Unfortunately and sadly doesn’t surprise me anymore.
It shouldn’t surprise you at all. Any notion of “Free Speech” on Internet Platforms was shot in the head during the Trump Presidency and then the corpse was burned at the stake during the Pandemic. There were vast quantities of myopic morons making the arguments “These are private companies, they can do what they want!” along with “You have no right to speech on someone else’s platform!” simply because they approved of what was being done.
Now the arguments being used by 2017-2022 MAGAtards are being shouted by 2023-2024 Liberals / Progressives.
It’s pretty obvious that social media as a whole is just a corrupt mess.
It’s pretty obvious that people are perfectly happy with restrictions on the other person but never themselves.
People forget that the restrictions they hammer the other person with today are going to be used against them tomorrow. Plan accordingly.
This article from the Financial Times explains the problem.
In a nutshell this isn’t about VAT, it’s about “Customs Duty” which are apparently two separate things in the EU.
I’m in the United States and we’re struggling with this same issue. The flood of cheap goods being imported via TEMU / SHEIN that intentionally stay below the value required to pay import duty is large and growing problem.
It’s also bad for the environment in every way imaginable.