Oh no! Genocidal maniacs have taken control over TikTok… again!

I‘m not sure how this is handled in other places but since the Fediverse is a public forum I think you wouldn‘t have any rights to privacy on your Fediverse account in Germany. Any instance hosted there would likely still need to access your DMs if authorities order them to.

Still neat, though!

I mean last year bankruptcies were very high too but the number of newly founded companies was also at a record high. A lot of things are changing right now. That‘s for sure.

I mean Apple and Microsoft essentially built their empires on the backs of Open Source developers who believed in a free internet. They took openly available code, altered it and put a price tag on it. Software development and by extend the internet was stolen from the public by the likes of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.

Okay but Japan had a major breakthrough the other day that made this technique obsolete for the majority of components.

I mean if every headline about massive breakthroughs was the full truth all our appliances would be powered by tiny nuclear power plants and we would fly around with our jetpack. Cancer would be but a distant memory and world hunger a non issue because vertical farms would be literally in every home.

Initially I thought this was about the 30% but they mentioned a new two tier system so I looked it up. It seems Apple‘s App store fees are more complicated than that. For example they charge $99 annually for developer accounts which doesn‘t sound much but that‘s basically the entry subscription to even participate. I didn‘t dig very deep but it gets more complicated from then on.

Seizing the means of production means pretty much exactly this, yes.

„But that‘s as bad as it will ever be!“ I hear tech bros reciting their mantra but then it gets worse all the time somehow.

I’m sorry, what? China has a mountain of debt and the housing bubble is swallowing up any savings an average household could accumulate. Turns out pouring more concrete in a decade than the USA poured in a century comes at a cost after all. This might be news to some but it shouldn‘t come as a surprise.

What definitely shouldn‘t be news to anyone at this point is China‘s inevitable demographic time bomb that‘s about to go off. China‘s population is aging much more rapidly than any other demographic in the world and soon a huge chunk of their workforce will retire with way too few workers to replace them.

These things will put a strain on China’s economy that makes Japan‘s bubble burst look like a cakewalk.

I‘m sick and tired of rich schmucks selling their lack of empathy as being neurodivergent. Nah man, you don‘t struggle with social cues. You simply don‘t care about others. That‘s a huge difference.

Again, it‘s not about those. Even the title should make that clear.

China will never be number one just like Japan didn‘t when they ran with a similar export model. They have much more massive looming economic challenges than we do. If anything, India will take their spot as the global factory.

The EU and the US are both economically stronger and more stable than China. Not to speak of the political and cultural power they have over most parts of the world. The US and the EU are individually bigger players on the global stage than China in most aspects. They wouldn‘t need to join forced to counter balance China. At least not going by numbers.

Good question! I‘m not that deep into the technical aspects but Chinese companies that work with foreign companies would have to work with the government and other Chinese companies that control internet access in China to circumvent the firewall legally. The process is likely limited and heavily monitored by authorities. Same would go for Chinese companies with storefronts in the global web. They would need to access our internet regularly but I assume their access is limited to some degree.

I imagine unless you‘re a big player it can be quite the hassle so many Chinese companies would rather work with domestic companies than with foreign ones. I think this is one major reason why many contracts with Chinese companies can only be done through middlemen. As an outsider, you can‘t get full access to their industry because you have no means of contacting all these little manufacturers yourself.

But again, I don‘t actually know for sure what these processes look like. Maybe someone with actual experience can shine a brighter light on this.

I don‘t see how home office got anything to do with it. It looks like they want to precisely ban certain end consumer VPNs. So unless your office forces you to use NordVPN to connect to their servers they shouldn‘t be affected.

That being said I also don‘t see how they want to enforce it without essentially building a firewall around their tiny country. It sounds like a ridiculous idea.

The US and the EU can counter balance China comfortably on their own if they really deem it necessary. I doubt that‘s the reason Denmark is going full surveillance state.

I doubt that has anything to do with it. The Danes are very upset about Americas plans to flat out annex Greenland and are taking Trumps repeated threats very seriously.

VPNs are banned in some countries. At least in practice. China comes to mind and please nobody tell me „I have a friend in China and they use one!“ That friend is either breaking the law, or a state agent or foreigner where that law doesn‘t apply. Hotels have that as part of their service for tourists because why the hell would anyone travel to a country with basically no internet? Of course they are exempt.

But Chinese citizens are absolutely not allowed to use VPNs to break through the great firewall. The overwhelming majority wouldn‘t even know how. But of course most of them know at least one person who can.

So in theory the law is useless but in practice it‘s very effective to control information. Whatever the case it‘s nothing a democracy should pursuit. Ever.

Some US states are in the process of banning VPNs too, though. I’m afraid the USA remains the uncontested champion of being a shitty western country and it‘s not even close.

Still a pretty low standard. We can and must do better than copying their mistakes. Like, we don‘t need Facebook in society. It‘s toxic and Zuckerberg‘s pitch a proven lie. Starlink stands for a single billionaire Nazi controlling all communication. We could need a satellite internet network but we don‘t need Starlink with a European touch.