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submitted 1 year ago by Navarian@lemm.ee to c/politics@lemmy.world

Sanctions were applied after the social media platform delayed compliance with a federal search warrant that required Twitter to hand over Donald Trump's Twitter data without telling the former president about the warrant for 180 days.

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[-] Anticorp@lemmy.ml 89 points 1 year ago

That's like fining you or I a penny. It's so ridiculously inconsequential to Musk.

[-] Cranakis@lemmy.one 57 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

If he'd held out one more day it would have been 700k. 2 more days, 1.4M. 3 more, 2.8M.

i.e. Musk caved before it became consequential.

1.4B if he'd waited 2 weeks more. 23.4T (that's Trillion) if he wanted to shield Trump for a month. I'd say it was a heavy fine that worked as intended.

Someone check my math.

[-] diffcalculus@lemmy.world 40 points 1 year ago

I checked your math. It's pretty terrible, my friend.

[-] lasagna@programming.dev 50 points 1 year ago

Until fines become wealth based, it will always be a poor people tax.

If cash flow is the issue, then start taking stocks.

[-] Rufio@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Or make them recurring fines that grow exponentially each time they are issued until the situation is fixed.

Edit: nvm it sounds like this is exactly what they are doing.

[-] MajinBlayze@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

Not just a "poor person tax" but it means that the law just doesn't apply in any meaningful way to the wealthy

[-] FlexibleToast@lemmy.world 26 points 1 year ago

Inconsequential for Musk sure, but not Twitter. Twitter is a company that didn't make money, lost half of its ad revenue, can't afford to pay its rent, can't afford to pay its cloud providers, and was saddled with huge debts that have $1b in interest annually. The clock is ticking for Twitter.

[-] Prethoryn@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

I think the issue is it can become failure of compliance and obstruction of justice at some point or can be tried as that. Elon could really get himself fucked if am investigation found members of the company discussion rejection to oblige.

[-] yoz@aussie.zone 3 points 1 year ago
[-] MBM@lemmings.world 0 points 1 year ago

This the top comment on literally every news article about a fine, lol.

[-] thefartographer@lemm.ee 39 points 1 year ago

Meanwhile, Twitter was late in its attempts to oppose the sanctions formula. The court opinion said that Twitter's counsel "belatedly" pointed out that "roughly one month of noncompliance" would have "required Twitter to pay a sanction greater than 'the entire world's gross domestic product.'"

PalpatineDewIt.jpg

[-] Dippy@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Day 7: 6,350,000

Day 14: 819,150,000

Day 21: 104,857,550,000

Day 28: 13,421,772,750,000

Day 30: 53,687,091,150,000

A fun fine from the judge.

[-] autotldr@lemmings.world 26 points 1 year ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


At first, Twitter resisted producing Trump's data and argued that the government's nondisclosure order violated the First Amendment and the Stored Communications Act.

However, US circuit judge Florence Pan wrote that the court was largely unpersuaded by Twitter's arguments, mostly because the government's interest in Trump's data as part of its ongoing January 6 investigation was "unquestionably compelling."

The government then took the extra step to apply for a nondisclosure order, which was granted because "the district court found that there were 'reasonable grounds to believe' that disclosing the warrant to former President Trump 'would seriously jeopardize the ongoing investigation' by giving him 'an opportunity to destroy evidence, change patterns of behavior, [or] notify confederates.'"

The court checked with Twitter and confirmed that it was capable of meeting a rapid deadline and turning over the data by 5:00 pm that evening.

The court rejected Twitter's "good faith" arguments, mainly because the company blew past the original deadline and repeatedly failed to raise concerns at earlier opportunities.

While Twitter appealed the decision, the company "paid the $350,000 sanction into an escrow account maintained by the district court clerk's office."


I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[-] Navarian@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago
[-] Ktheone@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Hmmmm, yes, we got rid of Nixon by complying with the first amendment act. At this point Elon is just a closeted far righter whos just scared to make it public.

[-] SterlingVapor@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 year ago

Ummm... Has he not been making it public? He hasn't seemed too subtle to me

[-] 99nights@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

That's such an ancient phone on the thumbnail that it couldn't even run Twitter.

[-] Psythik@lemm.ee 9 points 1 year ago

Galaxy S3, right? That was my first smartphone! It looked pretty good in white (at the time).

[-] CileTheSane@kbin.social 16 points 1 year ago

The government immediately tried to serve Twitter with the search warrant—which required Trump's data to be shared within 10 days—but the website where Twitter gathers legal requests was "inoperative."

Did they auto-reply to the request with a poop emoji?

[-] CaptainHowdy@lemm.ee 11 points 1 year ago

But with Musk's wealth compared to the average white collar workers wealth, isn't that like 35 bucks?

[-] portside 3 points 1 year ago

More like three fiddy

[-] lapommedeterre@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Does this include DMs?

[-] Arotrios@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Justice system finally getting around to expressing what we're all feeling for TwitX.

[-] WarmSoda@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

I feel like it should be noted that Twitter didn't have any objections at all to handing over all of Trump's data. Thier only issue was with not telling him about it.

[-] hoodatninja@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago

If you read the article that was one of several things they threw out there to excuse their consistently delaying/not complying. The courts told them repeatedly that their opinions on the matter were wrong and they kept delaying over and over again.

I mean come on:

"Twitter contends that it 'substantially complied with the [w]arrant' because 'there was nothing [it] could have done to comply faster' after the court issued the February 7 order," the court document said.
The court rejected Twitter's "good faith" arguments, mainly because the company blew past the original deadline and repeatedly failed to raise concerns at earlier opportunities.

Twitter continued challenging the nondisclosure order and the sanctions, but the court rejected most of its arguments and ultimately affirmed the contempt sanctions, issuing its opinion on July 18.

This nonsense went on for months.

[-] Granite@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago

To avoid a fine, all they had to do was tell the court they needed more time before the deadline*

*Because Space Karen fired all the people who knew how to look this up

[-] hoodatninja@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago

Space Karen lmfao

[-] Rapidcreek@reddthat.com 1 points 1 year ago

Comply, Elmo, means comply. Like, right now. There isn't a separate meaning for the very rich.

[-] downpunxx@kbin.social 0 points 1 year ago

Elon Musk isn't paying his ex employees severance, his rent on multiple continents, and he's not going to be paying this fine, or any others that they levy, until they find him personally responsible, which will take years, and so the corporate stonewalling of government continues unabated with only the future of the republic at risk

[-] praxi@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago

Read the bot at least. Twitter paid the fine into an escrow account

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this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2023
544 points (97.4% liked)

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