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Leaked Zuckerberg Audio Reveals Facebook's Plan To Sue the US Government If Elizabeth Warren Tries To Break Up Big Tech (gizmodo.com) 239

Mark Zuckerberg is fully prepared to sue the federal government if someone like Democratic Senator and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren tries to break up Facebook into smaller companies, according to audio recordings obtained by the Verge. Warren has made breaking up Big Tech a signature promise of her presidential campaign. From a report: The audio recordings, which were not intended for public consumption, are reportedly from two meetings in July that were structured as Q&A sessions between Zuckerberg, the company's CEO, and Facebook employees. Arguably the most interesting insight from the leaked audio is that Facebook is going to use everything they've got to fight antitrust regulators and Elizabeth Warren, should she win the presidency. Zuckerberg makes it clear that the company is not going to be broken up without a messy war in Washington. From a transcript of the audio recording obtained by the Verge:

"So there might be a political movement where people are angry at the tech companies or are worried about concentration or worried about different issues and worried that they're not being handled well. That doesn't mean that, even if there's anger and that you have someone like Elizabeth Warren who thinks that the right answer is to break up the companies ... I mean, if she gets elected president, then I would bet that we will have a legal challenge, and I would bet that we will win the legal challenge. And does that still suck for us? Yeah. I mean, I don't want to have a major lawsuit against our own government. I mean, that's not the position that you want to be in when you're, you know, I mean ... it's like, we care about our country and want to work with our government and do good things. But look, at the end of the day, if someone's going to try to threaten something that existential, you go to the mat and you fight.

In a statement, Warren said on Tuesday, "What would really "suck" is if we don't fix a corrupt system that lets giant companies like Facebook engage in illegal anticompetitive practices, stomp on consumer privacy rights, and repeatedly fumble their responsibility to protect our democracy."


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Leaked Zuckerberg Audio Reveals Facebook's Plan To Sue the US Government If Elizabeth Warren Tries To Break Up Big Tech

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  • by DontBeAMoran ( 4843879 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2019 @09:19AM (#59256558)

    If you are against Zuckerberg but have a Facebook account anyway, you are part of the problem.

    • I have one, but it's only because there's no why to delete your profile. I deleted all the post and likes, but the profile remains.

    • by twocows ( 1216842 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2019 @10:06AM (#59256798)
      It's faded in recent years as more people get out of it, but a lot of the people I know felt forced into using Facebook for a variety of reasons despite their concerns about Facebook's privacy situation. I wouldn't call them part of the problem; I'd call them victims of lock-in. The problem is Facebook corporate.
      • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

        by alvinrod ( 889928 )
        No, they're still part of the problem too. If your morals can be cast so easily aside over what just seems to be peer pressure, then you need to take a step back and evaluate the decisions you're making and what your values really are. Maybe it doesn't seem like much, but I don't think you get to a point where you help VW cheat on emissions standards without making a lot of little compromises along the way. And when you do make bad decisions, take some responsibility for them instead of looking for other pl
        • I created an account to access my school's computer science group.

          Am I evil too?

          • No, you're not evil but, you're still part of the problem.

          • I created an account to access my school's computer science group.

            Am I evil too?

            If the FB group is your school's, the school is evil and should not receive any government funding, subsidies, or special tax breaks or legal protections, plus you and the others should transfer out to another college/uni.

            f it's the students' and not the school's, then yes, you and the other students are evil, especially now when there are alt-tech alternatives available that don't attempt mass social engineering and/or political/ideological censoring of ideas and opinions.

            Strat

      • by Kjella ( 173770 )

        Oh please. You might end up buying a Playstation over an Xbox because all your friends did but it's stretching the definition of "forced" to the ridiculous. I'm one of those reluctant users - or at least I have a profile to answer RSVPs and get birthday greetings - but nobody held a gun to my head. For a long time I cared enough to not use Facebook, I didn't really care enough to help support any alternatives to Facebook because meh who needs it.

