What does the new EU regulation mean for Meta and Google
Apr 23
28 Comments
I believe most agree that Meta as a company started with controversy and it's been gripped in it ever since. Now with the EU passing this (link below) what does that mean for the future of the company. If some of their core products rely on Advertising revenue, does the now-blemished image contribute to a further slide?
There have already been many posts discussing the effects of the decline on us Engineering folks, but I wonder if we've now run full circle and it's time to refresh.
Perhaps these tech giants have hit a brick wall while we all thought their innovation knows no bounds.
https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/23/23036976/eu-digital-services-act-finalized-algorithms-targeted-advertising
TC - Not relevant here.
The Verge
comments
On that note, it also really frustrated me that you think regulating ads is an end to innovation. There are SO many tech sectors that are evolving at a rapid pace and will shape the course of humanity over the next couple of decades. You have to be living under a rock to think ad tech is the peak of human ingenuity.
Finally, If you are a competent engineer your income shouldn't heavily depend on targeted ads being unregulated. Just take your skills and apply them to something that isn't a straight up cancer to society.
Now if this company gets a black scar across its logo for shady practices, with dropping ad revenue and fewer investments, how will innovation continue?
First, while they are mandating and attempting to regulate advertising recommendations they aren't outlawing it. Companies can still serve ads as long as they aren't doing so in a predatory way. I don't really like the idea of working on something like this, but I can see the need for customer facing businesses to market their products and it will still be very lucrative, just not as much as it was when the industry was completely unregulated.
Second w.r.t their reputation being hurt. If they are doing something shady then they deserve to be sanctioned imo, we can't turn a blind eye to unethical behavior just because it's lucrative, and I would argue innovation with a tangible human cost is not worth pursuing.
This is hyperbole because the ad tech scenario isn't as bad, but think about slavery. Obviously it's very lucrative to the company to have slaves instead of a paid work force, but I don't think anyone would argue that mandates against slavery are stifling innovation because it's hurting the company's bottom line.
I would actually argue regulating the advertising industry will promote innovation in other aspects of G/F's businesses since they need to somehow make up the lost revenue from one of their other income streams. Theyll (hopefully) shift engineering talent elsewhere.
https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/meta-opens-new-verse-irl-5321444