“We recognize that innovation improves our lives, but we want a level playing field.” says Ramon Tremosa i Balcells,
a European Parliament lawmaker from Spain who backed the resolution
calling for a breakup of Google.
The Wall Street Journal writes that as Europe feels increasingly threatened by the success — or dominance — of American tech companies, it is causing bigger and bigger headaches for those companies.
The call for the breakup of Google is just one example. There’s also the U.K.’s proposed “Google tax,” a 25 percent tax on profit made in the U.K. but then is shifted elsewhere. Another high-profile issue: Europe’s “right to be forgotten” ruling, which centers on Europeans’ strong views on the right to privacy and requires Google and other search engines to scrub search results on a case-by-case basis.
(Recently, there have even been calls to extend that ruling to the companies’ search websites outside Europe.) And the revelations about American government spying using Internet giants’ technology hasn’t helped, either.
Quartz notes that in France, the term GAFA, which is an acronym for Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon, is sometimes used to express resentment over these companies’ influence.
Besides Europe’s concern about American tech companies’ effect on its economy, the Journal cites two other big themes that surround the Europeans’ discontent: The region’s proclivity for regulation vs. Silicon Valley’s disdain for it, and what is effectively a tug of war for control of the Internet.
Read more: Quoted: on Europe vs. U.S. tech companies | SiliconBeat
The Wall Street Journal writes that as Europe feels increasingly threatened by the success — or dominance — of American tech companies, it is causing bigger and bigger headaches for those companies.
The call for the breakup of Google is just one example. There’s also the U.K.’s proposed “Google tax,” a 25 percent tax on profit made in the U.K. but then is shifted elsewhere. Another high-profile issue: Europe’s “right to be forgotten” ruling, which centers on Europeans’ strong views on the right to privacy and requires Google and other search engines to scrub search results on a case-by-case basis.
(Recently, there have even been calls to extend that ruling to the companies’ search websites outside Europe.) And the revelations about American government spying using Internet giants’ technology hasn’t helped, either.
Quartz notes that in France, the term GAFA, which is an acronym for Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon, is sometimes used to express resentment over these companies’ influence.
Besides Europe’s concern about American tech companies’ effect on its economy, the Journal cites two other big themes that surround the Europeans’ discontent: The region’s proclivity for regulation vs. Silicon Valley’s disdain for it, and what is effectively a tug of war for control of the Internet.
Read more: Quoted: on Europe vs. U.S. tech companies | SiliconBeat
