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Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, Microsoft These are the first 6 companies designated as ‘gatekeepers' under the Digital Markets Act. They have 6 months to ensure their core platform services comply with our rules, including: ✔ Allowing users to unsubscribe and remove pre-installed services ❌ Banning tracking outside of their services without consent 212 comments
@nelsonakis @ERDonnachie Oh I totally agree that Meta, Google and Apple are more powerful and that they should be on this list. But I would also like Twitter to be included, given the direction its policies are taking since Musk took over. @nelsonakis Yes, though hopefully the usual rules will keep them slightly in check. And perhaps journalists and politicians will even walk away from X and spend their time with something less toxic. @ERDonnachie @nelsonakis Y dale perico al torno con que tuiter es tóxico. Es un reflejo de la sociedad. Si hubiese aquí la misma cantidad de usuarios que allí este sitio sería igual de tóxico Mira a youtubers (grandes y pequeños) diciendo que les cae 'hate' siempre. No es culpa de las plataformas, es culpa de la humanidad. @ERDonnachie @nelsonakis Maybe that was the plan behind the recent changes – get rid of enough people to not fall under new legislation? ;-)  @nelsonakis @EU_Commission so much stuff to do on twitter that they cant do everyone at once?  @nelsonakis @f4grx while I hate Elmo and what he's done to Twitter, I think it would be a pretty hard sell to define Twitter as part of these gatekeeping infrastructures.  @nelsonakis > These are the *first* 6 companies designated as ‘gatekeepers' under the Digital Markets Act. Twitter isn’t on here because it isn’t a digital gatekeeper. That definition refers to companies who sell software and have app stores; there isn’t a twitterOS or a twapp store.  @EU_Commission Please push PC manufacturers and companies to allow people to use the OS of their choice :) @mehdi_benadel really curious - what do you mean? What would that look like? Tons of people are running OS of their choice on their PCs and nobody is preventing them. Do you want to force manufacturers to support OSes? @drizzy Right now people need to know them and how to install them to do so. You don't know you have choice until you know.  @drizzy Most Pre-built PC and/or laptop manufacturers don't give options, information or any sort of indication even that other operating systems exist. You're just paying the price for a windows license with the PC that you may not even want and cannot really get refunded.  @Rush @drizzy the thing is that the majority of people wants a computer that works out of the box. Windows is the de-facto standard, but you can also get machines with popular Linux distributions pre-installed from the likes of Dell. Apart from that MacOS is also extremely popular, would you disagree? @flying_saucers @drizzy I would disagree. Wanting to ship something out of the box doesn't mean having the customer pay for the Windows License without knowing, and not giving them any other options at purchase. This isn't about wanting to ship an OS, I get that, it's about not offering any other option than Windows (most companies). It's the reason that I think Linux in retail stores is important. @flying_saucers Other than that, there is companies like System76 or Tuxedo, but they're much more niche than something like Lenovo or Dell. I find it somewhat unfair. Especially because the Windows EULA tells you your license can be refunded at the manufacturer, and most manufacturers upon asking tell you to ask Microsoft support. @Rush @flying_saucers I agree it's important, but in the context of EU policies how would that look like? The only realistic way I see is forcing easy options to buy without OS or easy way to refund. Because you can't force Linux by policy. Then there'd be cries FreeBSD was left out etc. @drizzy @Rush that's a tricky one. What are the possible options? Here's some ideas 1) Force no OS, have customers install it themselves -> not consumer friendly, increases barrier to technology @drizzy @mehdi_benadel we need that for non-PC devices though. Mainly phones, then more other devices @mehdi_benadel @EU_Commission more than a on paper only option for mobile phones and other oem stuff  @mehdi_benadel I don't think there's any other big laptop makers or platforms that restrict what os you can have installed   @EU_Commission Although we prefer the term #technoFeudalists to describe these entities (and entities, T'site Buyer, Akamai, Oracle, Alibaba, and Tencent which appear to be absent in the legislation), the term '#gatekeepers' is a fairly good indictment. (EDIT: Removed M$ from above after double-check) @dsfgs @EU_Commission