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Trump Slams EU Over $5 Billion Fine on Google (reuters.com)
U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday criticized the European Union and said the bloc was taking advantage of the United States, pointing to the record $5 billion fine European antitrust regulators imposed on Google. From a report: European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is scheduled to meet with Trump at the White House next Wednesday to discuss trade and other issues. "I told you so! The European Union just slapped a Five Billion Dollar fine on one of our great companies, Google. They truly have taken advantage of the U.S., but not for long!" Trump said in a post on Twitter .
That's right he's your president.
what does he mean by "not for long" ? does he mean a couple of years until we get a new president, or was this a total surprise to the US government such that he could not have shown off his deal-making art and nixed it before now ?
Nullius in verba
... but I agree on this. Sure, google made the manufacturers install their apps, but so what? They got the OS for free and thats the whole point. Its not the same as MS making people pay for their OS but still forcing OEMs to install their shit.
Google has to make money out of android somehow and if they can't do it via the play store or some other method they'll simply start charging for the OS itself.
Its exactly the same as what happened when people starting bitching about various bank charges. So now the banks dropped the charges and instead a lot of them charge you a flat fee just to have an account. Nice going people, thanks for that.
All the left-wing Friends of Google (tm) don't know who to root for. What will prevail? Trump Derangement or Google Fanboism?
Trump posted something on Twitter? Well that's worth an entire post.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
That says it all. A president that does not understand more information than what fits into 240 characters.
Congratulations to everyone who voted for this retard.
Russia had imposed the fine then do you think Trump would have said anything against it, or if he'd even have supported it?
Trumps actions isn't going to help. It will just strengthen the EU Resolve to enforce it.
The problem is the world is so integrated with the US economy, that they need to play nice with the US however, current dummassery from the people granted power in the US Government. Means the world is going to find ways to uncouple its dependence on the US, as it is becoming considered too irrational and unpredictable.
This uncoupling does include US Companies and their dependence on every resource.
That said, EU has been rather consistent legally with Microsoft and Intel. They tend not to like near monopolies as much as the US does. (At least the ones they don't have control over)
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I am APK the great "LORD of HOSTS", a.k.a. AlecStaar or Alexander Peter Kowalski.
See subject & APK Hosts File Engine 2.0++ 64-bit for Linux h t t p : / / I . a m . a . f u c k i n g / a s s h o l e . r e t a r d . z i p (remove spaces between characters & download).
I am the godlike creator of various GUI front-ends for other people's configuration files.
Calling people ne'er-do-wells or Jealous JOWIEs is how I think I win every argument
When people state the truth about me I get really mad and accuse them of projecting which is something I do all the time.
Don't call me out on anything unless you are willing to prove you too can write some strings to a file programmatically
You must be conspiraing with the Jews and Soros if you disagree with me
Spamming and being a general pain in the ass is what I do
Listen as I relive my glory days of being a college athlete in the early 80s
See me lash out at one person for 2 weeks straight and claim everyone who mocks my retarded ass is actually them
Bask in my greatness as I can do a ping as a non root user.
I demand your age sex and location so that I can threaten to show up and kick your ass and will call you a pussycake but am actually too scared to actually do anything but be a keyboard warrior.
Watch as I claim I am world class and a winner but in reality I am a fucking loser.
Witness my descent into madness
APK
Also, enough posts about trump making asinine comments, it stopped being funny in 2016. I am outside US, I am sick of comment section filled with right vs left.
So, is EU our foes, or not? Ofay, I say.
Yeah Google are such patriots they moved their whole operations to Ireland to avoid contributing anything to the USA, combined with their little Luxembourg sandwiches meaning Trumps secretary probably contributes more, hence your infrastructure is crumbling around you while certain individuals make out like the bandits they are
LOL MAGA
Only Trump can fine! Them damn China thieves and spies and father rapers! Damn well deserved! Make Putin OUR FRIEND by sucking him dry as much as Trump can. And we win!
The US fining VW within an inch of bankruptcy over emissions had nothing to do with this fine on Google I am sure.
even its impact to the world is much bigger. EU is one giant greedy gov. Not even saying Google is not evil, but the fine does not fit the crime.
The EU has to regulate their markets in a way that suits their needs. There's no universal principle which dictates how to regulate a capitalist economy. There's no "one size fits all" solution.
Most US Presidents can hardly manage their own economy. I hardly think they are qualified (or have sufficient information) to make a call for a foreign economy.
If Google was found in violation in the EU- it's their call. Google can negotiate.
Trump, might be considered to be defending one of our companies. Though the action is only impressive if the observer is totally clueless.
Another consultant who stuck it out.
