My latest newsletter is about the excesses of big tech, why Europe should declare war on Silicon Valley, and how it can win. whatwelost.substack.com/p/how-europe...
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aug 30, 2025, 8:43 pm • 0 0 • view
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aug 30, 2025, 12:15 am • 0 0 • view
"Business in Europe: Framework for Income Taxation" Aimed at addressing tax arbitrage and the fiscal race to the bottom. It supercedes CCCTB which was unfortunately blocked by the UK and Ireland.
aug 30, 2025, 3:04 am • 0 0 • view
BTW, I'm all with you for regulating Big Tech, although it seems that the problem is one of coercion preventing us from invoking existing laws.
aug 30, 2025, 3:08 am • 0 0 • view
I second @wizzyprobs.bsky.social about moving off Substack (supports neo-nazi narratives). Many people are choosing alternatives like: steady.page ghost.org
aug 30, 2025, 3:16 am • 4 0 • view
Well said, Matthew! 💯
aug 31, 2025, 2:09 pm • 0 0 • view
Canadian content laws gave us Bob and Doug. youtu.be/2pacru8ve9k?...
aug 30, 2025, 4:36 am • 0 0 • view
Love the tape measure. youtu.be/V4KTebUT6Mw?...
aug 30, 2025, 4:40 am • 0 0 • view
Would be nice if they would but idk. They should start this tomorrow. Who do you gotta talk to? Needs to be done asap
aug 30, 2025, 5:05 pm • 0 0 • view
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aug 30, 2025, 12:54 am • 0 0 • view
It’s about time Europe took on the US. We have the ability to replace corrupt American products.
aug 30, 2025, 9:55 am • 5 0 • view
We should boycott everything coming from USA. Nobody needs GAFAM tools. They are far more effective softwares/websites that can replace them.
aug 30, 2025, 7:19 pm • 1 0 • view
We need to do this in the US too! This is definitely not the first time (think the history of the Gilded Age (1870s-1910s or so - railroad, steel, oil, and other monopolies). It took many years of public outcry (and a chance landing of a politician) to finally put a number of these issues down /1
sep 1, 2025, 12:36 am • 0 0 • view
Then, Reagan and his ilk (may they burn in Hell!) reduced the protections, and the growth of big tech brought back the problems. Let's bring down big tech and all the billionaires - make them subject directly to the laws they flout! /end
sep 1, 2025, 12:38 am • 0 0 • view
Earlier this week, my former editor @alejandrotauber.bsky.social posted a call for pitches. He wanted the most insane, pie-in-the-sky policy proposals that Europe should adopt. My idea was simple. Europe should declare war on big tech. whatwelost.substack.com/p/how-europe...
aug 30, 2025, 12:01 am • 29 1 • view
Europe has taken action against big tech in the past -- but those actions haven't changed the rules of the game. They've been mere annoyances that are treated as a cost of doing business. I don't know why. whatwelost.substack.com/p/how-europe...
aug 30, 2025, 12:03 am • 10 1 • view
Countries have governments and armies. Those governments make laws. France and the UK have nuclear weapons. Why are we kowtowing to big tech as though they're more powerful? Why do we tolerate their tax avoidance? Their cruelty. Their poison? whatwelost.substack.com/p/how-europe...
aug 30, 2025, 12:04 am • 19 1 • view
They only need to be more powerful than the other vultures in the political auction. There is no investment with better returns than purchasing politicians. And they are cheap.
aug 30, 2025, 6:26 pm • 1 0 • view
I desperately -- desperately -- want these bastards put back in line. I want Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron to flush Mark Zuckerberg's head down a fetid high school toilet. And I have a few ideas how we can make this happen. whatwelost.substack.com/p/how-europe...
aug 30, 2025, 12:05 am • 17 2 • view
My first idea: Treat big tech's products like smoking and slap a massive "sin tax" on those from companies that have the most aggressive tax avoidance practices. whatwelost.substack.com/p/how-europe...
aug 30, 2025, 12:07 am • 11 0 • view
In one year, seven companies -- Cisco, Meta, Google, Amazon, Adobe, Microsoft, and Apple -- swerved £2bn in UK taxes. Each year, Amazon avoids paying hundreds of millions in taxes. Whatever we do, they'll find loopholes. whatwelost.substack.com/p/how-europe...
