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.

  • Geekocracy@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    180
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    The purpose of a fine is to get compliance, not to punish. The fine was $50,000, doubling every day. So $350,00 dollars means Musk caved after 3 days. Pretty effective tactic by the court.

    • Mnemnosyne@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      12
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      Uhh, how does a 50k fine that doubles each day come out to 350k?

      Day 1: 50,000. Day 2: 100,000. Day 3: 200,000. Day 4: 400,000…

      We skipped right over 350…

      • Rev. Layle@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        43
        ·
        1 year ago

        I believe it is cumulative.

        50k first day

        PLUS 100k next day (running total 150k)

        PLUS 200k next day (running total 350k)

      • SamsonSeinfelder@feddit.de
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        The violation is committed every 24h. You do not get a bonus/discount for waiting out. It is added to your already amassed fine. The way you count would mean, that on day 5, they would get a ~50% discount in the fine (paying only 800K instead of the amassed 1.55M)

        Day 1: 50K -> 50K = 50K locked in

        Day 2: 100K -> 100K + 1st day 50K = 150K locked in

        Day 3: 200K -> 200K + 2nd day 100K + 1st day 50K = 350K locked in


        Day 4: 400K -> 400K + 3rd day 200K + 2nd day 100K + 1st day 50K = 750K locked in

        Day 5: 800K -> 800K + 4th day 400K + 3rd day 200K + 2nd day 100K + 1st day 50K = 1.550.000K locked in

    • hglman@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      1 year ago

      How is that not just standardized and know at the time of the ruling ?

    • Cranakis @lemmy.one
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      50
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      If he’d held it 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.

          • TheWonderfool@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            15
            ·
            1 year ago

            Corrected math, between day 1 and day 30 (if someone knows how to make a table easily in a lemmy comment please enlighten me ):

            1 $50,00 2 $150,00 3 $350,00 4 $750,00 5 $1.550,00 6 $3.150,00 7 $6.350,00 8 $12.750,00 9 $25.550,00 10 $51.150,00 11 $102.350,00 12 $102.350,00 13 $204.750,00 14 $409.550,00 15 $819.150,00 16 $1.638.350,00 17 $3.276.750,00 18 $6.553.550,00 19 $13.107.150,00 20 $26.214.350,00 21 $52.428.750,00 22 $104.857.550,00 23 $209.715.150,00 24 $419.430.350,00 25 $838.860.750,00 26 $1.677.721.550,00 27 $3.355.443.150,00 28 $6.710.886.350,00 29 $13.421.772.750,00 30 $26.843.545.550,00

            You were giving him a discount! (If this math is correct, but it should be)

            • Netrunner@programming.dev
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              8
              ·
              1 year ago

              1 $50,00 2 $150,00 3 $350,00 4 $750,00 5 $1.550,00 6 $3.150,00 7 $6.350,00 8 $12.750,00 9 $25.550,00 10 $51.150,00 11 $102.350,00 12 $102.350,00 13 $204.750,00 14 $409.550,00 15 $819.150,00 16 $1.638.350,00 17 $3.276.750,00 18 $6.553.550,00 19 $13.107.150,00 20 $26.214.350,00 21 $52.428.750,00 22 $104.857.550,00 23 $209.715.150,00 24 $419.430.350,00 25 $838.860.750,00 26 $1.677.721.550,00 27 $3.355.443.150,00 28 $6.710.886.350,00 29 $13.421.772.750,00 30 $26.843.545.550,00

              Day Amount
              1 $50,00
              2 $150,00
              3 $350,00
              4 $750,00
              5 $1.550,00
              6 $3.150,00
              7 $6.350,00
              8 $12.750,00
              9 $25.550,00
              10 $51.150,00
              11 $102.350,00
              12 $102.350,00
              13 $204.750,00
              14 $409.550,00
              15 $819.150,00
              16 $1.638.350,00
              17 $3.276.750,00
              18 $6.553.550,00
              19 $13.107.150,00
              20 $26.214.350,00
              21 $52.428.750,00
              22 $104.857.550,00
              23 $209.715.150,00
              24 $419.430.350,00
              25 $838.860.750,00
              26 $1.677.721.550,00
              27 $3.355.443.150,00
              28 $6.710.886.350,00
              29 $13.421.772.750,00
              30 $26.843.545.550,00
          • sloppy_diffuser@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            10
            arrow-down
            5
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            $23.4T / ($350k / day) = 66857142.85 days

            That’s about 183,170 years, not a month.

            I’m assuming you were suggesting it was $350k / day? Maybe you were meaning exponential and I misread?

            edit: ah, $50k doubling. Missed that in the article.

