Brussels has slapped Google with a whopping €890m (£759m) fine for supposedly shoving its own services in front of rivals in search results. According to the European Commission, the search giant violated the EU’s new Digital Services Act by restricting consumer choice and giving itself an ‘unfair advantage’ over competitors. Google isn’t alone – they also handed out a €120 million fine to Musk’s X last year…
The ‘Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for Technological Sovereignty, Security, and Democracy’ (still a ridiculous title) Henna Virkkunen said:
“After this decision, we want to make sure that there is more competition and also other companies are able to innovate…”
The reality is Google is now following other tech companies in restricting its services in Europe, rather than bothering to jump through all the ridiculous hoops Brussels tries to impose:
“To comply, we are having to strip away real-time Search features Europeans love – like instant pricing and direct availability for hotels, flights and restaurants – and dismantle safety protections on Google Play…”
OpenAI delays the rollout of its most advanced ChatGPT tools to Europe. Apple’s upcoming AI features won’t launch in the continent at all. Europe is a regulatory nightmare and it will get left behind very quickly if this carries on…
Tom Baldwin, author of Starmer’s hagiography, spoke to Times Radio:
Tom Baldwin: “I think he’d like to do something. He’s very dutiful and driven by service. That’s why he came into politics. I think that’s characterised his time as prime minister. He hasn’t always sought popularity or been good at being popular. But I think he has some of the necessary qualities that we actually do want in a prime minister. That resilience, that relentlessness, that ability to carry the weight and the job really does weigh very heavily on people and he carries that weight very, very well.”
Jo Coburn: “NATO Secretary-General?”
Tom Baldwin: “I think that’s something that he would be interested in. I think it probably requires Andy Burnham’s government to support him in that and these are some of the questions which Andy Burnham has to resolve quite quickly.”