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Will there be actual personal responsibility for management and engineers involved?
by helge9210 5y ago
Will there be actual personal responsibility for management and engineers involved?
- dekhn 5y agoNobody below the C-level would have any real responsibility in a case like this.
- tmp_anon_22 5y agoDid accountants, engineers, and other staff, receive sentences for participation in other genocides? Serious question.
- augustuspolius 5y agoNot sure if a valid analogy, but don’t think engineers who designed and built autobahns or other infrastructure in Nazi Germany were held responsible for indirectly facilitating a genocide.
- paisawalla 5y agoSome journalists and announcers for Radio Télévision Libre des Milles-Collines were given sentences after the Rwandan genocide. (I am not saying Facebook's role is at all comparable to RTLMC's)
- dekhn 5y agoI have no idea. I believe in Nuremburg trials (an exceptional and extraordinary situation far behind what this case claims) most of the legal power was brought to bear on leaders although we often say "just following orders" is not an excuse (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superior_orders https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superior_orders). The people who created this case want to damage the leadership of the company (who set the primary policy decisions), not engineers or other staff, unless they could find that an engineer worked on their own (and documented in a discoverable way). Honestly, I don't think this case has even a remote chance of making it through the courts. The filer would have done far better to not ask for a enormous monetary sum (2X the GDP of myanmar).
- micromacrofoot 5y agothey're all just doing their jobs, of course
- SavantIdiot 5y agoWell, Zuck did retain 51% control of the company. If there are any knives out in the org structure, I bet they'd be delighted to watch him take the blame. Plus aren't all the expensive lawyers tied up with Maxwell and Trump's allies right now?
- kbenson 5y agoDoesn't that presume guilt a bit? The whole point of a trial is to see if there is guilt, and if so maybe which parties are guilty will be shown (in the case of a company).
- nradov 5y agoThis is a civil trial. If it goes forward then the court will determine liability, not guilt.
- kbenson 5y agoYes, but isn't the presumption that you're only liable if you are in some way guilty (culpable) of what's being alleged? In any case, just because someone's levied some charges doesn't mean we should necessarily assume they are accurate. I'm not s fan of Facebook by any means, but that doesn't mean I support trial by public opinion before there's even a chance for defense.
- criddell 5y agoSoftware Engineers aren't really engineers IMHO. In the US, Professional Engineers are often licensed and can be punished for malpractice. Maybe licensing and enforcing standards of practice wouldn't be such a bad idea for software engineers.