Each country has plans to modernize. The Italian Public Administration is doing it, albeit slowly and therefore everyone has to do it. But is it right that each country relies only on its own strengths or should we also rely on Big Tech? Italy, France and Spain are asking this and are also asking the European Community. In fact, according to as revealed by Reuters, from the three countries comes a very interesting proposal that we are going to rattle off in the next lines of this article.
Italy, France and Spain ask Europe that Big Techs contribute to the infrastructures and the strengthening of the network in the countries
The creation and updating of the European data network is a very thorny issue. If up to a certain point every country has made it alone, in a crisis like this the resources have diminished. France, Italy and Spain are asking the European Community to be there possibility to ask for a contribution to Big Tech (think of Google, Meta and company) for the modernization and construction of infrastructures that enhance the data network in Europe.
According to the data provided by the documents of the three countries, the 55% of internet traffic is represented by the (few) major Big Techs in the world. Precisely for this reason, given that they have taken such a large share of the network, it is right to ask for a contribution.
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We are calling for a legislative proposal […] which ensures that all market players contribute to the costs of digital infrastructure
According to a study published by AND NO Earlier this year, an annual contribution of € 20 billion to network costs by the tech giants could give one boost of 72 billion euros to the EU economy.
But now we come to the conclusions: is it really functional for a sovereign country to ask for such a contribution? Couldn't that be counterproductive? We explain how. If big companies invest these amounts and in this sector, they could being "in the power" to ask each country for something. An example? Pay less taxes, among other things. The proposal that the countries must make therefore must be neutral and not to put Big Tech in a position to ask without even letting the country “drop its pants”.