My understanding is that some tech companies overcompensate, not because they’re afraid of running afoul of EU regulation, but as a means of pushing back against EU regulation that threatens to undermine their profits. That’s often the play when companies like Facebook warn that they’ll have to stop offering news in EU countries if a particular regulation passes. I have no doubt that regulation has constricted Google results in some ways (Right to Be Forgotten, for example), but I wonder if part of the disparity isn’t voluntary on Google’s part, as a means of applying political pressure in a system that’s less amenable to direct political lobbying than the US.

If the fallout from Twitter’s API decision is anything to go by, some of the developers who used to maintain apps for Reddit will likely pivot to making Fediverse apps instead. That’s what Tapbots after API changes pushed them off of Twitter. It wouldn’t surprise me if Apollo were to relaunch as a Lemmy/Kbin app three months from now.

Good question. My memory is pretty fuzzy, but I think I first heard about Mastodon from @neauoire@merveilles.town, who I followed on Twitter after stumbling across their Beldam label on Bandcamp. I don’t remember if I was already frustrated with the direction Twitter was taking, or just curious about the new technology, but I set up an account on mastodon.xyz, quickly graduated to running my own server, then decided that was more commitment than I was willing to put in, and relocated to Merveilles.town.