        I think that's got to be why they won, basic social media seem

      • Business / Community Pages.

        That is why my wife still has her personal account on FaceBook... can't convince her to give up the access FaceBook provides.

        Not until FaceBook becomes MySpace or LinkedIn will she think about abandoning it.

      • by shanen ( 462549 )

        Hmm... I agree with the mod and your assessment of why many people (including me) use Facebook.

        I can share my solution approach. When I decided that Facebook was wasting too much of my time, I made a rule to limit my daily usage of Facebook. I actually put a timer next to the computer, and I start it as soon as I visit Facebook. When it goes off, I have to stop, but normally the awareness of the timer is sufficient to get me to finish before it goes off.

        Bonus side effect, though I can't explain it. My motiv

  • by belthize ( 990217 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2019 @09:19AM (#59256560)

    "when you're, you know, I mean ... it's like,"

    Umm no I don't know. That's what language is for to, you know, like, convey a coherent thought.

  • Obviously they will fight that. I would expect nothing less.

    I'm not sure "breaking up" Facebook is a good answer. Facebook's surveillance is the problem, that's what the government needs to deal with. And I'm not sure it can be done without Facebook being unable to continue.

    • by geek ( 5680 )

      Obviously they will fight that. I would expect nothing less.

      I'm not sure "breaking up" Facebook is a good answer. Facebook's surveillance is the problem, that's what the government needs to deal with. And I'm not sure it can be done without Facebook being unable to continue.

      Whats funny is even if she were to win, Presidents don't break companies or industries up. Its literally not within their power. Not sure what bothers me more, that Elizabeth Warren, a supposed Harvard scholar, or Mark Zuckerberg, one of the richest men on Earth, can't for the life of them understand such a simple concept.

      • Umm... because Congress takes presidential elections (especially electoral landslides) as a sign of what they need to do to maintain power. A Warren win will push Congress to enact Warren's policies if she wins by a reasonable margin.

        • Re: This is news? (Score:5, Insightful)

          by peragrin ( 659227 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2019 @10:16AM (#59256826)

          Only if Democrats win both house and Senate. Otherwise we get a stalemate.

          You can only do so much when you have to compromise.

          • Re: This is news? (Score:5, Insightful)

            by Ryzilynt ( 3492885 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2019 @11:14AM (#59257120)

            You can only do so much when you have to compromise.

            ^ THIS is the problem

            You can actually do a whole lot when you are open to compromise.

            The problem today is there is no compromise.

          • Only if Democrats win both house and Senate. Otherwise we get a stalemate.

            You can only do so much when you have to compromise.

            Additional context was basically that Warren would not try to be a dictator, but after Trump, I'm not so sanguine. Actually, I would even extend that feeling to the Senate. McConnell has largely destroyed the legitimacy of the filibuster and the Dems could retaliate by finishing it off.

            Having said that, it does seem clear that the system is seriously broken and that there are real problems that cannot be addressed by a government with a "normal" state of "off". Some problems are not going to go away just be

      • Whats funny is even if she were to win, Presidents don't break companies or industries up. Its literally not within their power.

        It is literally within their responsibilities to appoint the people that do break up companies for violating anti-trust laws.

        There is lots of process. But the President is absolutely who sets the policy.

        You seem a little confused. Or maybe you were just trying to be clever?

        • by geek ( 5680 )

          Whats funny is even if she were to win, Presidents don't break companies or industries up. Its literally not within their power.

          It is literally within their responsibilities to appoint the people that do break up companies for violating anti-trust laws.

          There is lots of process. But the President is absolutely who sets the policy.

          You seem a little confused. Or maybe you were just trying to be clever?

          You aren't even remotely correct. President only suggests an AG. The AG is then approved/appointed by the Senate. The AG also has free reign to prosecute or not. The DECISION, you know, the part that actually fucking matters, is made by the Judge if the JURY convicts.

          I know right? Due process is such a hard fucking concept for you people.

