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A comment on Facebook taps lawyer who helped write Patriot Act as new general counsel. Parent comment

Re:Facebook taps lawyer who helped write Patriot Act as new ... by m0zg on Tuesday April 23, 2019 @05:46PM (#19733261)
^ this HN reader has it right. And we'll see the extent of that truth tomorrow when FB announces their earnings. Most of the problems in the world can be solved with robust revenue growth. It's only when you're on the decline that "optics" begin to matter, and FB is most certainly not in decline, at least outside the HN bubble.
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Re:Facebook taps lawyer who helped write Patriot Act as new ... by munk-a on Tuesday April 23, 2019 @06:00PM (#19733375)
I disagree strongly with this, if FB manages to continue pissing off politicians they'll get the full unjust wrath of the US government turned on them for petty reasons. Just a little while ago Zuckerberg got schooled on why he should've been paying a lot more money to lobbyists.
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Re:Facebook taps lawyer who helped write Patriot Act as new ... by m0zg on Tuesday April 23, 2019 @06:01PM (#19733396)
But that's not the "optics" you're likely to see. Those kinds of things only come to light much later, and FB has historically shown itself to be very amenable to such backroom deals: https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/facebook-data-...
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Re:Facebook taps lawyer who helped write Patriot Act as new ... by faxi on Tuesday April 23, 2019 @08:55PM (#19734587)
It depends on how the ongoing Cambridge Analytica scandal goes.

Gawker closed up despite it's billion-dollar Unicorn status because of a $140M verdict. A multi-billion dollar suit like the Cambridge Analytica could be devastating.

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Re:Facebook taps lawyer who helped write Patriot Act as new ... by m0zg on Tuesday April 23, 2019 @09:17PM (#19734720)
You're missing one simple fact: people in the House, Senate, and Oval Office (irrespective of administration) need FB to get elected nowadays. They also need docile/agreeable Zuck. FB isn't going anywhere.
[ Parent | on HN ]