A proposed bill in the Minnesota state legislature would force Apple’s App Store and Alphabet’s derivative Google Play store to keep the products of Minnesota developers in their app stores even if those developers using their own system to charge customers, bypassing Apple’s and Google’s in-app payment systems.
A similar bill, one that was drafted by drafted by an Epic Games lobbyist, no less, was voted down in North Dakota last week.
Briana Bierschbach and Briana Bierschbach for Star Tribune:
“A lot of people are concerned about the increased influence and power that Big Tech has, and I think there’s a lot of interest in trying to make sure that we have a fair and open digital economy,” said Rep. Zack Stephenson, DFL-Coon Rapids, who is sponsoring the bill in the House.
Stephenson and other House Democrats see this as an extension of the antitrust and net neutrality debate, while the lead in the GOP-controlled Senate said he wants to send a message to Silicon Valley after Donald Trump’s ban and removal from Twitter and other social media platforms.
“That to me is a huge problem,” said Sen. Mark Koran, R-North Branch. “They basically deleted a president. Those who are taking that victory lap, that is going to be a short-lived celebration, because that cancel culture is coming for them too.”
Under the proposed bill, Apple and Google could not retaliate against a developer for using an alternative system to charge customers.
MacDailyNews Take: We want to sell MacDailyNews T-shirts and mousepads in Target, using their physical stores, roof, heat, cooling, electricity, floor space, staff, parking lot, their online store, server capacity, storage, more electricity, staff, etc., but we want to keep 100% of our sales. That’s fair, right?
Obviously, using exceedingly simple logic that even a five-year-old could understand, this Minnesota App Store bill is ill-conceived. Did some video game company lobbyist scribble out this one, too, before hooking some gullible politician ignoramuses to sponsor it?
The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away. — Ronald Reagan