Thread by @doctorow

The EU Commission has been consulting widely on a set of rules for Big Tech companies, and they've made it clear that there's a very wide range of restrictions on the table - far wider than any US bill or proposal.

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That's probably down to the fact that the targeted companies are based in the USA, have a better-developed lobbying capacity there, and have successfully convinced US politicos of the (largely true) proposition that they are a means of projecting US soft power abroad.

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A leaked document of "blacklisted" and "greylisted" activities for tech giants ("gatekeeper platforms" in eurocratese), shows the range of possibilities on the table - and also the stuff that's not within the regulatory imagination (yet).

politico.eu/wp-content/upl…

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Prohibited ("blacklisted") activities include:

* Mining your customers' data to compete with them or advertise to their customers (think: Facebook Like buttons on publisher pages, Amazon's own-brand competitors)

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* Mixing third-party data with surveillance data you gather yourself (like Facebook buying credit bureaux data), without user permission (which is the same as never because no one in the world wants this)

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* Ranking your own offerings above your competitors (think: Google Shopping listings at the top of search results)

* Pre-installing your own apps on devices (like Ios and Android do) or requiring third party device makers to install your apps (as Android does)

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* Using DRM or terms to service to prevent users from uninstalling preinstalled apps (no immortal shovelware)

* Exclusivity deals - mobile OS/device companies can't force an app vendor to sell only through the app, and not on the open web

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* Using DRM or terms of service to prevent sideloading

* Nondisparagement/confidentiality clauses that would prevent your suppliers from complaining about your monopolistic behavior

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* Tying email to other services - you have to be able to activate an Android device without a Gmail account

* Automatically logging users into one service on the basis that they're logged into another one (eg using Gmail doesn't automatically log you into Youtube)

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Companies have to provide:

* Annual transparency reports that make public the results of an EU-designed audit that assesses compliance

* Annual algorithmic transparency reports that disclose a third-party audit of "customer profiling" and "cross-service tracking"

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* Compliance documents showing current practices, on demand by regulators

* Advance notice of all mergers and acquisitions

* An internal compliance officer who oversees the business

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Those are the requirements, and then there's a "greylist" of stuff that isn't banned or mandator, but that automatically triggers regulatory scrutiny:

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* Interfering with the businesses on a platform from getting their own data (eg Amazon refusing to tell publishers how their books are selling)

* Gathering more data than is needed to provide the service

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* Making it hard for users or businesses on a platform to export their data and go elsewhere

* Encumbering the sale of click/search data or offering it on discriminatory tools that preference some customers over others

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* Using DRM or ToS to stop vendors from replacing the default apps on devices

* Blocking third-party mobile apps from using the APIs and API features that the vendor's own apps use

* Blocking identity services that offer "the same level of security" as your own

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* Degrading service for third-party apps, locking users into your own payment or insurance services, locking users into your identity services

* Price-discrimination among businesses that use platforms ("most favored nation" deals, etc)

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* Refusing to interoperate with competitors' services

* Tricking users into switching from third-party services to platform owners' competitors

* ToS that "require acceptance of supplementary conditions or services that, by their nature or according to commercial usage...

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"...have no connection with and are not necessary for the provision of the platform or services to its business users."

Which is QUITE A LIST!

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Obviously, no one knows how much of this stuff will end up in any final rule. And the fact that this has leaked so widely might suggest that elements of the EU Commission deliberately leaked it to test the waters and see how people felt about it.

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My immediate reaction was that all these rules sound good, but will be hard to enforce, and 90% of them could be scrapped if you just had a different rule: "structural separation."

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That's the old, tried-and-true antimonopoly rule that bans platforms from competing with the businesses that use their platforms: rail companies were banned from owning freight companies, etc.

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A structural separation rule for Big Tech would ban FB and Google from running their own ad networks; Apple and Google from making apps that ran on their mobile platforms; Amazon from publishing books or selling own-brand goods.

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While this would cause an AMAZING AMOUNT of rage from Big Tech, it is MUCH easier to police than any of the measures it replaces.

eof/