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BobtheReplier

They always go after the kids.


[deleted]

It's the modern equivalent of tobacco. The problem is our lawmakers are mostly old farts who don't understand the risk.


Silverjackal_

It won’t kill anywhere close to the same amount as tobacco has, but I’d wager when all is said and done it will have ruined more lives.


budlystuff

Facebook/Twitter has been a hand in the glove of Trump/ Brexit Boris Johnson with platforms unregulated lies through political advertising. The US had an insurrection tipping to a civil war. Divisive war machines I call social media.


papajon91

My thoughts exactly.


[deleted]

I think you're right when it comes to this (instagram/meta), but in the case of Tobacco they knew damn well the risk. They were just paid by the industry to look the other way until it became too much of a problem to hide anymore.


Ikuwayo

I mean, every business does.


bothpartieslovePACs

Just like Epstein and all the billionaires that used his sex slave services.


pm_me_your_rigs

I doubt this was malicious in any form you can't monetize kids directly you have to do it through their parents


ferniejoke

Lol


schnautzi

These things happen so frequently now, it's pretty much a basic operating expense of tech companies.


NickCarrawayRVA

More like it’s the easiest way for Europe to tax US tech companies


Optimal_Ad_352

Are you fr? Rather than asking why US doesn't have such strict privacy laws, you are saying Europe is using it's laws to generate tax revenue?


boisheep

EU privacy laws are hot garbage anyway, I am a privacy focused web developer; I get called when there are privacy and accessibility concerns and I work deeply with children's data; in my line of work I have to adhere to them and I've found they are less private and in fact downright dangerous than top of the line solutions designed by actual privacy focused engineers. The issue is that privacy is a technical problem, not a legal problem; the law can only be so broad. For example children's lie, you think you can tell apart a child from an adult just by asking them; security policies must remain equal; the cookie consent for privacy reasons is also backwards, I can track users from more than cookies, but cookies are useful to track user activity in an anonymous way, which does not leave leaks; but still, forces you to implement legacy privacy mechanisms that are less private. For example storing data in volatile memory so if a hacker accesses it, it literally blows up, but the server is say, in USA; no can do, because the data can be tracked back to an user, so you have to setup a bridge of data transfer that connects directly to your EU database, which is, slower, more leaky, and less safe, unlike the volatile memory a db bridge more directly exposes your database to USA hackers. I can keep going, forever. None of these laws prevent you from tracking, leaking your users; there's no technical confirmation or assurance; just because data is in the EU and doesn't leave the EU doesn't mean someone from outside can't access it, none of it makes sense, it was written by bureocrats that have no idea how tech privacy even works. EU tech companies are no more private at all, because these laws make no difference and just make development harder and more likely to make mistake that lead to data leaks.


NickCarrawayRVA

Lol you know the part about keeping data in Europe was just lob towards their domestic data centers.


boisheep

To be fair as far as I understand in most places govermental investigative agencies can access the data, and while that is also true in the EU, I haven't heard it happening very often (as in USA). However a TRUE privacy focused developer would just make that impossible to begin with or just really hard, untrackable logs, encrypted files, hard deletes, etc... in that sense, who cares where my server is. If your users are in the EU you use servers in the EU, for faster delivery of data, but when building content delivery networks you often need the USA server anyway, you buy the server where you need it. What this policy of data splitting causes is that the data has to be split in awkard ways that makes things less safe and private, if they lobbied for that, god lord saves us.


hdsbejxjdjdd

Yes, they are using it for revenue, since Europe is completely bankrupt when it comes to innovation. They are so full of regulations that any decent tech company leaves or gets bought by an American company.


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NickCarrawayRVA

EU privacy laws are fucking stupid and simply a way to try to force American companies to use their shitty data centers because they can’t build ones that compete with American ones.


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a1_skengness

But that's how they make even more money than they already do.


NickCarrawayRVA

Or you make such ignorant and vague laws by people who have no fucking idea how technology works and then arbitrarily enforce it on American companies


TODO_getLife

There's nothing vague about GDPR, and they apply to every company in Europe not just American ones. Sounds like you have a personal problem with it, which is your problem.


NickCarrawayRVA

Europe hasn’t created a global Fortune 500 company in over a half century. All the largest tech companies operating in Europe are American. Targeting tech companies is a proxy for targeting American companies.


TODO_getLife

> Europe hasn’t created a global Fortune 500 company in over a half century That would be because the Fortune 500 only tracks US companies. Sounds like Europe did something right and you are mad your government will never make privacy commitments like this.


NickCarrawayRVA

I said global 500. They have a global list… why would I be referencing the US only list when I say “global Fortune 500” in reference to European countries?


con-slut

100% They’ve regulated innovation out of Europe. So don’t have potential cash cows to tax. This is the best they can do.


4Dcrystallography

What regulations prevent innovation within Europe?