first train with the worse, prepare and hone juridic arsenal. And then all of the other at once ! #i wish @EU_Commission The following page appear blank when using the privacy-focused #TorBrowser: @EU_Commission It sounds like the Digital Feudalism Counter Action (DFCA) notifier and firewall might be of interest to people here. Basically it allows linux users to block the above gatekeepers from their computer, no matter where in the world or what Wifi connection they are using: You're welcome. @EU_Commission Excellent news, I hope they comply and you enforce. Looking forward to its implementation, I will welcome any initiative to follow up on the effects of the implementation, what can a user do, like removing apps and adding others, which wasn't possible before.  @EU_Commission you forgot popular gaming platform Steam which is owned by Valve. You guys are fighting them in court for Geo-locking and already fined the 5 game publishers for making deals with Valve. Steam is the same as Apple. You can’t download anywhere else. You can’t buy products anywhere else without making an account with them. Publishers are unwilling to sell games anywhere else. Valve is gatekeeper of games. @firecat @EU_Commission At minimum ever since Epic Games has (re)entered the scene in a large way, there would be two platforms to consider, that being Valve and Epic Games I believe from their values though that Steam isn't explicitly *trying* to gatekeep, so they'd probably comply without any fuss. @Rush @EU_Commission they are part of the problem with today’s gaming. They can and have censored games that weren’t bad. Visual Novels games are getting banned and Japan thinks Valve is races for blocking popular well known Visual Novels titles. Valve controls the numbers you see on download, player stats and reviews. They removed their API data & made websites like steamSPY unavailable to be used. Valve is not trying to be a good company. It’s trying to gatekeep all games in their own website @firecat @Rush @EU_Commission While Steam is the biggest PC gaming marketplace, they already allow you to use different stores and third-party software on the Steam Deck (they don’t control your PC anyway). Any other console would have forced you to use their store only. I wouldn’t call that gatekeeping. You’re free to install the “banned” visual novels from another store or from the publisher directly and play it on your PC or the Steam Deck. @GlowingLantern @Rush @EU_Commission that is one of the major problems. Publishers and developers will not upload or use other sites. They exist yes but looking through their eyes, playerbase is dead set on having the game on steam, not anywhere else. Also, legally handing those payments isn’t cheap or easy for anyone. Developers and publishers have little choice, they lose money or they lose respect from the community. @firecat @EU_Commission there are Origin, Epic Games, physical distribution, a load of freely distributed games, and all of those are in theory available on the Steam deck as well as far as Unix support goes. I'd say there's a difference there @flying_saucers @EU_Commission physical is gone, I can personally confirm it is just plastic with steam digital code, their website claims the same thing. EA has their own yes but no way to play in Linux because it’s DRM which Proton can’t do anything about it. Unless publishers like EA put their launcher on Steam and it allows them to bypass DRM because EA approved it. You also can’t play all EA games, 64bit is the requirement while Steam has older versions. See the problem of Steam monopoly @stippel66 @EU_Commission if I'm not mistaken, Twitter doesn't yet meet the requirements for falling under the "Gatekeeper" term as per the DMA but honestly I may just wanna see something done about Twitter out of spite.   @EU_Commission So if the UK hadn't left the EU I could "take back control"© of my phone and tab from Alphabet/Google. But thanks to Brexit freedoms Google are free to control my phone and tab. Next time some smooth talking politician offers you a referendum on something you know nothing about, stay home. Brexit was caused by the devious misleading the gullible. @pthane To be fair, I believe that some Eu-related stuff is still being enforced in the UK, like the GDPR, so if you're lucky this may hopefully make it's way over there too @Rush I hope so but the govt seems very keen to ditch as much existing EU law as possible, can't see them being keen to take on new regulations. @pthane that holds some truth to it it's a shame, even to someone outside the country, to see what is happening regarding privacy and consumer rights in the UK. :nkoNotLikeThis: @EU_Commission What are the new rules for affiliate marketers like myself? I want to make sure that when I post