At least they make it a public debate. The US has no problem doing it anyway, on own citizens on citizens from abroad…

Not speaking of the companies themselves selling your data to anyone and everyone for the highest bid 😂 You might think as long as your name is not attached it is meta data, but give it a thought, what 2 or 3 fields of metadata would you need to identify you. Home address, work address, age, employer, ethnicity, gender, family status, your typical routes, your preferences in every category of goods and services based on online behaviour. They sell it all….

And we care about our governments potentially looking into it… I would start by blocking Meta platforms, TikTok and others to send any of our data outside of our jurisdictions. I would stress to host the data in European datacenters.

DMA should open up the ecosystem and stop the monopoly of WhatsApp!

Let’s make WhatsApp and messaging in general a service like email, where you can message/email between messaging/email clients (like I can email from Proton to a Gmail user). Why is it impossible to message from my preferred app to another app user. This is technically very easy, and safe. It just that it would ruin WhatsApp’s empire because it brakes the lock-in.

This would mean the whole Meta universe falls apart, which would be awesome as they do not give a crap about anyone’s privacy or rights. they don’t comply by the law and don’t pay taxes.

Let’s break it open!

Everything will be taken care of mate. The Netherlands also had massive gas reserves while it was in the EU. The EU is an economic union. Norway probably also has challenges or flaws and the union can fill those gaps. Similarly you bring something and that fills a gap elsewhere. It is not about your own wealth, it is about the combined wealth. The Netherlands has always contributed a lot to the EU states (especially southern), however we have also gained a lot in social & economic freedom and economic wealth through strong partnerships (our ports also are key assets for German and Belgian industries).

Look at the US; unity creates strength, division creates weakness. Do you think California (with the tech community) or Texas (with its oil fields) would be as strong as they are now if they were independent? Nope.