by B. R. GOWANI
a group of state attorneys general took Mark Zuckerbrg‘s Meta to court
charge: Meta’s social media sites harmed kids mentally & addicted them
the US states involved in the case hoped Meta would be fined $200 billion
Meta was fined merely $18 billion altogether
more than $459 million of that money is related to Cambridge Analytica
so only $17.5 billion fine is about child safety issue
in May 2012, Meta Platforms’s market capital was $81.74 billion
in 2026, it is $1,490 billion or $1.49 trillion — an increase of 1,717.09%
that is compound annual growth rate of 22.5%
$17.5 billion is just 1.17% of the market capital
it’s like a person who has $100 in his/her pocket is fined $1.17 cents
for doing great harm to children’s mental health and addicting them
Meta is one of those huge companies which is also poor to pay all at once
it’ll pay in 10 installments — so Meta will pay $1.75 billion every year
that is, a person with $100 will just pay less than 12 cents every year
that is the penalty …
for diverting 100s of millions of children from reading to watching
for spreading hatred and fear without any checks
for creating shame in children for their bodies
and so on
the fine is miniscule so the Meta shares rose 1% at the good news
how come? the company harmed children and the share price goes up!
$1.75 billion fine is nothing for Meta — it’s, as they say, peanuts
that is the wonderful thing with giant corporations
the CEOs or COOs or management people very rarely are thrown into jail
the companies are rarely shut down even for some time till it reforms
why? because Meta like companies are giant; they bribe politicians
bribe in the US, and in many other countries) is called “campaign moeny”
this thing was known from the beginning but was disregarded
people keep on raising issues but but not much happens
only when it became intolerable, the state governments intervened
beside, the governments & state/prov. governments have become weak
almost everywhere capitalists are running the governments
in India, a $2.3B loan was settled for $680,000 — 99.97% was forgiven <1>
Meta is one of those huge companies which also enjoys govt wealthfare
Zuckerberg’s Meta hires very little percentage of minorities
Meta’s Instagram used to connect pedophiles with content sellers
Note
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s friend Subhas Chandra of the Zee TV was responsible for Rs 220,000,000,000 or 22,000 crore rupees loans. Due to his inability to payback, according to him, NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal) let him pay just 65,000,000 or 6.5 crore — that is US $680,000, mere 0.03% of the total loan. Forgiving such a big percentage of loans is called “haircut.” The opposition Indian National Congress party’s MP Jairam Ramesh said it is not haircut but a mundan, that is total head shaving. (More on this loot, watch here and here.
B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com