Not that Verizon are angels, but notice how all those "government doesn't like another government" passive aggressive actions end up hitting people and companies who have no fault at all for a given government policy.
Case in point, Germany doesn't like what U.S. does - boom, Verizon takes a shot.
U.S. and few other countries don't like the anti-gay laws of Uganda. Boom, poor Uganda citizens take a shot (aids get cut).
U.S. doesn't like North Korea's policy. Boom, poor citizens take one again.
Obviously there's no channel where said governments can express themselves, maybe we should have a social network for governments where they can rant and vent off, instead of having innocent third parties suffer?
It might come a bit as a surprise to you, but people are generally expected to have at least some responsibility for the actions of their government. After all, the latter is usually not some alien black box deciding things but rather a set of people, elected from the general population and by the general population, requiring the support of the general population to implement the laws affecting that very population. Saying that Americans are ‘innocent’ regarding the actions of their government is as ludicrous as claiming that the American president and parliament(s) are not responsible for the actions of the American government.
In this particular instance though, according to the article, some negotiation was done between the two governments to reach a no-spy agreement.
As no agreement could be reached, an American company cannot offer the service required by the German government. Thus is it not reasonable for the contract to be cancelled?
This is not a shot at an innocent third party, this is the third party being constrained by American laws to the extent that it cannot offer a required service. Sure, it is unfortunate that a third party is adversely affected by this, but it cannot be portrayed as a deliberate act against them by the German government.
Case in point, Germany doesn't like what U.S. does - boom, Verizon takes a shot.
U.S. and few other countries don't like the anti-gay laws of Uganda. Boom, poor Uganda citizens take a shot (aids get cut).
U.S. doesn't like North Korea's policy. Boom, poor citizens take one again.
Obviously there's no channel where said governments can express themselves, maybe we should have a social network for governments where they can rant and vent off, instead of having innocent third parties suffer?