I wouldn’t write off a leniency due to their aforementioned arse kissing. A trial doesn’t mean a they’ll be found guilty, let alone given any tangible consequences.

In fact, wouldn't a trial where they aren't found guilty would probably be better a better outcome for Zuckerberg than no trial at all?

The judge is an Obama appointee and is the same one who ordered Trump to halt illegal deportations to El Salvador. Trump has publicly called for him to be removed. If the administration wanted a lenient ruling, he is the last judge they would rely on.

The judge has less agency than the FTC attorneys, who could easily omit presenting evidence, examining witnesses, etc.

The DOJ has continued to indicate it intends to require Google spin off Chrome and obviously the tariff game has done no favors to Apple.

Giving Trump money appears to be a game for suckers.

Those who were in prison and paid for a pardon got their money's worth. No take backsies on those. The one grifter was released from paying back millions to the people he defrauded - he made money by paying Trump if looked at as simple arithmetic. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/donald-trump-pardons-ni...

Too bad Joe Exotic doesn't have enough money I guess...

Yeah, for reasons I still don’t understand — probably because it’s driven by Peter Thiel’s Deep Incel Thoughts — JD Vance and co. were big fans of Lina Khan’s FTC antitrust moves during the Biden administration.

Imagine if instagram took down Facebook as a separate company and leadership

Same for WhatsApp

Both companies had amazing founders who could have thrived if Facebook didn’t take them out

We would have a tech landscape of two independent companies and “meta” being just another Yahoo or MySpace

Facebook didn’t innovate it crushed innovation.

Fuck them and I hope Trump scewers Zuck

> Fuck them and I hope Trump scewers Zuck

Do you really want to live in a universe where Trump has his hands wrapped around the necks of the media and the press?

What sort of quid-pro-quo do you think he would get in exchange for not squeezing?

If you have any delusions that this can turn out well look at what happened with Eric Adams.

The growing hatred for Big Tech is largely bipartisan.

This has been brewing since 2020, trials of this scale take time to build: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Trade_Commission_v._Me....

If anything, he was kissing Trump's ass because he knew it was about to reach trial. The date was known since November.

That's the point. Big tech kissed Trump's arse in the hopes that he would end the antitrust investigations. Meta literally bribed him to do so. Now Trump is just doubling down on them.

If they're found guilty then Trump will use selective enforcement for leverage.

This is a civil trial, not criminal. There is no way to find a defendant "guilty".

He can just pay his way out of this now, you know that.

He's being blamed for stealing the 2020 election from Trump, so no donations or ring kissing seem to be enough.

https://www.semafor.com/article/04/14/2025/trump-officials-s...

Kind of ironic that Facebook+Cambridge Analytica seem completely forgotten despite being a coordinated, successful effort to push for swings towards Trump.

Roko's Basilisk might be hitting us faster than we thought.