Samsung can cut ties with Google if they want to, they have market share to go on their own.

I'm sure they would love to. They've been trying to make their own app store (Galaxy Store) a thing for over a decade. But cutting ties with Google would mean no Google Apps and no Google Play Store, and that would probably be catastrophic for them.

Some would argue it would be more catastrophic for Google. Most people equate Samsung to Android.

Unfortunately western governments are moving to impose more and more control over our digital life, and I think they see a locked down commercial platform as a convenient means to that end because they can regulate it. If the EU commission ever succeeds in passing Chat Control, which requires client side scanning on all devices, then it is very convenient for them if people do not use open source operating systems where they can just run clients that don't send data to a third party.

right, government literally side with them if any

open hardware/platform is impossible if they mandate all chat is exported to gov anyway

some governments, especially autocratic or authoritarian.

Even govts that may be in some political climates authoritarian can and will want exceptions to this.

There is no world that I see where decisions being made by Google are a good or reasonable choice for all parties, even ones you might think would side with this decision.

Remember, this give Google more control than an authoritarian govt. Sure, there may be a cost of doing business with some countries, however, even in those cases, this is bad for them - Google can just say "sucks to suck" and they either must use their product or develop their own, but if they use their product, *Google still has more control over that authoritarian govt than the people in it*

Put simply, now, Google Is Evil.

EU govs siding with google in this move would be catastrophically stupid, it's equivalent to ceding their digital sovereignty to the US. All it would take to knee-cap Europe is for the US to command google to suspend all european developers' accounts, and suddenly Europe is fucked. No banking apps, no government services, no nothing.

The only rational step for the EU is to support open everything: Open Software, Open Hardware, Open platforms, etc...

Beggars can't be choosers. Until they pony up the cache to fork android, they're beholden to the US.

I agree, but the EU is currently doing exactly the wrong thing and doubling down on forcing their citizens into the American duopoly.