After Brexit Vote, U.S. Tech Giants Face Splintered Digital Future in Europe
Google and Facebook may grapple with multiple data privacy rules. EU may be tougher on U.S. tech without U.K. influence.
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U.S. technology businesses like Alphabet Inc. and Facebook Inc. toil to make the real world as borderless and global as the digital worlds they create. The physical version just got a lot messier in Europe, the second-largest market for these giant companies.
Britain voted on Thursday to leave the European Union, fracturing what was slowly becoming a single digital market into potentially two—or possibly more—jurisdictions for technology issues ranging from data privacy, competition, tax and recruiting.