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from the what-you-see-depends-on-where-you-are dept.
Silicon Valley is a uniquely American creation, the product of an entrepreneurial spirit and no-holds-barred capitalism that now drives many aspects of modern life.
But the likes of Facebook, Google and Apple are increasingly facing an uncomfortable truth: it is Europe's culture of tougher oversight of companies, not America's laissez-faire attitude, which could soon rule their industry as governments seek to combat fake news and prevent extremists from using the internet to fan the flames of hatred.
While the U.S. has largely relied on market forces to regulate content in a country where free speech is revered, European officials have shown they are willing to act. Germany recently passed a law imposing fines of up to 50 million euros ($59 million) on websites that don't remove hate speech within 24 hours. British Prime Minister Theresa May wants companies to take down extremist material within two hours. And across the EU, Google has for years been obliged to remove search results if there is a legitimate complaint about the content's veracity or relevance.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 03 2017, @06:38PM
Easy answer: let's say you're the boss of Yaceboogle, and you're worried about EU laws and US attitudes - or even chinese laws. Whatever. The answer is the same.
Parent company in ... oh, say, the Caymans. Why not?
Subsidiaries in all kinds of other countries, operating financially independently from each other.
Now, if Bob Kiddiesex Terrorlist in Berlin decides to post something about how jews are all good for making soap, and does so on Yaceboogle.de, he gets shut down good and hard. So he signs on to Yaceboogle.us, and posts his thing. Now it's not the german company's problem, and if Germany wants to cry about it they can firewall their country.
Problem solved.
And just in case one Yaceboogle tentacle goes bananas and picks up gazillion yuan fines and goes bust? That's why we have limited liability corps.
This balkanisation nonsense will die when we replace broken IPv4Q with something better, but that's not happening just yet.