    • lasagna@programming.dev
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      39
      ·
      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
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        edit-2
        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
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        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
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      19
      ·
      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.

    • hglman@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      64
      ·
      1 year ago

      350k is a slap. Criminal charges should be made agaist leaders who ordered the delays.

      • zcd@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        34
        ·
        1 year ago

        Sure would be nice if some rich criminals went to jail instead of a life without repercussions of any kind

      • Ryumast3r@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        24
        ·
        1 year ago

        It was doubling every day. They were scared of day 15 where it would’ve been 780mil for the day and over 1.562billion total.

        Every day doubling is a really good consequence, the fact that it only took twitter 3 days to comply once the penalty started actually hitting should confirm that

        • hglman@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          It took 6 months, and they got fined because they broke the law. If the company knewkon day one it would face criminal charges for non compliance after a period for appeal we would have seen results months ago.

      • mushroom@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        Bro, Elon gutted Twitter. I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t have the right people to get this information. I wonder if it sat in a mailbox for a day before they even had someone look at it.

        Twitter isn’t a well run company anymore. This could be pure incompetence.

    • Radicalized@lemmy.one
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      16
      ·
      1 year ago

      Elon is bleeding millions a day at this point - he won’t even know that this 350k ever existed or what it was for.

      • ickis@midwest.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        1 year ago

        100% this. This fine should be increased hundred fold at the very least. In the real world someone would be held in contempt of court and jailed. Laws for the common man and piddly fines for the wealthy parasites of the world.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    51
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    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!

  • thefartographer@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    39
    ·
    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

  • maaj@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    28
    arrow-down
    6
    ·
    1 year ago

    …bruh, what the fuck? Fine them more than just a bullshit 350k!

    • chaogomu@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      34
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      The fine was $50K per day, and by the time they complied it had gotten to $350K. They then went to court to fight the fine, and have not definitively lost.

      • Ilovemyirishtemper@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        63
        ·
        1 year ago

        Just for clarification purposes, its 50k per day, doubling every day of noncompliance. So day 1 is 50k, day 2 is an additional 100k, and day 3 is an additional 200k. 3 days = 350k. I agree that it’s not enough, but if they dug their heels in, it would grow really high, really fast, so it was a pretty effective fine.

        • Pipoca@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          12
          ·
          1 year ago

          In particular, by day 5 it’s over a million dollars per day, and by day 15 it’s over a billion dollars per day.

          If they sat on it for a month, it’d be a ~50 trillion fine that day.

          There’s a reason it only took them 3 days to comply.

  • CileTheSane@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    21
    ·
    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?

    • Jessvj93@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      People on Twitter are saying they noticed his likes are gone. People have screenshots of everything he did on that site so wonder if Elon is gonna get in a fuckton of trouble.

      • AlternatePersonMan@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        Billionaires never seem to get in trouble, so I won’t hold my breath.

        There’s a bunch of information that’s essentially public, which can be pieced back together. My concerned would be the potentially damning private messages and drafts that cannot be recovered.

    • elscallr@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      35
      ·
      1 year ago

      It was 3 days. They were probably waiting for someone to get around to collating it. You act like that should be easy.

      • samus12345@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        27
        ·
        1 year ago

        The warrant was first served in January. They could have gotten it done in time but dragged their feet until the last second.

      • snooggums@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        23
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        A company that specializes in sorting data should have an easy time with a request like this.

      • deejay4am@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        It takes less than 30 minutes to write that sql query, no shot someone needs to spend 3 days “collating”.

      • hauntology@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        8
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        You should try reading the article. They ignored the warrant for weeks, and didn’t comply until they were found in contempt of court. They had plenty of time to submit the information.

  • Captain Howdy@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    1 year ago

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

  • WarmSoda@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    14
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    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.

    • legion@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      37
      ·
      1 year ago

      Thier only issue was with not telling him about it.

      That was a legal tactic. It doesn’t mean that was their actual concern. It means it was the best counterargument they could come up with.

    • hoodatninja@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      27
      ·
      edit-2
      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.

  • LemmyLefty@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    …per day, or is this another “shucks Mr. Billionaire, I guess I gotta fine you something” punishment?

    • chaogomu@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      12
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      It was $50K per day. Then they complied, but still owed $350K. Then Twitter appealed the fine, and have now spent more money fighting the fine, than just paying it, and still have to pay it because they lost on appeal.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        No, it was $50k doubling every day. So day 2 it was $100k and day 3 it was $200k bringing it up to $350k. In a month, it would have been trillions.

    • CileTheSane@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 year ago

      The judge laid out a formula for “sanctions that would accrue at a geometric rate: $50,000 per day, to double every day that Twitter did not comply.” At that time, Twitter did not object to the sanctions formula