Bless up, family! Your favourite journalist here, straight outta Kingston, with di real talk on dis Apple ting. Mi tell yuh, di way dem big tech companies a move, it mek yuh haffi wonder if dem tink wi born yesterday.
Listen to dis now: Apple, di same company dat mek dem fancy phones and computers, dem just drop a big, scary warning pon di Australian government. Dem a holler and scream say if Australia follow di European Union lead and put some rules pon Apple’s "walled garden" – dat's dem own likkle private digital yard – then Australians gwaan see all kinda digital boogeyman and pure digital madness! Cho, pure scare tactics, mi tell yuh! Dem just a look out fi dem own pocket, not fi you and me.
Now, dis EU Digital Markets Act, or DMA, it's a big, complex law, but it smart, enuh. It a aim straight fi di root of Big Tech's power: dem lock-in strategy. Fi people like us, di DMA a offer rules dat mek tings work together, so Europeans can escape dem US tech giants' fenced-in paradise without losing dem precious photos, messages, and all dem digital memories. Dat's progress, man!
And fi di small businesses, di DMA a offer something just as valuable, if not more: di right to process dem own payments! You might say, "Wha dat? Payments boring!" But hold on, mi bredda, mi sista, dis is where di real robbery a gwaan! Apple a tek a whopping 30 percent cut on most payments made through iPhone and iPad apps! Thirty percent! And fi add insult to injury, dem ban app makers from even mentioning dat yuh can pay a different way, or even tell yuh fi go pon di web fi pay! Di cheek!
So, imagine dis: every euro a European Patreon user send to a performer or artist, it haffi tek a long, unnecessary round-trip through Cupertino, California, and by di time it come back, it's 30 cents lighter! Thirty cents! And dat's fi major newspapers, big games, service providers – di whole lot. Meanwhile, di actual cost fi process a payment in di EU is less than one percent! Dat mean Apple a tek a 3,000 percent profit margin! Mi tell yuh, dat a pure extortion, straight up!
And fi mek tings worse, Apple use dis "digital rights management" ting fi lock iPhones and iPads to dem official App Store. So, Europeans can't escape Apple's 30 percent "app tax" by simply installing apps from a store with fairer payment policies. Dem trap yuh!
But big up di DMA again! Here too, it a offer relief, with a rule dat require Apple fi permit "sideloading" of apps. Dat mean yuh can install apps straight, without using dem App Store. And di same rule require Apple fi allow dem customers fi choose fi use independent app stores. Yes, freedom of choice! Dat's what wi need!
With dis DMA, di EU a show di whole world how fi deal with dem tech companies in a smart, practical way. Dem not just telling dem fi "be good" or fi "use dem power wisely" – which often mean surveilling and controlling people. No, sah! Di EU a tek away dem power! Dis is a welcome break from di old ways, and it mek mi heart glad fi see it.
Dat's why Australia is so interested, enuh. A report from dem Treasury late last year tek a serious look at bringing DMA-style rules to Australia. And it's a sound policy, di European experience prove it. Wi see di benefits already.
But you wouldn't know it by listening to Apple. According to dem, Australians aren't competent enough fi decide what apps dem use and how dem pay fi dem. Only Apple can mek dem determinations safely. Mi laugh! It's true dat Apple sometimes tek bold steps fi protect dem customers' privacy – but it's also true dat sometimes Apple invade dem customers' privacy (and lie 'bout it!). It's true dat sometimes Apple defend dem customers from government spying – but it's also true dat sometimes Apple serve up dem customers pon a platter to government spies, delivering population-scale surveillance fi autocratic regimes! Dem even change dem apps fi help dictators cling to power! Wha dat?!
Apple sometimes have dem customers' backs, yes, but often, dem side with dem shareholders (or repressive governments) over di very people who buy dem products. There's no such thing as a benevolent dictator, whether it's a man or a company. Letting Apple veto your decisions 'bout how yuh use your own devices will not mek you safer. It just mek dem richer and yuh more dependent.
And di claims Apple a mek 'bout di chaos and dangers dat Europeans face thanks to di DMA? Dem even more grimly funny when yuh consider dat Apple has flouted EU law with breathtaking acts of malicious compliance. Dem just a laugh and mock di law, pretend dem a follow it but really dem just a twist it up! Apparently, di "European iPhone carnage" dem talk 'bout has been triggered by di words on di European law books, without Apple even having to follow dem laws properly! Pure rubbish!
Di whole world is in di midst of a global anti-monopoly wave, and it keeps on growing. Dis decade has seen big, muscular antitrust action in di US, di UK, di EU, Canada, South Korea, Japan, Germany, Spain, France, and even China. Di tide a turn, mi tell yuh!
It's been a century since di last time dem bust up big trusts. And while today's monopolists are orders of magnitude larger than dem early 20th-century forbears, dem also have a unique vulnerability.
Generally speaking, today's tech giants cheat in di same way everywhere. Dem do di same spying, di same price-gouging, and employ di same lock-in tactics in every country where dem operate, which is practically every country! Dat mean dat when a large bloc like di EU mek a good tech regulation, it has di power to ripple out across di planet, benefiting all of us – like when di EU forced Apple to switch to standard USB-C cables to charge dem devices, and now all of us get iPhones with USB-C ports! Bless up, EU!
So it mek perfect sense fi Australia to import di DMA – after all, Apple and other American tech companies run di same scams on Australians as dem do on Europeans. Di exploitation nah different.
Around di world, antitrust enforcers have figured out dat dem can copy one another's homework, to di benefit of di people dem defend. Fi example, in 2022, di UK's Digital Markets Unit published a landmark study on di abuses of di mobile duopoly. Di EU Commission relied on di UK report when it crafted di DMA, as did an American Congressman who introduced a similar law dat year. Di same report's findings became di basis fi new enforcement efforts in Japan and South Korea.
As Benjamin Franklin wrote, "He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening mine." It's wonderful to see Australian regulators picking up best practices from di EU, and mi look forward to seeing what ideas Australia has fi di rest of di world to copy. Nuff respect!