This is a dishonest line. The internet is federated, they don't have to use websites created by American megacorporations.
If the EU said tomorrow, in 1 year we are banning Facebook and launching our own version, what can Facebook do about it?
Whichever costs less for them.
US tech companies hold almost as much power in these smaller countries as the government does. Facebook could easily sway an election if it tries.
Exactly right. So it's wrong to say that these governments are beholden to the tech companies, they could simply block them if wanted to, and perhaps they should, but either way it's obviously wrong to say that these governments are beholden.
> Facebook could easily sway an election if it tries.
So could the people being banned by Facebook. What's your point here?
Where's the money for creating non-American websites?
Yes, I'm still bitter after 10 or so years that the local business directory website/start-up I was working on got part of its data copied by the up and coming Google Places. We folded, of course, Google Places "transferred" its data to the whole Google ecosystem. I was telling my boss at the time "they can't let Google do this, is theft", they let Google do that, and then some.