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Posted by cbg0 6 hours ago

Meta ordered to pay $25B penalty in New Mexico Cambridge Analytica case(www.cnbc.com)
https://nmdoj.gov/press-release/the-new-mexico-department-of...
315 points | 193 commentspage 5
google234123 6 hours ago|
We need tort reform in the US. These nuclear verdicts are causing insurance prices to go up. I forget the statistics, but I'm pretty sure every American citizen is paying a $500 to multi-thousand dollar tax because of giant lawsuits like this. Nowhere else in the world has this problem. Lawyers have too much power with politicians.
JohnMakin 6 hours ago||
Yea, that's the problem here, not the (illegal) wanton abuse and manipulation of user data and privacy by Meta and other companies.

Original reward was 200+ billion, lawyered down to 25, on appeal I imagine much less. Cost of doing business for Meta and nothing changes. In cases like this, it should cost the company serious financial harm. Even $25 billion is nothing to Meta.

newsclues 6 hours ago||
If Meta is able to insure themselves from the cost of their illegal business practices that, so they have no incentive not to do this, and end up costing everyone money on their insurance... yes that is a problem, not to say what meta is being punished for isn't a problem.
WheatMillington 5 hours ago||
Surely you realise that no insurance company will continually indemnify a company which knowingly and repeatedly breaks the law, resulting in losses to the insurance company? Surely you understand that this isn't how insurance works?
advisedwang 5 hours ago|||
The penalty was not damages, it was a statutory per-count penalty. This was not a tort case at all, and tort reform has nothing to do with it.
KZerda 6 hours ago|||
Or Meta could not break the law. It's just that easy.
mingus88 6 hours ago|||
I support the death penalty for corporations.
cookingmyserver 5 hours ago|||
We need to hold shareholders responsible for the actions of the companies they own. I get why there is a certain level of immunity, especially historically. We wanted people to be able to invest money and not have to be experts on the politics and workings of the companies they were investing in. In the modern era of having detailed information about the board members, other major shareholders, executives, shareholder reports, etc all at your finger tips, you should have to weigh how ethical and responsible a company is before investing. It needs to be "priced-in". A $25 Billion dollar judgement against Meta might hurt profits a bit, but if that $25 Billion was paid in dividend claw backs or liens against stock...

Same goes for any business venture including private equity. No more corporate veil. Every dollar or stake in ownership needs to be attributable back to an individual that can be held financially responsible. Each individual can have some amount of assets protected from claw backs, liens, judgements, etc. Enough to cover a functional used vehicle, 3 bed two bath house in their zip code, 50k in cash, and their retirement account. This gives most normal people the freedom to invest with less worry. Still, if you want to make money, it will behoove you to not take on risk by investing in organizations that flout the law, cause environmental damage, or harm others.

newsclues 6 hours ago||||
I support the licensure of boards of directors and CEO types, and enforcement of laws against the people who control companies.

If the CFO commits a crime, they can't get a license anymore. Start getting the bad actors out of positions of power.

JasserInicide 5 hours ago||
Licensing isn't the problem; simply prosecuting white collar crime is. No one wants to do it, especially the federal government, because they don't want to drive away companies to other countries.
ludicrousdispla 5 hours ago|||
'capitalist punishment'
newsclues 6 hours ago|||
But tort law makes it easy and profitable for them to do so.

Change the law, it just that easy.

WheatMillington 5 hours ago|||
Why would American taxpayers be paying more because of a settlement against a private company? Shouldn't this contribute to the tax take, causing taxpayers to pay LESS?
taude 6 hours ago|||
That's because 47% of the Senate are attorneys/former practicing attorneys. Need more ex-Scientists in office. :)
freejazz 5 hours ago||
No one is stopping them. There's no requirement that you be a lawyer. And lol, what a crazy idea... a lawmaker studying lawyering?! What a scam!
taude 4 hours ago||
Just pointing out that congress has a lot of attorneys, and the OP was complaining about all the pro-attorney legislation.

Don't know why you think there's not correlation.

kube-system 6 hours ago||
Other countries don't have this problem because they enable and expect regulators to proactively enforce compliance. In the US this is largely considered anti-business, so we let companies do whatever they want and don't take action until after they do something wrong.

And breaking the law usually doesn't result in a hit to next quarter's earnings, so this is what we optimize for: kicking the can down the road until it becomes a bigger problem.

reaperducer 5 hours ago||
Other countries don't have this problem

Guess how we know you've never lived, worked, or read a newspaper in any other country.

kube-system 5 hours ago||
Please note, those aren't my words but a response to the strongest plausible interpretation of the comment I'm responding to. (ie. it's hyperbole, meaning "the US relies heavily on torts to enforce consumer privacy compared to other countries")

Privacy law in the US is largely toothless and has vanishingly few proactive regulatory requirements. This case is a perfect example of this -- Facebook's blatant disregard for privacy wasn't what was found illegal here, it was only the fact they lied about it.

lrvick 3 hours ago||
Who predicted it would be New Mexico defending the children of the US while seemingly every other state in the country is bought and paid for by pro surveillance capitalism lobbies?

Hopefully those corrupt politicians are paying attention to the NM model and realize they can get more money by beating all the cash out of Meta like a piñata and then regulate the entire industry like casinos and tobacco, with super high taxes and exclusive for really stupid consenting adults only.

vvpan 3 hours ago|
I have no idea about judicial system in New Mexico, but it's a curious state - college is free effectively for everybody in the state, for example. Also school lunches are free. It's a rare combination of poor and blue.
DivingForGold 3 hours ago||
That amount will likely be reduced upon appeal ...

Facebook IS a steaming pile of...

and Zuck is PUBLIC ENEMY #1

timpera 3 hours ago||
I think Facebook is fine? It's where most neighborhood/city groups seem to be, and it works as expected for this. Marketplace is also pretty good, with less scams than other similar platforms.
vvpan 3 hours ago||
There is a whole gang of public enemies in Silicon Valley.
lrvick 3 hours ago||
And I hope they are afraid, and having board meetings to try to self regulate a bit to try to avoid similar pain.
mentalgear 3 hours ago||
A good start, yet still far from enough - as long as the punishments are not equal to their revenues generating by these illegal methods , big corporations will never stop exploiting society because to them those fines are just 'the cost of doing business'.
bilekas 3 hours ago||
> as long as the punishments are not equal to their revenues generating by these illegal methods

I would say this qualifies no?

They certainly didn't get 25 Billion in fees from Cambridge analítica. Unless they did any my conception of business is just way off.

lrvick 3 hours ago||
We need every state doing this, until it bankrupts them. Then the companies left will have true fear for the first time ever, and may be forced to reform or suffer the same fate.

Make an example of Meta for the ages.

natas 1 hour ago|
So basically the state of New Mexico is taking $25B from Meta's market cap, therefore whomever invested in META; and where will this money go here?

I don't deny that META did something wrong, but I don't see where taking $25B and allocating it to a state's declining economy will do anything good. Put people in jail may send a better signal, but here it feels more like a heist than a punishment; and the investors will take the hit, not the company.