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> Google said it was willing to ‘work with’ Turkey, but as a partner and not as a corporation working within a sovereign nation. It simply said it doesn’t like
by amb23 7y ago
> Google said it was willing to ‘work with’ Turkey, but as a partner and not as a corporation working within a sovereign nation. It simply said it doesn’t like Turkey’s law, and so it will stop providing Android phones for an entire country. In other words, Google has a private sanctions regime against smaller countries.
The fact that Google even has the leverage to blackout an entire country like this--and that it's legally allowed to do so--is the best reason I've seen so far to break up Big Tech. They're playing with fire and undermining the U.S. diplomatic community by mixing public and private interests in a way that supersedes national policy. Both Android and Chrome need to be spun out--at this point they are basically public utilities.
- bilekas 7y ago> -and that it's legally allowed to do so--is the best reason I've seen so far to break up Big Tech. Of course it is legal.. Nobody can tell a company who they HAVE to sell their product to.. But you want to break it up and what then exactly.. ? > Both Android and Chrome need to be spun out--at this point they are basically public utilities No, they're not.. And they're not a fundamental right either.
- techntoke 7y agoChromium is already open source.
- bilekas 7y agoTechnically so is Android but thats a whole other can of worms..
- jessaustin 7y agoNobody can tell a company who they HAVE to sell their product to. Lots of court cases have forced merchants to sell to minorities to whom they would rather have not sold.
- bilekas 7y agoCould you share on some references to products and not services forced to be sold ? Also policy based and not discriminatory based..
- gtfratteus 7y agoCompletely irrelevant unless you know of a case where an American court forced a company to sell to Turkey.
- anoncake 7y ago> Nobody can tell a company who they HAVE to sell their product to.. Of course the state can do that.
- mrkstu 7y agoTurkey can if Google wants to do business in Turkey- if it isn't a legal business entity in Turkey, then no, not really.
- throwaway0237 7y ago> Both Android and Chrome need to be spun out--at this point they are basically public utilities. And then what: future development paid for by taxes, done by public servants who can't be fired? A House Committee on Chrome's WhatWG standards compliance?
- rjmunro 7y agoPublic servants normally can be fired by elected officials. Elected officials can be "fired" by the people, albeit only once every 4 years. Perhaps spun into some sort of not-for-profit, like Firefox. It's a difficult problem. Most options seem bad, but the current situation is bad too.
- pdonis 7y ago> Public servants normally can be fired by elected officials. No, they can't. There are extensive laws, rules, and regulations that prevent elected officials from firing government employees arbitrarily. > Elected officials can be "fired" by the people, albeit only once every 4 years. Every 2 years for the House of Representatives, every 6 years for Senators. But that almost never happens; the US Congress has incumbent re-election rates well above 90 percent. US Presidents are limited to two terms, so every so often we are forced to choose a new one.
- Shorel 7y agoAnd United Fruit Company even had armies in smaller countries. It seems the tech giants have the capability of making any country a banana republic.