“Ireland cannot fix this itself. This cannot come from inside ... [it] needs pressure from the other capitals and from the [EU]Commission," Irish data-rights activist warns.

A follow up of sorts to this article

Dublin ‘can’t trust itself to do the right thing’: Why Irish EU presidency should recuse itself from regulating Big Tech

A one-word answer to why EU lost control of Big Tech: Ireland

My favourite bit of interviewing Dr. Johnny Ryan was when he yelled “just off a plane, so if you know the answer, I will lose my mind if you ask me to repeat myself for the recording again” at me.

It didn’t make it to the final interview, which was published on EUobserver.

Ryan is, among the much needed group of people who speak up against Big Tech, one of the more eloquent and direct. He’s also very friendly.

His work at the Irish Council of Civil Liberties’ Enforce includes major investigations into the many, many, many ills of online advertising/surveillance capitalism, a radical belief in the underutilised potential of GDPR (the EU’s main data rights law) and now, a plea to have Ireland recuse itself from all digital files in its upcoming EU council presidency.

For those who don’t know (I didn’t), the answer to why the EU has not been able to crack down on Big Tech more is simple. One word, in fact: Ireland.

Ireland’s job, by way of how the GDPR was drafted, is to defend the rest of Europe when it comes to the tech companies headquartered there. Meta, Google, TikTok, Microsoft, LinkedIn, X, Apple all picked Ireland. So did most of their AI activity. Which means, in Ryan’s words: “Ireland is responsible for defending the rest of Europe when those companies abuse Europeans’ data.”

And surprise surprise, they’re not doing so adequately.

Continue Reading Here - https://euobserver.com/218423/a-one-word-answer-to-why-eu-lost-control-of-big-tech-ireland/

  • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.caEnglish
    121·
    3 days ago

    Ireland did not benefit from low corporate taxes. On paper, the GDP looks great but all that money leaves Ireland.

    • huppakee@lemmy.worldEnglish
      82·
      3 days ago

      I heard that as well, but their original intention was definitely to make money one way or the other. They needed economic activity and i suppose attracting large businesses to headquarter in your country is a legit way to generate economic activity. Now they’re the only natively English country in the EU, but without those low taxes those companies would’ve likely put up shop in London instead of Dublin.

      They failed to only take the good part and reject the bad part, and that sucks for all of us. But my point isn’t that them failing isn’t problematic or that it was a smart financial policy, but that their failing is a failing of the EU as well. Whether they ended up benefitting from their policies isn’t part of that debate imo.

    • TheOctonaut@piefed.zipEnglish
      24·
      3 days ago

      Stupid take. Bringing in tech - starting with Apple in the 80s - has transformed us from an agrarian society to an information one. We had to skip the manufacturing stage because of, y’know, the genocide.

      The idea that it hasn’t benefited the people in the country is monumentally dumb to anyone who lived through the 80s and 90s. The money that stayed in the country is salary and therefore income tax. Is it unfair for employees to indirectly fund the country? Kind of. Is it better than literally burning muck to stay alive? Yes