[lesuorac]

Why not? Historically, corporations have had armed private forces that they've used to kill people.

Although you may have miss the tamer recent version where Ebay sent "a bloody pig mask, a funeral wreath, and a book entitled “Grief Diaries: Surviving Loss of a Spouse", practiced installing a GPS tracker and then travelled 3000 miles to install one, "The Defendants also posted the Steiner’s address on Craigslist and other websites, inviting strangers to the Steiners’ home for sex parties, and advertising yard sales".

The story has a happy ending though as "Defendant Wenig departed eBay with a $57 million severance package.".

> https://www.techdirt.com/2021/07/29/exec-that-tried-to-send-...

> https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mad.236...

[gottorf]

That eBay story is wild, and does make you wonder how deep the rot must be in that company. Also, why on Earth does eBay need a "global intelligence center" and a "global security team"? Do they have a completely separate line of business that I'm not aware of?

At least one person went to prison, so there's that.

[SAI_Peregrinus]

Any sufficiently powerful corporation is indistinguishable from a government. There aren't many corporations who currently exercise their money to get such power, but it's happened before and can certainly happen again.

[retrocryptid]

I suspect you have worked neither in government or industry. Things look different outside academia.

[retrocryptid]

As it turns out, a bloody pig mask isn't a drone and planting a GPS tracker isn't the equivalent of killing or maiming everyone at a wedding and the people that did this were subject to criminal penalties.

This is in contrast to militaries who are assumed to operate as legitimate extensions of foreign policy.

[rolph]

there is truth in fiction:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syndicate_(series)

https://www.ea.com/games/syndicate