- cross-posted to:
- technology@beehaw.org
- cross-posted to:
- technology@beehaw.org
Read why “Web Environment Integrity” is terrible, and why we must vocally oppose it now. Google’s latest maneuver, if we don’t act to stop it, threatens our freedom to explore the Internet with browsers of our choice.
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Relevant peaceful protest on GitHub: github.com/chromium/chromium/pull/187
Every single comment or issue about this gets instantly shut down by Google. They evidently decided to force it through before anyone even got wind of the proposal. This is a power grab for total control of the web and the browser market.
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This is perhaps most blatant Google has ever been. It seems the mask is slipping. We never should have given these companies so much power. Big Tech needs to die, now…
At this point they’ve stripped off the mask along with the rest of their clothes and are laughing bare-assed all the way to the bank.
Embrace, Extend, Exsanguinate.
There were warnings years ago when Google first shipped Chrome that this is the script they were following. By promoting the idea that they were “open source” they could grab the good will of people, and then, over time, slowly lock up what had previously been open.
Like was warned years ago, now that they have such market dominance, they can dictate web standards without having to go through the W3C or consulting pretty much anyone else for that matter. With their dominance in the browser market, they can essentially “break” tons of websites for other browsers, limiting the ability of other browsers to say “no, we don’t want WEI.” It will be a case of “okay, but if you don’t implement it, get ready to never be able to view YouTube or use Gmail ever again in a browser that doesn’t support WEI.” Because at that point, they will be forcing WEI through every Google service, essentially forcing other browsers to adopt it or be unable to use Google.
They already did exactly the same thing with Android, and every single day it gets worse.
We don’t need to use any guesswork as to where this is headed, their playbook is right there.
What can we do to stop this from happening? Besides switching to Firefox, it doesn’t seem like there’s a way to take direct action.
Boycott (loudly) websites and buisness that implement this scheme. Maybe file customer support tickets and play dumb. Maintain/use a forked version of chromium that has this patched out, then file more customer support requests showing the websites broken. Chromium is advertised as open source, so exercise it! Force Google to admit that Chromium is not open source. Other than that, this is anti-trust territory, so it would require political/collective legal action.
Not so different than dealing with “This site is designed to be used with a modern browser. Download Chrome to continue” bullshit, just cranked to 11.
The problem is, we are increasingly a minority. The majority of people now see nothing wrong with using default browsers and apps, they see ads as completely normal, they trust Google, tiktok, etc with no issues.
Bear in mind whereas I grew up with what I call the golden age of the internet, late 90s to late 00s, those today know nothing different than the internet as it is now. I’ve tried explaining this to people before - the response is always indifference. Apply that to the countless millions (billions?!) of mainstream users worldwide. It’s sad, but it’s how it is.
I honestly think the only way this is going to be stopped is if and when the EU commission step in.
