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Technically it’s extortion, of which blackmail is a type but not the right type. Cherry picking the wording feels pedantic here. I’m not sure if this is legal

Technically it’s extortion, of which blackmail is a type but not the right type. Cherry picking the wording feels pedantic here. I’m not sure if this is legal and I think it varies by jurisdiction. For example, in the US I don’t think it’s actually legal to give donations to political offices contingent on them passing certain policies. You can, however, donate freely, imply you favor certain policies, show them more stacks of cash in your future lobbying fund, and wink.

libria 7y ago
No, I think the EU was inflammatory with wording: "heavy-arm wrestling in the corridors", "blackmail". At least in the US, you can't throw "blackmail" around casually as it carries a heavy criminal implication. We're talking about gifts and donations they have no rights to and that Facebook has no obligation to give. Now the gifts themselves are a conflict of interest so they should never be allowed. Show of EU hands, who wants to outlaw all FB/GOOG gifts? This is a case of wanting to bite the hand that feeds you and then whine when the hand yanks back the handouts too. Sure FB/GOOG plays a little dirty, but all corps/political states play this game.
- b_tterc_p 7y ago
  > We're talking about gifts and donations they have no rights to and that Facebook has no obligation to give. I'm not a lawyer, but I'm not sure this is true (everywhere or anywhere in particular). A donation has to be a donation, free of stipulations. If you say you intend to give a donation and you say that if you don't get certain policies then you won't give the donation; then its clear that you intend to receive a service for your donation, making it a business transaction (and potentially an illegal one). As I said before, there are easy ways to accomplish the same thing. You're just not supposed to explicitly say "if you don't give me what I want, the money stops".

libria 7y ago

No, I think the EU was inflammatory with wording: "heavy-arm wrestling in the corridors", "blackmail". At least in the US, you can't throw "blackmail" around casually as it carries a heavy criminal implication. We're talking about gifts and donations they have no rights to and that Facebook has no obligation to give. Now the gifts themselves are a conflict of interest so they should never be allowed. Show of EU hands, who wants to outlaw all FB/GOOG gifts? This is a case of wanting to bite the hand that feeds you and then whine when the hand yanks back the handouts too. Sure FB/GOOG plays a little dirty, but all corps/political states play this game.

b_tterc_p 7y ago
> We're talking about gifts and donations they have no rights to and that Facebook has no obligation to give. I'm not a lawyer, but I'm not sure this is true (everywhere or anywhere in particular). A donation has to be a donation, free of stipulations. If you say you intend to give a donation and you say that if you don't get certain policies then you won't give the donation; then its clear that you intend to receive a service for your donation, making it a business transaction (and potentially an illegal one). As I said before, there are easy ways to accomplish the same thing. You're just not supposed to explicitly say "if you don't give me what I want, the money stops".