I would be very surprised if Apple and Facebook (and Google, with GMail, GTalk, Hangouts, etc) didn't use this golden opportunity to swing their weight about and assert who's really in charge of technology around here, by simply wholesale blocking use of all their communication tools in the UK to comply with the law.
I have a feeling that if they did this, the uproar would be sufficient to have the law reversed by emergency measures.
If they were followed, as they may well be, by a whole host of other essential internet services (Google Search, Wikipedia, Github, etc etc etc) just switching off simultaneously in the UK on the day the law comes into force, that might be sufficient to ensure this sort of dumb shit is never done again. The cost of billions of pounds of lost productivity would probably ensure that.
Quite seriously, if there was any collusion between companies which had operations on UK soil, I'd imagine this could be seen as cartel-like behavior and grounds for legal action within the UK.
Of course, if only the UK was part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership... then Google and Github might be able to take the UK government to private court to protest the law in the first place, and sue for lost profits... wait... what...
Legal action for... refusing to serve the UK market? I don't think any corporation can be forced to provide a service in a country that they decide to withdraw from... can they?
Yes. The person doing the punishing is the one idiot. He's able to get away with it because the 64 million don't understand that he's an idiot. Concerted actions by a good cross-section of large tech companies would be sufficient to bring this fact to the attention of the 64 million.
Temporary, short-term downside to cure a semi-permanent problem seems reasonable.
I have a feeling that if they did this, the uproar would be sufficient to have the law reversed by emergency measures.
If they were followed, as they may well be, by a whole host of other essential internet services (Google Search, Wikipedia, Github, etc etc etc) just switching off simultaneously in the UK on the day the law comes into force, that might be sufficient to ensure this sort of dumb shit is never done again. The cost of billions of pounds of lost productivity would probably ensure that.