          • You are wrong and doubling down because you got called out. Of course the President can, through various executive actions, cause to come into effect an anti-trust case against a large company. Of course it goes through the courts, that's what Zuckerberg was saying, that they would fight it.

            Facebook is entirely right and such a rabble rouser populist in office would mean they would have to face an existential threat because of course there is no way to "break up", lol, a company like Facebook whose advertis

    • by rho ( 6063 )

      The solution might be a privacy requirement that allows citizens to request to be forgotten by tech companies. Meaning they retain NONE of your data, and that includes referral headers from Facebook pixels and the like. This is entirely within the purview of the Federal Government, as we have a right to privacy.

      Your ordinary e-commerce store selling candles or whatever can manage that easily. They don't keep much information, and deleting somebody's data is a matter of dropping a row in a database. But Twit

  • by alvinrod ( 889928 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2019 @09:22AM (#59256578)
    Warren is saying a lot of shit in what appears to be an attempt to get through the primaries. She came out in support of reparations for slavery [reuters.com], decriminalizing border crossings [time.com], and other crap that's just pandering to the far wing of the party. I don't think she'd go through with any of it, or realizes there's no way in hell Congress would let any of that get out of committee, but then again I thought that Trump wouldn't actually try to do half of the ridiculous shit that he was spouting off.

    But I guess that at least we know which candidate the editors at /. are pushing. I wonder if we'll get another article about Warren for the hat trick by this weekend.
    • by Nidi62 ( 1525137 )

      Warren is saying a lot of shit in what appears to be an attempt to get through the primaries. She came out in support of reparations for slavery [reuters.com], decriminalizing border crossings [time.com], and other crap that's just pandering to the far wing of the party. I don't think she'd go through with any of it, or realizes there's no way in hell Congress would let any of that get out of committee, but then again I thought that Trump wouldn't actually try to do half of the ridiculous shit that he was spouting off.

      The Dems have to know that most of those policies would get her destroyed in a general election. Even if she dropped them in the general election, the Republicans would just point back to those statements in the primaries and say "If she get's elected this is what she is going to do" and it's going to turn off a lot of center and even wavering right voters.

    • I'm pretty left of center by any normal metric and every time I hear her talk about a wealth tax I want to take my TV and throw it at her. What a mind numbingly stupid unconstitutional, unenforceable blatant pander.

      • I don't think they care about the Constitution anymore... until it suits them to do so.

        Most voters are like you, you might have a preferred party but it has left you quite some time ago. I think if most voters would just look at ONLY what their party has done without looking at the other parties to alter their perspective they would wash their hands of their party.

        The political parties need opposing parties to keep their peoples attention focused away from their own garbage.

      • Yeah, she and Bernie are pandering to the weird hatred everyone has of rich people. I get jealousy, I even get legitimate criticism but at this point it's pathological. The more you talk about hating rich people the more the rabble loves you.

        It also allows them to hand-wave when people ask how they're going to pay for all their giant epic government programs. "blah blah rich people will pay for it blah blah".

      • Umm.... income tax, by definition, is a 'wealth tax.' And it is constitutional and you can read the 16th amendment which made income tax legal. And since any amendment to the constitution is legally part of it so you can't say it's unconstitutional because it wasn't part of the original document (common right-wing argument so, I'm nipping it in the bud). The founding fathers new the constitution would require change so, they put a system in place to change it. If you don't like some of the changes, tough

    • by gtall ( 79522 )

      Most things that asshat is doing is being done by executive order and can be undone by executive order. What cannot be undone is the damage to the environment or the international cooperation it took decades to build or turning half the world over to those bastions of freedom and democracy, the Chinese. Also, the lasting deficits are probably locked in and hence the future debt problems. All it takes is for the rest of the world to lose confidence in the U.S. ability to control its debt and then the U.S. wo

      • "All it takes is for the rest of the world to lose confidence in the U.S. ability to control its debt and then the U.S. won't be able to roll it over, it will come due with a vengeance."

        A problem caused by both parties to the extend that the only people that blame one more than the other are just sheeple.

