this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2023
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There are many other email providers besides gmail out there...
Yeah, and none of them let you keep your existing @gmail.com address. Which means you'll have to update it everywhere. That's the massive problem.
That's just a bit of work. Keeping an evil monopoly because of inconvenience that isn't really a great argument in by book
You're right, but the argument was that it wouldn't be that disruptive, and that's not true.
I am old enough to remember the times the same thing was said about Hotmail and other sites... people will adapt.
Not one alone. But work will probably be split between more sites. And actual limitation are just decision that were made and can change.
Anyone who hasn't planed for this with an account on another service, at the very least like proton, kinda deserves whats coming due to the signs.
I'm no soothsayer and even I can see that Google is making enemies with governments, China, US, and Europe. You can survive one or two but not all three.
The world is much larger than just the wealthy nations. Where I'm from, the internet is synonymous with Google, emails with gmail and online video sharing with YouTube.
Digital literacy is hard to worry about when you are struggling to improve your life. Even outside of harsh situations it's not okay to expect everyone to literate themselves.
People like that need to be educated more than any other and liberating them of that responsibility only harms them, it does not help them.
Nobody is claiming it wouldn't be disruptive, but the question is if the long term it would be better for society. Monopolies are not good and the longer we allow them to survive, the more ingrained they become.
Free market capitalism only works well when there is competition. When big companies are so powerful they can just buy up any potential competitors, we're not in free market capitalism anymore. We're entering a merger of corporate and state power - teetering slowly towards a "tolerant" fascism. It's something that desperately needs to be addressed.
Digital illiteracy is easy to combat. You just put the person on a different service. As long as it "just works" they'll be fine.