5 ms·

The infamous bug(s) in the Fujitsu system provided to the British post office caused several suicides. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Post_Office_scandal

• goda90 3y ago
  >The Post Office resisted the SPMs' reports of faults in the system, insisted that the SPMs make up any shortfall of money and, when asked by an SPM, denied that other SPMs had reported problems. Seems more like a very toxic culture of shifting blame led to those suicides, with the bugs just being a catalyst.
  • yifanl 3y ago
    The bugs were causing very real financial distress it sounds like, if the software was partially responsible for determining their continued employment
    • nitwit005 3y ago
      Normal people would see dozens of staff members reporting the same issues as a reason to get the bugs fixed. Some of the stuff that came to light in that scandal was so extreme, that it's clear the leadership was a bit deranged. Crazy people produce crazy results.
• stephen_g 3y ago
  Crazy how they just refused to believe (or properly assess whether it was true) that the software could have any issues, despite having reports of errors starting very soon after it went in. I find it extraordinary that they secured convictions despite the fact there wouldn’t have been any unexplained wealth or any money popping up elsewhere - although it seems in a lot of cases solicitors basically convinced the postmasters to make false confessions (kind of like plea bargains I guess).
• GoblinSlayer 3y ago
  If the program always acted against subpostmasters, it would be a peculiar coincidence given how management acted there.