4 ms·

I’m curious whether things like this ever lead to the state declaring: “we’ve had enough of you, your company and product must be dissolved (not sold) and be no

I’m curious whether things like this ever lead to the state declaring: “we’ve had enough of you, your company and product must be dissolved (not sold) and be no more”. Or whether they’ve ever used genuinely massive fines to deliberately achieve almost this effect. I imagine the number of employees that would be displaced would make this a hard sell politically quite apart from the matter of whether they can actually do it.

bilekas 5y ago
If its proven that Facebook intentionally allowed the data to flow out to third parties as opposed to a 'hack' as they put it, of which the data wasn't consented to be given, then I think there is a duty of the regulators / authorities to protect the interests of the public who are effected. But that is probably wishful thinking.
jonahbenton 5y ago
There are certainly cases where from a legal perspective the company is no longer permitted to operate. Arthur Anderson following the Enron fraud is a good example. Not in the realm of possibility here, for many reasons. Even if it were, the number of employees issue- 50,000- would be quite minor in the list of considerations. Amazon would just hire them all outright. Right now lots of parties are pulling on threads, seeing what unwinds. The most significant possible outcome I see is Zuck being forced to divest- the only change which could impact governance- and relatedly several senior execs and Board members being faced with criminal charges. Another potential significant outcome is a mandated break up, similar to AT&T, though exactly on what lines and terms is extremely challenging to conceive. I put the chances on either as pretty low.
sumedh 5y ago
> “we’ve had enough of you, your company and product must be dissolved (not sold) and be no more”. I think US govt last did this with Arthur Anderson in early 2000's and lot of people lost their jobs, after that US Govt and private companies just pay fines and call it a day.
mikem170 5y ago
Originally corporations were given permission by the government to exist individually based on them serving some public good. That's why the owners were given limited liability. "In summary, all corporations are state-chartered; given special privileges by the state, which used to be conditional on them serving some public good. Public corporations are directly owned by the public via equity shares. And large corporations are the beneficiaries of both state and federal sponsorship, which includes subsidies funded by the tax paying public." [0] [0] https://ptolemy3.medium.com/but-corporations-are-private-companies-b7fd4c684d15 https://ptolemy3.medium.com/but-corporations-are-private-com...

bilekas 5y ago

If its proven that Facebook intentionally allowed the data to flow out to third parties as opposed to a 'hack' as they put it, of which the data wasn't consented to be given, then I think there is a duty of the regulators / authorities to protect the interests of the public who are effected. But that is probably wishful thinking.

jonahbenton 5y ago

There are certainly cases where from a legal perspective the company is no longer permitted to operate. Arthur Anderson following the Enron fraud is a good example. Not in the realm of possibility here, for many reasons. Even if it were, the number of employees issue- 50,000- would be quite minor in the list of considerations. Amazon would just hire them all outright. Right now lots of parties are pulling on threads, seeing what unwinds. The most significant possible outcome I see is Zuck being forced to divest- the only change which could impact governance- and relatedly several senior execs and Board members being faced with criminal charges. Another potential significant outcome is a mandated break up, similar to AT&T, though exactly on what lines and terms is extremely challenging to conceive. I put the chances on either as pretty low.

sumedh 5y ago

> “we’ve had enough of you, your company and product must be dissolved (not sold) and be no more”. I think US govt last did this with Arthur Anderson in early 2000's and lot of people lost their jobs, after that US Govt and private companies just pay fines and call it a day.

mikem170 5y ago

Originally corporations were given permission by the government to exist individually based on them serving some public good. That's why the owners were given limited liability. "In summary, all corporations are state-chartered; given special privileges by the state, which used to be conditional on them serving some public good. Public corporations are directly owned by the public via equity shares. And large corporations are the beneficiaries of both state and federal sponsorship, which includes subsidies funded by the tax paying public." [0] [0] https://ptolemy3.medium.com/but-corporations-are-private-companies-b7fd4c684d15 https://ptolemy3.medium.com/but-corporations-are-private-com...