Great tech explanation of the #globalITchaos/#CrowdStrike debacle, by a retired Microsoft developer. And no, it wasn’t because of EU competition policy 🙄 (which did not compel M$ to let a signed driver load unvalidated code into the Windows kernel)
I hear from another source that three lines of code from #CrowdStrike to make use of Microsoft’s Structured Exception Handling [] would have avoided the problem learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/cpp/…
Jun 19, 2024 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
Interesting (critical) study on #DMA #NIICS #interoperability from WIK: "Based on a consumer survey in Germany… consumers are not averse to IOP. Depending on the implementation phase, at least half of NI-ICS users state that they would want to allow IOP..."
"...However, IOP tends to reduce the use of alternative NI-ICS for these consumers, while the use of gatekeeper NI-ICS is not expected to change." << I want to read the full translated study but I have innovation-related questions 🧐 (NI-ICS=WhatsApp etc.) wik.org/en/publication…
Apr 21, 2024 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Less polite version: 🇬🇧 has demonstrated how a law on the books it dislikes (#GDPR) can be undermined by the appointment of supine or actively hostile regulators @iconews. (Thatcher was against its predecessor #DPD from the start; not much has changed.) linkedin.com/posts/david-er…
I hope the @EU_Commission is not going down the same route with #DMA Article 7 (#NIICS #interoperability), which it was hostile to from start (early 2020) to finish (trilogues). I wonder if Meta now feels slightly foolish to have (almost) obeyed that provision in ~good faith 🫠
Apr 15, 2024 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
#GDPR reform incoming: “The single market has long been plagued by national disregard for EU rules, haphazard enforcement, and resistance from capitals to centralising regulatory powers.”
Forthcoming reports by Mario Draghi [] and Enrico Letta [] are likely to be very influential on the next European Commission and Parliament. Here are some other tech-related comments they've made so far 🧵geopolitique.eu/en/2024/04/16/… ft.com/content/ad287f…
Mar 3, 2024 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
🤩🍿 (then we REALLY need the #DMA Art. 7 interoperability mandate expanded to social networking services, and aggressive enforcement of those existing provisions which would partly enable this)
Curious to know why X has done this, given its current market cap (according to Fidelity) is $12.3bn, about one-seventh the size to be automatically designated a #DMA gatekeeper 🤔
Mar 3, 2024 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Disappointing. Yes, 102 enforcement is evolving. But a “narrow focus on price” is a straw man. It was the “side dish” comment by her chief official that sparked the controversy at the conference where this started, where the US side was focused much more on the big picture… /1
…making antitrust a holistic part of an approach including trade and industrial policy. @Vestager is no doubt hemmed in by the distribution of competences with her fellow commissioners — but she is after all Executive Vice President for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age! /2
Feb 22, 2024 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
On the persistance of exTwitter: Musk seems to be singlehandedly illustrating the exciting antitrust concept of Significant Non-transitory Decreases in Quality while having limited impact on X usage (thanks to network effects) /1
Mastodon still seems to be struggling to achieve liftoff, despite significant migration of specific communities (especially academics). While they interact with each other this hasn't generated large enough cross-network effects for wider growth /2
Jan 29, 2024 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
I’m sure there are some interesting specifics in here, but (like other recent DMA pieces I’ve seen) it has major problems from the start. Para 1: iPhone success is simply down to market choices by consumers and developers 🙄 Para 3: EU companies excluded [] prnewswire.com/news-releases/…
Much of it is a long, citation-free rant about the EU vs US approach to regulation and innovation, attacking the “precautionary principle” (and those stereotypical EU bureaucrats in their "amazing government building[s]”. (I know which approach I personally prefer.)
Sep 4, 2023 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
“The decision is likely to hinge on how Apple and the EU define the market in which iMessage operates.” But the DMA is written to not be susceptible to these endless competition economics games 🧐 and I certainly can’t see how iMessage won’t be designated as a #DMA #NIICS
Sounds like Apple is making a #DMA Art. 3(5) argument. I cannot see how it could be persuasive. Commission should have the courage of its convictions, designate, and let Apple try to persuade the General Court otherwise eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/…
Jul 25, 2023 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
TikTok is joining Meta in adding a Twitter-like service (no #ActivityPub support though👎🏻). These services are so similar they would be a very easy first target for a #DMA social networking service interoperability requirement 😁 theguardian.com/technology/202…
That said, I think TikTok is closer to a “video-sharing platform service” than a SNS. It isn’t based around users’ social graphs. Can a single service be both in #DMA terms? Does an #interoperability requirement need to be extended to both types of core platform service? 🤔
Jul 20, 2023 • 15 tweets • 3 min read
Spectacularly good panel on antitrust and #genAI. First: @DAcemogluMIT says problem of foundation model duopoly is it will shape the direction of innovation in harmful ways, both in large-scale elimination of good jobs, and erosion of democratic capacity
“The direction of technology is malleable but it’s also a societal choice” 👏🏻 “If we want alternatives, it is highly unlikely to come from a monopolistic or duopolistic market” 👏🏻👏🏻 Use antitrust, including breakups, to achieve a more pro-human and democratic outcome 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Jun 16, 2023 • 19 tweets • 4 min read
This article is helpful for containing so many of the questionable assumptions behind calls to strictly limit open source AI tools… 🧵 theguardian.com/commentisfree/…1. Meta’s leaked LLaMA (and similar LLMs) are “terrif[ying]”, “incredibly potent artificial intelligence software”. Could we please keep a sense of proportion about advanced autocomplete?
Apr 5, 2023 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
This is often a critique of data protection as a mechanism for #AI regulation. But especially when combined with human rights and specific anti-discrimination law, how much of a gap does that leave? 🤔 (Of course, *effective* enforcement is always and everywhere a big q)
Non-personal data, obvs, although given the #GDPR’s expansive definition that is a shrinking area, and harms relating to profiling individuals will always be in scope. Group discrimination would come under HR and equality law (if written effectively). Safety (eg cars) separate
Apr 4, 2023 • 6 tweets • 4 min read
One reason I thought @bricksilk’s A Question of Trust surveillance report was so powerful was he was able to consult a very wide range of expertise. I wonder if there is a way to better institutionalise that in future intelligence oversight 🤔
Relatedly, I lost track of the final outcome of one previous failed attempt to do so — the Home Office blocking security clearance for expert @e3i5, found to be unlawful by the High Court. What Order was finally agreed between the two parties? bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/…
Feb 22, 2023 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
1. Whatever the wisdom of individual policy proposals in this new Blair/Hague-helmed report (and I am deeply sceptical on state-issued #DigitalID, having been deeply involved in the disastrous last two 🇬🇧 attempts)… institute.global/policy/new-nat…2. its greatest failing to me is that it proposes redesigning the entire British state on the once-in-a-century scale of eg the 19th century civil service reforms which still largely prevail. In a slightly scattergun manner…