aug 30, 2025, 12:09 am • 6 1 • view
So, let's slap a 300% VAT onto every company that's declared a high-value tax avoider. Let's make it cheaper to pay tax than avoid it. Nobody will buy an iPhone if it costs £3,200 instead of £800. Let's shame and sanction the worst offenders. whatwelost.substack.com/p/how-europe...
aug 30, 2025, 12:10 am • 7 0 • view
My next idea: Stop giving them money. The UK plans to spend £9bn on Microsoft products and services over the next five years at a time when other European countries are shifting to open source. It makes NO FUCKING SENSE. whatwelost.substack.com/p/how-europe...
aug 30, 2025, 12:12 am • 10 2 • view
In many cases, open-source alternatives are better than the proprietary software being sold today. Also, I can think of no bigger "fuck you" than ditching Windows for something a guy from Helsinki cooked up in his dorm. whatwelost.substack.com/p/how-europe...
aug 30, 2025, 12:13 am • 10 1 • view
My next idea: Do what Canada did in the 1970s and actually regulate what types of content people see, and how much. This one's a bit complicated. Bear with me. whatwelost.substack.com/p/how-europe...
aug 30, 2025, 12:14 am • 8 0 • view
>Why do we tolerate their .... its all the juicy data about population they have ?
aug 30, 2025, 8:26 am • 0 0 • view
aug 30, 2025, 4:13 am • 0 0 • view
From what I can tell the EU is already holding big tech giants with DSA, DMA and GDPR.
aug 31, 2025, 3:48 pm • 0 0 • view
I hope they can do this and also not fall into censorship and surveillance that all too many governments are pushing these days, including in the EU
aug 30, 2025, 12:29 am • 0 0 • view
Omnipresent surveillance like the proposed ChatControl law are indeed unacceptable, but I don’t think governments regulating the internet in the public interest is itself bad. Censoring hate speech, right-wing disinfo, algorithmic manipulation for profit interests is all good imo.
aug 30, 2025, 1:23 am • 4 0 • view
Just a quick note of appreciation and also a plea for you to host your blog on ghost instead of a nazi owned platform.
aug 30, 2025, 2:30 am • 6 0 • view
If I may, I'd like to gently note the irony of using Substack -- a company with awful policies -- to publish this. Please consider an alternative; I'd be interested to read this but I boycott Substack. I understand the pain of switching, though, so not finger pointing, just noting it.
aug 31, 2025, 2:41 am • 1 0 • view
Your other points put aside if you really want to read this why not use a mirror site?
aug 31, 2025, 5:02 pm • 0 0 • view
Yes! Eat the rich!
aug 30, 2025, 1:44 am • 3 0 • view
Nothing to really disagree with here, except that for now at least EU leaders are walking a tightrope with the USA really for security reasons and part of that is the protection money, or “investments” into the USA. But once we can deter further Russian adventurism ourselves, this is sensible.
aug 30, 2025, 1:00 am • 2 0 • view
Might take a new EU commission too, the current one is very much staffed by the ’89 generation for whom America was a white knight and liberator of Soviet tyranny and they still hope to mend things. Baltic reindependence (Kallas), German reunification (von der Leyen), etc.
aug 30, 2025, 1:05 am • 2 0 • view
One thing that really sticks out to me as a brazillian is how much these entitled rich boy companies bitch really loudly however small the inconvenient pressed on them is. They be acting mad that we ain't giving society's entrails on a silver plate willingly
aug 31, 2025, 4:58 pm • 0 0 • view
Tbh I'm surprised Brazil's current attrition* with these companies/US would warrant a mention in the article. For sovereignty's sake we should be much more radical but even so we at least trying to leash them in. (*magnitsky used to punish a federal judge for acting to restrict these companies)
aug 31, 2025, 5:07 pm • 0 0 • view
I am actually looking into some Brazil-related stuff. agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/en/geral/not...
aug 31, 2025, 5:27 pm • 1 0 • view
Yeah I think what is happening in Brazil is crucial to grasp the moves these antagonists are pulling on the people and countries sovereignty
aug 31, 2025, 7:21 pm • 0 0 • view
I plan to watch this tonight. If you have any additional suggested reading/watching, I would appreciate it. youtu.be/FpsCzFGL1LE?...
aug 31, 2025, 7:34 pm • 1 0 • view