Also interesting that Brussels & London are apparently working w/ each other on these investigations. It comes as EU govts are demanding that their #antitrust agencies, too, get a crack at Big Tech.
Current scenes in Berlin & Paris:
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For everyone wading into the global tax overhaul as G7 ministers meet today — hi, welcome, glad you could make it.
Let’s break down where we are, what are the sticking points, and what may — and may not — be accounced in coming days.
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OK, first things, first. This is not about tax. At its core are unanswered questions over which govts have the right to tell large (digital) companies what they can and can not do within their jurisdictions.
In short, it's a power play (but I would say that, as a POLITICO hack)
Countries like France & Italy see the likes of @Facebook & @Google making lots of ad revenue within their countries and legitimately question: why is that cash going to Ireland/US and not staying with us? How's that fair?
In a couple of hours (9am EST), we'll know if Donald Trump is allowed back on @Facebook. It represents a watershed moment of online content rules -- and shines a spotlight on how FB has de facto power over much of our lives.
A thread on what to expect and this ruling means:
So let's do the basics: Trump's account was suspended after Jan 6 riots and FB referred that decision to @OversightBoard in late Jan to determine if that was correct decision or not oversightboard.com/news/175638774…
As w/ everything that FB does, it divided opinion. The US right called it censorship, the US left called it about time. The rest of the world said what about us amid similar posts from other global leaders
I teamed up w/ academic to see if banned #COVID19 disinformation videos like Plandemic were still widely available on the mainstream social networks. Short answer: 100%
Over 8-month period, these banned videos racked up 600k of @Facebook engagements even though they were banned
How did that happen? Well, these videos were uploaded to fringe sites like BitChute (a YouTube rival), then those videos were shared widely on FB w/o getting flagged. FB took down many of these banned videos when I told them about issue. But still, not a good look, imho
Let's call it the "replatforming" problem. You can ban as many videos/posts as you like. But whatever you do, ppl will find ways around those checks. Case in point: this version of #Plandemic is still on FB (via BitChute) 👇
Today marks the one-year anniversary since @WHO first called #COVID a pandemic. For this week's Digital Bridge, I rolled with that theme. Read it all here politico.eu/newsletter/dig… & don't forget to sign up politi.co/38tlmQp
On #COVID disinformation, I've got bad news: it's everywhere & shows no sign of slowing down. This is a particularly worrying sign 👇
And in case you had missed it: the digital divide caused by #COVID is getting bigger — and the effects are likely going to be generational 👇