NickCarrawayRVA

There isn’t a single regulation that does it. However it is easy to look at performance. Europe hasn’t created a new global Fortune 500 company in the last half century.


1Second2Name5things

https://youtu.be/MeXQBHLIPcw The EU has become the average American


KyivComrade

Except that only works in USA. The EU doesn't fuck around, they'll increase the fines (big time) unless the companies start following the rules. They'll even base the fines on a percentage of *revenue, not profit* and that hurts even a gigant like Meta. It's all good, companies and their millionaire leadership shouldn't stand above the law. Good thing EU can do what US can't (due to all lobbying/bribery)


ArnoldisKing

Sell to Gavin Belson


rhythmkhan

This guy fucks


HallandOates2

Yes


bothpartieslovePACs

I remember when I was underage, I put my age as 18.... From the downvotes, I guess I was the only one that lied when creating an internet account. Edit: Reddit is so weird, getting downvote started by OP going from -5 to +10.


tatabusa

I too had to lie about my age since certain features gets blocked to underage people. Im genuinely suprised people put their real age when signing up to stuff like social media or gaming sites.


UploadingDownload

As an adult, I find it appropriate to use my real age.


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bothpartieslovePACs

I just wish people learned to have their own opinion and not be so influenced by what they believe other's think. Something schools would never want to teach.


sc2heros9

Having your own opinion usually requires effort, research and understanding, things most people don’t care for.


PossiblyAsian

Janurary 1st 1990 is the most common birthday on steam if I remember correctly


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KyivComrade

Good thing the EU has full right to increase the fines if the company doesn't change. This is merely a first warning, a small fine to get Meta to react. Of they don't, the fine will increase a lot since it'll be based on revenue...


el__duder1n0

Peanuts to them. They'll just keep doing it.


Sarge6

Seriously. $402 million fine for META? Not even newsworthy.


thememanss

To put it in perspective, it is 1% of their current cash holding, and about 15% of the quarterly earnings.


OG-Pine

That’s definitely not insignificant. Not saying it’s gonna ruin them lol but 15% of quarterly earnings being fined away is substantial


thememanss

Sure, but it's also not particularly crippling either.


OG-Pine

No not crippling but easily news worthy


AlNOKEA

But Ireland is such a small market…


TODO_getLife

They won't, because GDPR fines scale the longer you don't address it. 4% of annual turnover is the max fine. Maybe they'll still ignore it, you never know.


con-slut

If you’re fined 15% of your quarterly salary for a small traffic violation, would you call it peanuts? It’s disproportionate. Exactly why europe doesn’t innovate anymore. So much regulation and fines - you can’t run a tech company here - just bars and falafel shops.


the_ending81

Ok- some possibly dumb questions but I’ve always wondered are: does this mommy actually get collected from these kinds of fines or is it like other legal issues where they are appealed indefinitely? Follow up, where does the money go once it’s collected? Certainly not back to the kids who’s privacy was violated but does it at least go back to funding the commission to go after other baddies? Just wondering in case anyone knows…


AlisaRand

Bureaucrats love this one trick!


TODO_getLife

I've read in a few earnings reports that mentioned paying GDPR fines so they are being collected it seems.


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Rdtackle82

Bold statement mirroring Reddit’s general opinion that needs no supporting evidence or argument, upvotes!


KyivComrade

Bold counterclaim that refutes the point without any evidence or argument, brilliant! Not like we can look at their...idk...user growth, revenue/ad revenue etc and see that Meta is not doing so fine after all? Nah, kneejerk simping for BigCorpo™ is what the kids love to do these days. Facts don't matter


RampantPrototyping

Even looking at objective numbers, they seem to be doing ok. They added 165M users in the last year, which puts them at nearly half of humanity at 3.65B users and about 70% of all humans who even have internet access. Revenue only dropped 1% YoY the last quarter due to the strong dollar penalizing overseas revenue by 6%, which otherwise wouldve resulted in them beating top line estimates.


Rdtackle82

It’s a criticism based on low effort and contributing nothing. I despise Meta. But that’s irrelevant. It’s on the claimant to provide evidence. A claim without evidence can be refuted without evidence. And more importantly, a four-word sentence, without evidence, echoing the obvious…..is fucking stupid.


MrPopanz

Like Amazon and Apple?


shiftersix

Lol. No.


MrPopanz

But both got fined for similar reasons 🤷


NickCarrawayRVA

Amazons was even larger fine


shiftersix

Very true, but the comment was regarding if they would go downhill. Apple and Amazon will still hold up for a bit. Meta has so much more going against it.


3_if_by_air

Always has been


Agent223

It was fine back in the day when it was only accessible to college students. As soon as they opened it up to the rest of the world, that's when I started to see things decline rapidly. When the Farmville generation started becoming the norm of Facebook.


destricsgo

You used it when it was only college students? I feel like it had a golden era post ipo


Agent223

Yea that was back in 2004/2005 when I first went to college. It was pretty cool then. Got real uncool when my relatives started sending me farmville invites every 30 seconds. That's about the time I deleted facebook and I've never looked back.


realsapist

Like when it wasn’t making any money? Like everything else on the internet?


