This is start of "companies are not liable for their actions" era.

asveikau 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I think a lot of people would say that we've been in that era for a while.

Companies can hire big legal departments to help them avoid accountability to the letter and spirit of various laws. The state can also use its prosecutorial discretion or selectivity in civil cases brought by attorneys general to deprioritize accountability for companies. Contributing to that last point, companies contribute campaign funds and tax base, and they lobby governments as well, and may expect preferential treatment based on all of that.

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jordanb 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The previous era was "it would be destabilizing to hold this company accountable". This was described in the book The Chickenshit Club

The new era of unaccountability just has a different rationale

Another interesting thing is they don't have to use low level employees as accountability sinks anymore (ex: Wells Fargo). They've managed to automate the accountability sink!

	▲	asveikau 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I didn't think I heard about that book; I would think my media diet and bubble would have alerted me. I looked it up and it came out a few weeks before one of my kids was born, so being busy back then would probably explain it. I will add it to my list. Thanks.

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cm11 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I'd go further. Companies can hire minimal legal departments and largely avoid accountability, at least when they're not going against companies with large departments. Because there's nobody there to listen to your case or to enforce the laws if there are, they just say no or ignore.

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4chandaily 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The start? This has been going on for as long as I can recall. ExxonMobil, Phillip Morris, RJ Reynolds, Nestle, Purdue Pharma, Monsanto, Johnson and Johnson, Volkswagen, Meta, Boeing... and those are just off the top of my head. Each of these companies was either caught red handed, convicted (in court or in public opinion) and walked away with little to no penalty for their crimes.

This isn't the start of anything. We've been living in the era of Corporate non-liability for decades.

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malloci 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

i mean...were they really liable before this point? Maybe they get a symbolic pittance of a settlement or fine from time to time, but it is usually a tiny fraction of the amount of money they made through the infraction itself.

	▲	smaudet 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		If they were being held liable they would have never released the models into the wild, not until they had much much better understanding both of how they operated but also how to operate them... They have never understood what they are doing, and have just been causing literal mayhem...

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lenerdenator 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Huh. Well then I guess we aren't liable for our interactions with them in return, right?

	▲	rnd0 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		nice try! more like "There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.” Guess which side most of us are on. Go on -take a guess!

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sick_of_slop 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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