"We are the Priests, of the Temples of Syrinx..."
Its exactly the same as what happened when people starting bitching about various bank charges. So now the banks dropped the charges and instead a lot of them charge you a flat fee just to have an account.
Funny my bank doesn't charge me anything except for reasonable rates on insurance and 9% apr on my credit card.
They said if I overdraft my bank account they will charge me 6 dollars unless I call them a day in advance.
The real smoking gun for Google is that they forbid phone makers from releasing *any* android phone that is not on their Google Play platform. If a company wanted any Google Play supported phone, they *all* had to be Google Play phones. That's a big no no and obvious abuse of Monopoly power.
However.... just like the time Microsoft was forced to stop dictating what software is pre-installed on PC's, government regulation here is just going to make things worse for consumers. For all it's faults and obscene privacy invasion, Google is a relatively benign overlord. If they loose the ability to dictate how phones are pre-configured, the end result will not be a utopia of phone carefully pre-configured to protect end-user privacy. It will be phone makers selling out and pre-configuring phones with malicious advertisement hijacking search engines, and app repositories stuffed with even more malware than Google's Play store.
USA should have more anti-trust rather than Europe having less. Oligopolies and monopolies degenerate competition and choice. He's talking out of the wrong end to fix the wrong end.
Table-ized A.I.
I have an Android phone - Samsung.
First, I cannot install anything directly to the SD card.
Second, I cannot move any of the Google apps to the SD card.
I cannot delete any of the Google apps.
When updating, I get the "not enough memory" error on my 8 Gig phone with a 32 Gig SD card.
Meaning, I am NOT getting any security updates.
I think Google should be fined $50 billion to make them notice.
"One of our great companies"
Yep, one that played a key role in turning us into a surveillance society, where your children and especially grand children will grow up knowing nothing but mass surveillance and think "privacy" only applies to other individuals (not corporations) -- as they were taught by their masters.
Hey idiot, do you understand that Google are the ones who are taking advantage of everybody on the fucking planet, including your own stupid ass?
I am sort of on the fence on this one but I do believe some of the practices of Google have to change. EU anti-trust laws are there to protect competition - which is slightly different than the US. And in the EU Google is dominant in Android AND search. If you sell an "Android Phone" you are contractually unable to sell a competing phone distribution. You are required to install all the google apps and the play store. Even without all the apps installed, and 'play store' Google still makes a considerable amount of money from the app (they don't pay Apple 3 billion dollars a year to be the default search engine for nothing). Basically, they are doing EXACTLY what Microsoft -- and got whacked by the US government for back when they were dominant in everything. When you are not dominant you can get away with that, when you are - you have to make adjustments. Google can make rather minor changes to comply with the ruling and they will still be dominant.
Android is Open Source, because it's largely built on open source and they had no choice. Most of its APIs are Java APIs and free because they're not Google's to sell.
Nothing stops them splitting the Play Store and the rest of the bundle in two and selling them separately.
This is not a fight Google can win, so they should just comply. Microsoft tried to fight, paid to get Bush into power (and largely screwed over the USA in the process) without actually winning in the end. Bush made a lot of noise, but could not do anything. Microsoft complied, and the world was better for Microsoft's eventual compliance includng the USA. It permitted the rise of Chrome browser and the rise of Google and Android.
In trade, Trump's already starting a trade war with EU, which is rather stupid given the low level of tarifs the EU provides to USA, the equal levels of tarifs on both sides (e.g. US Truck tariffs vs EU Car tariffs) and they're the USA largest trading partner. So he'll just suck trade out of the USA exports.
He has no diplomatic leverage either.
He's kinda irrelevent to the whole thing now. Nobody thinks USA would join NATO defense if Russia attacked, so America is not considered a defense partner they cannot upset.
The UK Nuclear deterent (which requires the US codes) could ever be used against Russia with Trump in that office. So UK doesn't need to keep him sweet.
Nobody think USA is a partner in democracy (you didn't vote for him, and you certainly didn't vote for Putin). It's not like they'll cut him some slack because he represents Americans and American interests, when he doesn't.
Nobody thinks USA can defend itself against Russian attack, If Trump had been consulted when Russia attack American troops in Deir Ezzor, then he's have blocked and you'd be bringing back body bags from Syria with Russian bullets in the corpses.
So what's he going do? Write nasty tweets? Ask his Russian friends to hack? Ask his Russian troll friends to MEME on Reddit? What?
of businees a8d was code sharing By the politickers
If it was to be Amazon it would praise the shit out of it...
gets a trade war.
...we officially support trampling rules and privacy in the name of oligarch profits.