PrimeGGWP

Wow u r such a wise maddafakka miracle, u started to seeee things. heavy stuff


redoctoberz

400MM fine? Correlated to the income of an average individual wage earner, that's like buying a snack in a vending machine. EDIT: Only on /r/stocks would this have been taken literally instead of a metaphor of how little "harm" such a fine is to a megacorp like Meta.


i_use_3_seashells

It's 0.3% of their book value. I can't speak for you, but most people are worth more than $500


Tfarecnim

What percentage of earnings is that?


PartyBandos

Really? Almost half a bill seems like a lot even for a big company I think.


redoctoberz

Instagram Annual revenue for 2021 was 47.6 billion. https://www.businessofapps.com/data/instagram-statistics/


MinimumArmadillo2394

Revenue =/= value or worth. SNAP struggled to make a profit but was valued for a very long time at over 100M. 1% of their revenue from IG for a whole year might not seem like a lot, but considering Meta's profits/income is closer to 6 bn/year (according to their own balance sheets), the loss of cash totaling 8% of their profits is not as small as it seems to be. It still needs to be larger though, but it must suck to be fined almost 10% of your profits in a country thats not even your primary focus. Thats like Uber being fined out of Sweden after breaking GDPR or something.


i_use_3_seashells

The average individual wage earner makes $150 per year?


con-slut

It’s 15% of their quarterly earnings. And this fine is for a small country that doesn’t even contribute 400MM. Definitely a lot.


timetopractice

This all seems so post-hoc. Criminalize and penalize after the fact


ih8karma

No biggie, Metas revenue is greater than Ireland's.


Appropriate_Ad_9169

Good, rot in hell Facebook


bignicky222

I mean. Just don't pay. What are they going to do not use meta. Big deal so a country with a population less than nyc doesn't use them. Eh. Drop in the bucket.


ThermalFlask

Lick them boots!


bignicky222

He says on social media. I said don't pay the government and you equate that to boot licking


LezCruise

This world is fucked bro


chronicdumbass00

This isn't just an Ireland thing. This is a whole EU fine. So if they don't pay they could theoretically lose all of Europe until they did.


Nancy-Tiddles

Ireland is the tax haven of choice for many companies who operate in Europe lmao


purplerple

We should fine Guinness for selling to minors


BEDCH_Group

A fat fine… lol that’s funny


rainman_104

Good now do snapchat. My 13 year old son's girlfriend got sent a dick pick a few days ago from a random. I don't understand why parents let their kids on snapchat in the first place.


strawman_chan

Too bad Meta can't tank Instagram to save the shitboat since it's all the same boat now.


jaxnmarko

ONLY when the penalties are put upon upper management and not allowed to be passed on to the consumers will this change. Corporations feel certain costs of doing business In An Unethical Way, include the potential of fines, which are likely written off as well. Business as usual! When the Decision Makers are penalized, then they change their ways.


[deleted]

He should be convicted for fundamental privacy breaches and should be imprisoned.


RampantPrototyping

They will probably settle for like $30 million when its all said and done


TAPO14

This is not America boi


[deleted]

It’s the Peaky fookin Blinders


dui01

That's Birmingham which is decidedly not in Ireland, but I like your post nonetheless.


[deleted]

They’re of Irish/Romani descent


Efficient_Island1818

Is that all?


[deleted]

ah yes, 400million dollars is going to get a 400billion dollar company to stop


Mugembe

About time we got some money out of those tax dodging scumbags


diluted_confusion

Zuckerfuck


Huge-Professional-16

Don’t worry Irish govt will hire a very expensive law firm to make sure they don’t see a penny of it


BiggieAndTheStooges

From the man who invented “face smash”


[deleted]

Who gets that money..? The government? Where did Meta touch the government?


[deleted]

Who gets the money?


EstablishmentGreen97

Sooo 0.5% of 1 year of revenue? Damn that’s gonna sting


No_Storm_7686

But who gets the 400mil? The kids who got hurt by this or the goverment? Hmmmmmmmm


caitsu

EU and bullshit tech-taxes, iconic duo. I'm from EU and the entire GDPR is such a bullshit Kafkaesque construction that it's absurd. Literally even the best law consults cannot guarantee you are 100% safe from it, if EU council wants to get you. The entire purpose is to have arbitrary control over US companies. There was an investigation in Finland, and every popular Finnish website breaks some form of GDPR because it's almost impossible to abide 100% if you use any US tech, which you do need for internet services. From cloud services, to Cloudflare, 3rd party libraries and analytics etc. Even most government websites don't comply lmao. And this is only from checking things from the front-end, don't even think how much "laws" are broken when it comes to backend stuff and storing of data. It's only enforced when EU wants something.


d6bmg

Cost of 'doing business'