Essential thread from Kay Jebelli re: Google/Meta dropping Political Advertising in the EU, aghast civil society groups demanding they “continue, and be regulated”
Discussing a post by Eliza Gkritsi, Kay describes at length the fact that platforms, facing vague but severely punitive regulation for [what they do] are increasingly heeding the old computing adage “don’t do that, then!” and shrugging off the burden.
It’s a lesson highly relevant to Chat Control, Ofcom, and to UK Home Office TCNs
Apparently some people feel that they are entitled to free service.
it’s an example of how industry concerns about the workability of regulation are often shot down, but ultimately prove true …
After participating in the consultation process and not getting very far, Google shared concerns publicly on how some of the TTPA drafting left too much uncertainty and unknowns for easy compliance, especially given the massive penalties for non-compliance …
These concerns weren’t addressed, so already last year Google announced that they were pulling all kinds of “political ads” from Europe (an overbroad category given the uncertainty in the law’s definitions …
Meta followed suit, as the other big digital advertising platform, also highlighting the uncertainty and lack of necessary legal guidance from enforcers (complicated here by the multiplicity of national issues) …
Predictably, European lawmakers are now raising concerns, that the law that was said to be unworkable, is actually unworkable, and that the companies aren’t able to offer their services in Europe anymore, as they had previously predicted and warned. (continues)
For those who don’t do Xitter, an archive of the thread is at:
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1980136926113103986.html
And the OP posting is at:
https://www.voxpublic.org/Open–letter-to-Meta-and-Google-regarding-their-decision-to-stop-political.html
https://x.com/KayJebelli/status/1980137015145599144
https://twitter.com/KayJebelli/status/1980137015145599144
#chatControl #digitalServicesAct #europeanUnion #mercuryShrugged #ofcom #ttpa
Alec Muffett
alecm