The heavy hand of regulation
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Just last week I wrote about the EU’s reported “total capitulation” to Apple over enforcement of the Digital Markets Act. The EU may still, in fact, not approve of the latest confusing App Store changes, of course.
And I also touched on the UK’s slow-walk to similar regulation – because this country has to do things the same but different to the EU.
Now there’s yet more regulatory action taking place. Namely, Google has lost an appeal in the US to overturn a court decision that labelled its Play Store and payments systems as illegal monopolies. It must, therefore, allow for alternative marketplaces and billing options through Google Play.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney is once again doing a victory lap, while the former Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan was also pretty happy about the latest ruling. Google will now appeal to the Supreme Court.
Online safety
Over in the UK, the Online Safety Act has come into force. Its goal: to protect children and adults online. It targets social media firms, adult websites, and anywhere that potentially harmful content can be accessed. The regulation is broad as it covers businesses that offer user-to-user services – which includes games.
Regulator Ofcom aims to enforce this by requiring age verification through real ID, while putting the onus on companies providing services to prevent children from accessing harmful and inappropriate content.
For example, UK users on messaging platform Discord must now prove their age. I went through this process, it called me a teenager (thanks?), and then let me use it anyway. If your real face doesn’t work, apparently you can use Norman Reedus’s from Death Stranding to bypass verification.
The rollout of the Online Safety Act has proven a hot topic of debate. There’s a petition with nearly 466,000 signatures right now calling for its repeal. The Government responded that it has no plans to do so.
Repeat offenders
When it comes to regulation, things are often heavy-handed. It’s worth noting that for many years, Apple, Google and other social media giants have resisted any significant changes to their business models. Some even weaponise genuine privacy concerns for their own ends. (Apple has made a multi-billion dollar business out of it).
We’ve watched as the world’s largest and most powerful companies spend years ignoring regulatory attempts and court orders, and use their vast wealth for lobbying and tangling up those that challenge them in years of costly legal disputes.
Attempts to cut through are now starting to show fruit. Big tech moves fast and breaks things – with serious consequences, often to benefit their own ends. Regulation moves astonishingly slow, and can similarly break things.
But how we get there is often the result of a steadfast unwillingness by big companies and monopolies to self-regulate, change and meaningfully protect users. Social media firms have arguably not done enough on that front. Meanwhile, Apple and Google have both been lambasted in court for anticompetitive behaviour.
Government regulators are eventually left to awkwardly unpack the damage, which can unfortunately lead to a heavy-handed response.
