Dear Commissioner Verstager, dear Ms. Wezenbeek, dear EC, Thank you for your response about my complaint. I understand your statement about net neutrality. The big corporations I mentioned are market operators which restrict competition and firms that hold a dominant position on a given market and have abused that position. I kindly request you to research this in accordance with: European antitrust policy which is developed from two central rules set out in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union: •First, Article 101 of the Treaty prohibits agreements between two or more
independent market operators which restrict competition. This provision covers both horizontal agreements (between actual or potential competitors operating at the same level of the supply chain) and vertical agreements (between firms operating at different levels, i.e. agreement between a manufacturer and its distributor). Only limited exceptions are provided for in the general prohibition. The most flagrant example of illegal conduct infringing Article 101 is the creation of a cartel between competitors, which may involve price-fixing and/or market sharing. •Second, Article 102 of the Treaty prohibits firms that hold a dominant position on a given market to abuse that position, for example by charging unfair prices, by limiting production, or by refusing to innovate to the prejudice of consumers. •Any abuse by one or more undertakings of a dominant position within the internal market or in a substantial part of it shall be prohibited as incompatible with the internal market in so far as it may affect trade between Member States. Such abuse may, in particular, consist in: (a) directly or indirectly imposing unfair purchase or selling prices or other unfair trading conditions; (b) limiting production, markets or technical development to the prejudice of consumers; (c) applying dissimilar conditions to equivalent transactions with other trading parties, thereby placing them at a competitive disadvantage; (d) making the conclusion of contracts subject to acceptance by the other parties of supplementary obligations which, by their nature or according to commercial usage, have no connection with the subject of such contracts. The Commission is empowered by the Treaty to apply these rules and has a number of investigative powers to that end (e.g. inspection at business and non-business premises, written requests for information, etc.). The Commission may also impose fines on undertakings which violate the EU antitrust rules. The main rules on procedures are set out in Council Regulation (EC) 1/2003. If you investigate this you shall find that abuse of the dominant position in the market and restricting competion by vertical agreements between the big corporations is a fact, not only a personal perception. In the attachments you find a real illustration of
the variables in such an algorithm. Algorithms are helping undermine even destroy the fabric of democracy in different parts of the world. A great deal of harm has been done by concealing the social filters that select which information we see in our networks. But there are more powerful algorithms to be reckoned with that will be the ultimate arbiter of outcomes in the future. It effects democracy and business. That's why it should be a high priority. Sincerly, Mr. A. E. Meer -------- Original Message -------From: <COMP-C1-MAIL@ec.europa.eu> To: <aem@Safe-mail.net> Cc: <Rita.WEZENBEEK@ec.europa.eu>, <COMP-GREFFE-ANTITRUST@ec.europa.eu> Subject: Your e-mail of 27 September Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2017 14:57:57 +0000 Dear Madam, Sir,
Please find enclosed our reply to your e-mail of 27 September 2017.
Sincerely,
Unit C1 Secretariat
European Commission DG Competition Unit C1 – Antitrust Telecoms Place Madou, 1 B-1210 – Saint-Josse-Ten-Noode/Belgium COMP-C1-MAIL@ec.europa.eu
Dear Ms. Vestager, dear sir, dear EC, The computer code that let’s people find you on Facebook and information to be found or presented in your news feed is called algorithm. In Facebook’s news feed and Google’s search results, algorithms play an important role in our knowledge and democracy. How algorithms can help us understand the world better, or distort our perceptions of reality. “When we talk about democracy, we’re really talking about the marketplace of ideas,
and whether your idea can surface in a marketplace of ideas.” And common knowdlegde is defined by something everyone knows, Google, Facebook and Twiitter are shaping our reality in a bad way. If you are allowed to express an idea or finding but no one can see it, it is almost the same as, where you’re not allowed to express certain kind of political ideas. In the 20th century, the marketplace of ideas was the professional press, complete
with gatekeepers to those ideas in the form of journalists. “You either had to be an editor, or had to have access to an editor, or once television came along you had to have access to the means of production,” a lot of money or government connections. “If you look at the research on how people get their news now: you often hear this phrase: ‘If news is important, news will find me’. But behind that statement is something really important: if news is going to find you, it’s going to find you because of an algorithm.” with a political bias. This was the basis: the step-by-step calculations whirring away in the background on Facebook, Google and big news websites. We are controlled! Even WhatsApp deformed my voice and the voice of the person who I spoke to. I didn't recognise that person! “When we think about these algorithm. We have to think about the power that they encode. Effectively it’s power to draw people’s attention,” and even to hide the truth. These algorithms’ embedded power is that they can draw attention, and they can attain attention, and they don’t exactly say what they have programmed to be removed or to be put first.” The often-held notion that these algorithms are neutral is wrong, the engineers have to make a number of choices when building algorithms, whether it’s the EdgeRank system that defines what stories are displayed in people’s Facebook news feeds or Google Suggest that completes your words. They are not neutral. THERE IS NO NET NEUTRALITY. There should be net neutrality. Sincerly, A.E. Meer