![]() ![]() The EU could have gone further, says ProtonMail founder Andy Yen, who has advocated for “ choice screens,” or a list of email providers users can choose from when they set up a new device. Yet Europe’s tech companies were hesitant to celebrate the new rules. And German cloud provider NextCloud has branded the way Microsoft bundles its OneDrive cloud storage service with the company’s other products as anticompetitive. Sweden’s Spotify says Apple’s app store fees give Apple Music an “unfair advantage.” Swiss email provider ProtonMail says Google and Apple use default settings to favor their own email apps on Androids and iPhones. While its counterpart, the Digital Services Act, focuses on illegal content, the DMA is Europe’s answer to complaints that have ricocheted across the continent for years. The Digital Markets Act is half of twin technology legislation MEPs promise will reshape Europe’s relationship with US tech giants. He also described it as a “scandal” that users will have to wait three years before group chats can include members from different apps. “Interoperability for social media is being pushed into the distant future,” German MEP Martin Schirdewan, cochair of The Left group in the European Parliament, told WIRED over email. Some MEPS, including Tang, expressed disappointment at a compromise that waters down the idea of interoperability, rather than applying it across more services. It's not just because Threema or Signal do not want it, it's also the convenience of the user.” “If existing users of free messenger A with bad privacy practices could communicate with users of privacy-conscious paid messenger B, they will not pay money for messenger B, effectively depriving it of its only source of revenue.”Įveryone thinks it’s normal to make a call without knowing which provider the other person is using, says MEP Paul Tang. “Interoperability would cement the monopoly of the top dogs, instead of breaking it up,” says Julia Weiss, spokesperson for the Swiss messaging app Threema, which charges its more than 10 million users a one-off download fee. Whether smaller messengers actually want to interoperate with WhatsApp is unclear. ![]() From October, WhatsApp users would be able to contact people using other messaging services, such as Signal or Telegram, if those companies sign up to the new system. ![]()
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