        This is what people mean when they tell you that there is no difference between the parties. If the end result is the same, then why are you so concerned about which path we take towards destruction?

    • Warren is saying a lot of shit in what appears to be an attempt to get through the primaries.

      It's common practice to pander to the party base during the party primaries, and then change emphasis and pander to centrists during the general election. Politicians in both parties do it, and it's probably a necessary strategy in the current system we have, if you want to win the Presidency.

      A 100% honest, accurate, and consistent politician rarely gets anywhere in the current system. If you want to reward non-spi

  • by haggie ( 957598 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2019 @09:26AM (#59256594)

    Best campaign add for Elizabeth Warren so far.

    • by shanen ( 462549 )

      More or less what I was thinking per my longer comment. Enemy of my enemy becomes my friend, though she still isn't my favorite candidate. I guess my favorite is Yang, but it might be "Not Trump".

  • by iCEBaLM ( 34905 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2019 @09:27AM (#59256606)

    The quote looks like it's been intentionally "leaked" to gain sympathy for Facebook....

    • More like Zuck is willing to take one for Warren because she already has a deal with him. She has been recorded more than once saying that she has things she has to say in public and then there's real policy. She goes out ragging on Wall St. while having the head of an investment bank host a fundraiser for her at his house in the Hamptons.

      Look on YouTube for 'Elizabeth Warren Jimmy Dore Show' for a full accounting. And Dore's a full-bird progressive, not a right winger.

      • then you would know that you cannot always do everything by the book and public-approved. Becauee the public does not do half the shit you have to deal with. The book is not based on reality.
        That does not mean somebody is evil, or two-faced, or nefarious. Just that this is beyond the level of explaining that the public can follow. And especially beyond what your enemies and the public will deiberately or our of ignorance will misinterpret to use against you.
        So you give them a simplified explanation that fol

      • Although I'm pretty sure she won't be popular with Wall Street. The whole reason she is in politics is that she wants to regulate consumer finance.

    • Doubtful. Not unless Facebook PR is complete shit at their jobs. Zuckerberg is wildly disliked, while Warren is popular. Pitting Facebook against Warren is a loser PR battle.

    • The quote looks like it's been intentionally "leaked" to gain sympathy for Facebook....

      Zuck is a drug dealer.

      Not sure who he's looking for sympathy from, but it sure as hell isn't the consumer junkie. One hardly has to convince the addict to come get more free product.

  • More reasons to support Warren.
    • At this point she might as well quote Zuck complaining, followed by "I'm Elizabeth Warren and I approve this message" like she did with the banks.
  • by RogueWarrior65 ( 678876 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2019 @09:46AM (#59256692)

    Warren: "We're pissed that the right wing has used our weapons against us. It wasn't supposed to happen that way and we're going to make sure that doesn't happen again."

  • Not sure why anyone thinks there's a story here. US Government has more money and lawyers than Facebook can afford to spend on. Zuckerberg's going to sue them? Who cares.

    • US Government has more money and lawyers than Facebook can afford to spend on.

      That is an intuitive idea, but it doesn't always match reality, because the government doesn't spend its entire budget on lawyers. See this, for example [propublica.org], where people get away with cheating on their taxes because they hire more expensive lawyers and accountants.

    • Also, the funny part is, breaking Facebook up would involve the government suing Facebook. They don't need to, or even get to, sue to try to stop it. A counter-suit would need to be a different issue.

      He didn't even understand whatever presentation his legal team gave on the subject.

  • Warren misses the real problem:
    A corporation has only one responsibility: extract the maximal amount of money from society in any possible way.
    Until that is fixed, no solution will help fix the symptoms of the broken system.

    • There are already laws against usury, fraud, theft, robbery, etc. And psychopathy is already known as a dangerous mental illness.

      The problem is that they somehow aren's applied to business leaders and profit makers.

      Also, with these type, you'd need a firewall-style whitelist of practically totalitarian regulation, not an always incomplete blacklist, as clearly nothing else will stop them from staying in their psychopathic mindset and trying to circumvent your rules for human behavior.