//TODO: Insert catchy phrase
I love Google, but what they did was textbook abuse of a monopoly. They established a monopoly, and then used that monopoly to force their other products onto consumers and companies. That's just a textbook version of abusing your monopoly power. Then they also made the mistake of not just doing that, but forcing major corporations with massive lobbying power like Samsung to ship their products. EU regulates competition tightly, and enforces this against EU companies just as fiercefully as against US companies. Google could have seen this one coming from miles. They probably just thought this type of fine and ruling was a fair price to pay for it.
Trump and the feds have pretty much abdicated or outright endorsed monopolies here in the U.S. (and let's be clear, the feds have been doing so long before the reign of Trump), so it's no surprise that he'd act butt hurt over the EU leveling a large fine against an "American" company. Plus, I'm sure he intends to use it the headlines as justification for more illegal tariffs against the EU.
just stop selling to the eu. tell them to stuff there fine. what are they going to do. the brits can bluff all they like but as soon as a majority of the company's stop selling to the eu that law will go away real fast. watch how fast the eu public loses there mind when they dont have YouTube.
Didn't British Petroleum get fined over 20 billion USD to the US when they messed up in the Gulf?
Didn't Volkswagen get fined 2.8 billion USD to the US when they messed up their emissions?
Why do we listen to anything Big Giant Orange Head says?
1). He lies, constantly;
2). He insults people and organizations, constantly;
3). He reverses his comments (but never entirely), usually within the same paragraph. Sometimes within the same sentence;
4). He gets into trouble and then always diverts attention to some other issue.
His comments about the EU fining Google are about as welcome as a wasp at a garden party. And no, I'm not interested in "he has a point" commentary either. BGOH has no point. His points are entirely undermined by his ego, his crassness, and his self-interest.
BGOH fails all the time and then claims victory. Until we grapple with that and understand that BGOH is 100% unreliable, we get nowhere.
And yet, Trump apologists will keep defending this child-rapist, no matter what.
Even after he's demonstrated to the entire world in Helsinki that he's a fucking traitor and a Putin puppet.
And they'll keep trusting an ex-KGB director more than they trust their own FBI, CIA and NSA combined.
And you know why ? Because it pisses off liberals. That's all that matters to them. They're so completely and totally consumed by their hatred of liberals that, like captain Ahab, they are ready to sacrifice their future, their children's future, their country, the entire planet, EVERYTHING, just as long as it pisses off that damn liberal white whale.
Google already charges manufacturers for their bloatware.
Would you kindly take a gander at wich wannabe continent has more constant murder going on?
When was the last weeke where there *wasn't a school shooting in the US*?
And you export it to entire regions too. In the form or recruiting, arming, training and financing fighters who then "whoops" become terrorists. What a convenient "surprise" for your mass-murder industry! Just like the last 58 times. On to the next war!
How is what Google did considered monopolistic practices? First of all, Google does not have a monopoly on mobile phones. Apple is doing just fine in that arena and if you don't like the conditions that Google imposes then go get an iPhone. This is not like the Microsoft case where, at the time, well over 90% of all personal computers were running Windows and there was no viable alternative.
I thought the whole idea of having a "store" to download apps was to help protect users from getting malware on their phones. It is much like the Linux model of Package management where software is housed in a trusted, centralized location and you can download it with a high level of confidence that it is virus free. Contrast that to the Windows model where you go here, there and everywhere to get software. It is especially problematic with "free" software that is frequently laden with spyware. Anyone remember Limewire?
Google has spent a lot of time effort and money enhancing Android. OK, they bought it from someone else but they have improved it greatly. Are they not entitled to make a profit from their store just like Apple does? Samsung and others have profited greatly by piggybacking on Android.
I guess I'm just struggling to see just who the EU is protecting us from.
I know some people are wondering what this whole Trump is a Putin lap dog trend they're hearing. Its just most cattle Americans being fed these stories in their bubble which no one hears outside of the US.
The Russia is our enemy narrative and every other stupid thing you hear..
If you live 2 weeks out of the US this whole nest in your head will clear up and you will understand how it feels going through rehab
Hopefully, American will do something about it. It's for them after words...
However.... just like the time Microsoft was forced to stop dictating what software is pre-installed on PC's, government regulation here is just going to make things worse for consumers. For all it's faults and obscene privacy invasion, Google is a relatively benign overlord. If they loose the ability to dictate how phones are pre-configured, the end result will not be a utopia of phone carefully pre-configured to protect end-user privacy. It will be phone makers selling out and pre-configuring phones with malicious advertisement hijacking search engines, and app repositories stuffed with even more malware than Google's Play store.
