Big Tech has already made enough money in 2024 to pay all its 2023 fines

Rozaŭtuno@lemmy.blahaj.zone to Technology@beehaw.org – 116 points –
Big Tech has already made enough money in 2024 to pay all its 2023 fines | Proton
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Gross. Can we start making fines meaningful? % of revenue maybe? I’m not an expert on this. But these fines should be more than enough to discourage behavior and not be “cost of doing business”.

The EU knows fines of 'up to' 4% of revenue for privacy violations, which means the company still gets to keep 96% of whatever it's made by breaking the law. The fine should be a minimum of 50%, plus jail time for the managers responsible. Any punishment that does not make the shareholders cry with fury is too low and will do nothing to change the situation.

No, they don’t get to keep 96%. It is revenue, not profit. That is a big difference.

I'm well aware of the difference (see my other posts). But it still means that even with the maximum fine, a revenue of 100 billion is still a revenue of 96 billion. Even with an unrealistically low profit margin of 10% it was still worth it to them.

We need a total revolution. The people who ought to be fined are the ones buying the laws.

Total revolutions tend to eat their children. Those who are already the most vulnerable in the old system tend to be in the most precarious situation in the new one as well. What we actually need is careful and gradual reform, based on democratic principles, instead of revoluzzers imposing their will upon the rest of the population, which is how most revolutions end.

My country is literally an oligarchy, not a democracy. The oligarchs don't want to gradually reform based on democratic principles. But they sure want us to think they will.