie before.

@aral

The US doesn't understand the threat, its just political gesticulating for personal gain - if they really understood it they would make the laws around this kind of thing more restrictive, rather than just trying to pressure a sale of TikTok. As it is, the real threat to user privacy is the market for data brokers.

@aral
Kicked off a good thread, too.
Where's that new fedi thread reader? Should give it a try on this thread...

@EU_Commission

@aral @EU_Commission US tech corporates, mega donors of congressional crooks, need a dose of their own medicine @vonderleyen, show us what you can do. 🇪🇺

@aral @EU_Commission What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

@aral @EU_Commission that the companies you mentioned are American, not foreign.

Aldo there is a Big difference between private companies and government owned companies, gathering data from citizens.

@aral

Maybe worth reposting?…

@EU_Commission

@aral @EU_Commission

The best part is, where US-based services HAVE implemented data-sovereignty capabilities, the US government has tried to overcome it.

https://cdt.org/insights/microsoft-ireland-case-can-a-us-warrant-compel-a-us-provider-to-disclose-data-stored-abroad/

@aral @EU_Commission What about Disney, Warner Bros Discovery, Comcast, Paramount Global, and Netflix? All of their apps demand total access to everything on your system under a pretense of "preventing piracy."