Facebook, TikTok, X, and Google have refused to send representatives to the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, to explain their activities during the election campaign. GroenLinks-PvdA, PVV, NSC, D66, BBB, and Volt had invited the big tech companies to discuss “algorithms and interference” during the election campaign, but the companies declined or did not respond, NOS reports.
We are talking about 17 mil customers in an economy that is highly digital and depends on these services. Without the EU, we have no negotiation power to threaten anything. We tried to shrink Schiphol airport once due to public outrage about noise. US threatened sanctions and the Dutch gov abandoned their people and bend over. And that was under Biden, not King Tradewar.
Even if we had to follow through with the threat of kicking them out, we’d be so much better off for it in the long run. Companies too big to regulate should be the same thing as companies too unaccountable to be allowed to operate, or we eventually find ourselves and democracy left in control of nothing at all. We are willingly giving our culture and power back over to feudal lords and that’s the core of why things seem to be going to shit