Daring FireballMight Meta Go Pay-Only in the EU?
https://daringfireball.net/linked/2024/04/19/meta-pay-only-eu
https://daringfireball.net/linked/2024/04/19/meta-pay-only-eu
Martin the paranoid android
Magnus Ahltorp@daringfireball “Because it’s always been free-of-charge, people (not unreasonably!) now think it ought to forever remain free-of-charge.”
One other, slightly more reasonable hypothesis is that Facebook had this text on their *frontpage*:
“
Sign Up
It’s free, and always will be.
“
Robert Watkins@daringfireball or they could offer a free-with-non-targeted ads version that is more limited. For example, they might have a strictly linear timeline with just the people you follow on it.
Oh, wait - that should be the paid tier.
Lars Leichert@daringfireball @gruber The sad part: at one point, in the not so distant past, people in the EU were perfectly willing to pay for these services. Exhibit A: WhatsApp. Before it was bought by Meta/Facebook(!), 700 million people, many from the EU, paid for its services. I would argue the decision by Meta to buy WhatsApp, make it free, and then „harvest“ the phone numbers is part of what brought us here.
Tom Ross@daringfireball Apple promises the precise same thing as the EU panel asks: People who press “Do not track” must have the full app experience.
Shad@tomrossberlin @daringfireball Here is the problem with your argument my friend. Can you show me the part of Apple's agreement where it limits these restrictions to:
“giants having 45 million+ active local users. Other gatekeeper criteria include a turnover of €7.5 billion+ in the last three financial years and a market capitalization that exceeds €75BN"?
From my read, all apps on the App Store must follow these guidelines, unlike the EU's restrictions.
@shadash Don’t put words into my mouth and then sarcastically ask me to prove those. Not a good look on you.
My screenshot was in response to the claim that Facebook and Apple each present the same choice to the user. Facebook’s is a trade-off, while Apple’s has no negative consequences.
The size of the company is a separate matter. Apple only charges 15 % to small devs, for example. And in politics, many ask for billionaire taxes. Why do you think it’s unfair to be tougher on large companies?
@tomrossberlin In some cases it may make sense to have separate rules for larger companies. In the case of tracking, it does not, which is why Apple's policy makes sense, and the EU's does not.