on social media I comply with all the EU Commission rules. @EU_Commission Being able to remove #bloatware from #android phone sounds like a dream to me. I don't belive it is going to happen. It will ends up like ok you removed photo app - now half of system wil complain about it 😄 @FoxVK @EU_Commission @EU_Commission Excellent, well done. Now can we add car manufacturers to the list as well please? Thanks. @EU_Commission @EU_Commission do something useful for a change and break them up into a million tiny mom and pop stores    @EU_Commission How will gatekeepers have to interoperate? Do they each provide a separate public API they define themselves? Or do they have to use internet standards such as XMPP for interoperability?  @EU_Commission@social.network.europa.eu When are you going to start applying the same standards to the legacy publishing companies who put rootkits on our phones ? #BanDRM  @EU_Commission @EU_Commission please, please can the UK join the single market, so we can have proper GDPR back, and Standards applied to produce imported for sale. The Aussie beef can come, just can't be sold in the UK for consumption. @EU_Commission  > ❌ Banning tracking outside of their services without consent ❌ Stopping ranking their products more favourably Even on the discussion of Thrds joining the the Fediverse, I have seen some developers (or ‘voices’) here on the Fediverse come at us normal users with, “You can’t escape them. Deal with it. YOLO!!”. I wish you the best and hope this sets a precedent with governments outside of the EU following suit. @EU_Commission I really like what the #EU is doing for consumer rights and data protection. What happens when the companies don’t do what they are supposed to?  @EU_Commission schön zu sehen, dass #X bzw. #Twitter jetzt schon irrelevant ist :mastolaughing: @EU_Commission @eingfoan Let's see what loopholes they will find in that law. And I am sure they will do everything they can to fulfill only the absolutely bare minimum and argue there way out of everything as much as possible. We will see what will change after the 6 months. 🫣 @EU_Commission Being able to install apps outside the AppStore on my iPhone would be awesome. But I'm definitely not looking forward for the appearance of things like the Epic Store for iPhone  The main issue with app stores is that they must be pre-installed or granted system-level privileges so they can automatically install and update apps. If law only ensures third-parties may pre-install any of their own choices, then only device manufacturers will profit from this change.   @EU_Commission requiring these companies to allow alternative app stores represents a huge uplift in user freedom, and I hope it will be the starting point of a thriving marketplace. The fact that a default app store is installed will be a major hindrance to that though, and I hope your final point will address that in time. It isn't clear to me, why I need to agree to Googles privacy policy to use an application from my gym, bank or in fact government.  @EU_Commission I wonder why Google didn't make the list, are they not hitting these bullets? The last one (ranking) seems like it would qualify  @EU_Commission As a strange aside, I wrote software for iOS around iOS 1.4, prior to the existence of an official SDK (Software Development Kit). It wasn't that difficult, and there wasn't even an App Store at the time. Though there were already alternatives, such as the Cydia front-end for APK. And they still exist, so does Apple already pass muster on that front? You have also been able to remove pre-installed applications, just like third-party installed ones, for some time.  @EU_Commission how will the EU hold accountable instance admins? How will you enforce those that are not GDPR compliant?  @EU_Commission I would like these digital gatekeepers pay us if they sell our data for marketing and advertising purposes even if you have opted out of their programs, because they'll just re-add you to their data collection at a later date when they believe you have forgotten. There's no true guarantee that once you've opted out of something they won't just add you back to them again, or keep bugging you to opt-in again with popups. @EU_Commission Does consent mean a checkbox with 8pt lawyer font spread over 8 paragraphs? @EU_Commission The only thing I can get onboard with here is the anti-tracking provision. There are some major problems with the American tech companies, but attempting to micromanage them through legislation isn't the solution. Micromanagement is just begging for unintended consequences.   @EU_Commission I'd be interested to know about 1. The timeline for interoperability.  |
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@EU_Commission What about Twitter?