      The basic mindest and c

    • So let me get this straight - let's take facebook. It makes money selling your private data. Guess what? Don't have a facebook account.
    • That's only a problem absent effective market regulation.

      It still leaves the problem of consolidation that was undertaken only to prevent competition. Breaking up those consolidated companies, so that the parts can compete, solves a bunch of problems. Not all problems. Just a bunch of problems.

    • The way you fix that is you don't change that, you regulate abusive actions so they are unprofitable. That is why regulatory capture is a bad thing. It is the real world equivalent of a robot rebellion, although the relentless amoral machines are legal contraptions, not mechanical.

  • Not that I'd be under the delusion that plebes would vote, by making cross, let alone control who's in power.
    As could be seen with W. Bush / Darth Cheney, Trump, and Sanders.

    She's the sanest candidate in a loong time, from my perspective.
    Let's see how the neocon corporate fascists ruin everything yet again. And how the blackeyers will keep refusing to face that reality and learn from it...

    • ...She's the sanest candidate in a loong time, from my perspective.

      Let me clarify exactly what we're dealing with here; a politician making campaign promises.

      Tell me again how this is "one more reason" to believe the bullshit she's selling.

      It's not just ignorant or stupid to assume she's being honest with campaign claims. It's downright insane.

    • Really? Anyone who is so fundamentally dishonest as to lie about her heritage ? What else is she lying about? Of course, lying psychopaths are our stock in trade for Presidents, from Nixon to the Present day and probably before that, with few exceptions.
  • Seriously... I like Warren on most issues, but her jumping on the tired old hipper-than-thou "nerds/geeks/dot-commers/techies are the devil" bandwagon is pretty souring. And it's extra-ridiculous to see slashdot, of all sources, selling that line.

    How is anybody surprised by Zuck's intentions here? Has there been a corporation in the history of history that hasn't lawyered up and fought when it found itself in the crosshairs of some politician's enemies list? Hell, even taking any emotional stake out of

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Dude. You named yourself after a menu item at Taco Bell.

      I am totally not surprised that you associate "Zuck" with nerds, but real nerds hate that fucking prick, same as everybody else.

      And his reaction should be to start fixing the negative behaviors that are at the root of the backlash.

  • Suing, or threatening to sue a regulator is not what should be happening in a mature democracy, that is it is what happens in dystopian SciFi Plutocracies [wikipedia.org].

    The staggering thing will still be posters that will defend that behaviour and call me a communist, something else, the silencing of political divergence, that should not be happening in a free society.

    • The U.S. is not a plutocracy because corporations can sue. The U.S. is a plutocracy because of Citizens United, and the influence of money on political campaigns.
  • Just wondering why there are no comments modded "Informative". The artificial shortage of mod points (again) or a situation where everyone already knows too much about Facebook?

    So should I try to fill the gap with a short list of Facebook-related books and capsule reviews thereof? Easily done. Turned out I only have four that are easy to find.

    Becoming Facebook: The 10 Challenges That... by Mike Hoefflinger sings sycophantic praises, but not very memorably.

    The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story... by Davi

  • "repeatedly fumble their responsibility to protect our democracy."

    Ummm, Congresswomman Warren, that's YOUR responsibility... Facebook and other businesses have no such responsibility. I would posit that they have a profit motivation to do so as a general rule, but it's not a requirement. Just like they have no requirement to be politically neutral, however you define that.

    I'm no fan of Facebook or their business practices, but this one is a bit much.

  • Big tech just loves them some Dems. Why if Facebook were broken up (into what pieces?), some of those pieces might not support the left! (Well, they probably all would, but why take the risk?)

    I wouldn't be surprised if the whole episode were a sham. Big chieftess Warren gets to act tough, nothing continues to happen to Facebook no matter what transpires.

  • My guess: Democratic Senator and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren knows almost nothing about technology, or the development of technology.

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