I just talked about how this is about moral authority VS legal one. Here it is about commercial markets VS cultural centres.
Europe is not just a market. Europe is the (historical) centre of the western world. I don't think big tech can/want to leave it. If they say so, IMO they are just bluffing.
But that doesn't mean they should be allowed to do so solely on their own terms.
Countries can set the terms they want. That is the meaning of sovereignty. Some of them have rules that constrain their legislature somewhat (a constitution) and some of them try to set rules that at least to some degree conform to the will of the people living there (democracies).
These principles have not come about from nothing, so I wouldn't call them arbitrary.
I did not either. I was just using his exact expression, in an effort to let him explain himself.
I can understand how offending that word is for some. Just wonder at all that bloody european history and superhuman effort to rationally get over it...