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EU approves landmark legislation to regulate Big Tech

https://www.macrumors.com/2022/07/05/eu-approves-landmark-legislation-to-regulate-apple/

This has been in progress for a while but they just put out a press release about it. It goes into effect this fall. Indie hackers will be impacted — particularly mobile developers in the EU. And it will probably have a ripple effect outside of the EU.

submitted this linkon July 7, 2022
  1. 4

    This is awesome. Here are the interesting parts for devs:

    Companies must:

    • Allow users to install apps from third-party app stores.
    • Allow developers to offer third-party payment systems in apps.
    • Allow developers to integrate their apps and digital services directly with those belonging to a gatekeeper.
    • Give developers access to any hardware feature.

    Companies must not:

    • Require app developers to use certain services or frameworks to be listed in app stores.
    • Give their own products, apps, or services preferential treatment or rank them higher.
    1. 1

      Seems like a step in the right direction

  2. 1

    I really don't like this...

    Opening up platforms is good, but also a super risky thing. And this might really cause a lot of issues. That's up for debate though.

    What is really bad however, is that this bill also included the order that the EU can now dictate what information should be auto-removed by platforms on the internet. So censorship sure, but also with the cost squarely on the entrepreneurs... 😑

    I think we need to figure out how to not get caught in huge legal costs due to this.

    1. 1

      Didn't can't the censorship thing. Hmm...

      1. 1

        Yeah, snuck in under another bill... How unusual.. 😤

  3. 1

    Giant step forward for making the Web that golden dream application platform where you truly can write it once and run everywhere. It's been true for desktop for a while (when did you last install an app on desktop?) but not the phones thanks to iOS

    1. 1

      But you can do this already? It's just that the web is a really difficult platform to develop for. Or what is the limit you're thinking of? 🤔

      1. 1

        The most famous example is the lack of notifications on iOS. But there is a whole range of stuff that the V8 engine for Chrome can do that the Webkit engine can't.

        1. 1

          Both of these are examples of problems with the web. Not iOS specifically.
          Firefox & Edge also don't do the same things that Chrome does. And notifications don't work at all on most platforms.

  4. 1

    😕 I really wish this type of regulation wasn't necessary, but I think it is. Thanks a lot, big tech.