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Comment by akie | Hacker News Reader

Whenever the EU forces US companies to do something, we get collective outrage on here. So I was wondering: Can we get some collective outrage for this as well?

Otherwise I can just conclude that there's a double standard about this kind of thing here.

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As a EU citizen I don‘t care about any collective outrage on HN. It‘s not even a question of standards, it‘s a question of power and I‘m happy to see that the EU has enough power to pass these kind of laws.

As a US citizen I don't care about the "collective outrage" of people likely working for the surveillance industry. I'm thankful for the EU passing meaningful regulation that recognizes the ideas of privacy and digital competition, as it at least informs the industry even if I can't directly benefit. This situation with TikTok has only come about due to the US government's regulatory abdication of the past twenty years, which was apparently considered just peachy until a foreign company got in on the game.

Of course there is a double standard. As nuanced as your view of the US might be, everybody has to admit that the US doesn't has an exaxtly great track record of sticking to rules they expect others to uphold, be it about trade, democracy, human rights, etc.

A bad side effect of the enorm economic and military power of the US.

But then again China has a way worse track record when it comes to banning US/EU social media companies on their turf.

or, your oversimplification misses all the nuance and the difference in the situations, and they're in fact different situations, so the difference in reaction is warranted.

Nope, just a big difference between a one-party state and multiparty states.

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