Well, for one thing this is only an issue for Google in the EU and in that neck of the woods there will not be a bonanza of “pre-configuring phones with malicious advertisement hijacking search engines, and app repositories stuffed with even more malware than Google's Play store. Anybody selling phone a like that in the EU will be having a rather serious discussion with the EU comission about some very large fines. But, fret not, Google will be free to continue its anti-competitive practices outside of EU jurisdiction, that much is clear from president Trump’s recent tweets.
Just one more point. If you ever hear about bringing laws up to date to match technology. Well, this is an incredible good example of that need. Bundling software and limiting choice isn't good, but we literally have to use 1800s era law about 3rd party business and direct/indirect goods and services to bring about a case on Google. Updating laws to indicate that bundling software and limiting choice is bad would greatly make the jobs of prosecutors a whole world easier.
... because International trade is not a zero sum game, trade barriers harm American interests. Then I don't expect his base to understand that, but they will understand the mass unemployment that is coming their way as a result of his and your ignorance of Economics 101.
While the targets, such as the EU, Japan, the rest world with trade more with each other.
EU signs its biggest free trade deal with Japan
that man really need to get a grip on reality.
google makes more money by far from europeans than from americans.
that guy really eeds to go back to his kindergarden cage and stay there.
how many $ billions paid by EU banks for US fines ?
Meanwhile the EU is getting cozy with China and buying natural gas from Russia. I know NATO is not the EU, but does the EU really think the US will continue to defend them when they are selling out to our competitors.
Trump pointing all of this out is disturbing to many on both sides of the pond but for many it is something that needed to be said for a long while.
No it is becoming tiring. Not one fucking article is free of someone from either side mentioning Trump.
Too bad. As another noted, this is a US site, and most of us are being traumatized daily by an abusive president in much the same way a spouse is psychologically traumatized by their abusive spouse. Which means we are stressed, think and talk about what is going on, and map whatever atrocious things he is saying and doing to our daily well-being. Given that we appear to be in a near deathspiral thanks the the extreme right and their alliance with Russia, with their stooge currently dismantling 240 or so years of democracy, you're likely to hear about it whenever the discussion warrants. Which, given the depth and breadth of what these fuckwads are doing to us, covers just about every subject in the book, so get used to it.
5b is too low
you think our president has nothing better to do all day besides posting useless comments on the internet? Oh.... wait....
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...
``I'll announce tariffs on EU search engines. That'll show 'em!''
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
It seems to be the most used, and over-used, headline word lately. Everyone is slamming everything, and it comes across as flat and juvenile now. This isn't WWE or a dramatic Soap Opera episode.
Dear journalism, please stop.
Yours,
David
-
Trump "traumatizes" you, really? You're the one keeping it going. Turn off your computer or your phone and go outside. See how easy that was? I'll ask you this, what has changed in your daily life since Trump was elected? I'm going to guess nothing besides getting angry.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
Gallup today shows that less than 1% of Americans consider the manufactured Russia BS a pressing issue.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-07-19/gallup-shows-how-much-americans-really-care-about-situation-russia
The DNC is circling the toilet drain.
I am just putting in a vote to say we should ban the word SLAM for people disagreeing
It's become silly. Every second headline is SLAM
I see SLAM and I assume things are clickbait
Google and EU should find a way to get along. Democracy probably better off. The fines are a money grab under a guise of trying to force a change in undesirable behavior. Where's is the lame WTO now? Concede WTO has its flaws. Trade wars by Democracies counter productive, we have bigger common foes that should face united.
You just discovered that Slashdot sucks? Why, it sure as shit does, and has for the greater part of 2 fucking decades. What, are you 12?
There was a fascinating court case for patent violation and monopoly abuse with a little company called Skyhook, that does wifi based geolocaiton. They settled for $90,000,000. Google's internal emails, exposing their plans for monopoly abuse, were turning up in the Boston Globe because the judge refused to seal the records. See http://www.businessinsider.com... for some samples.
On the other hand, developed countries in Europe and Asia have the lowest homicide rates - with Liechtenstein, Singapore and Iceland having homicide rates of lower than 0.3 per 100,000.
The Americas is the most murderous region in the world - with double the average homicide rate of the next murderous region, Africa.
I mean, wouldn't consumers see the crummy phones and refuse to buy them? Wouldn't there be a rush of high quality phones that protected privacy? Or, well, could it be that the free market isn't a Wunderheilung (and yes, I shamelessly used google translate for that).
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Return of the Symbian ;)
Google better watch out , those EU software powerhouses set for disruption. RIP
I am shocked. Shocked, I tell you.
It is funny, though, to see all the Trumpicans rush to defend Google because Dear Leader has declared the EU an enemy of 'Murica.
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