[brk]

While that is certainly a topic worth pursuing, especially for anyone with a "corporations are people" argument, the challenge is the immediate vacuum afterwards, which is likely to attract copy-cats.

You might "execute" a corporation for proven anti-human actions, but that takes time. New corporations can crop up, maybe even involving some of the same prior executives, and the cycle starts again.

[tremon]

That's why the punishment should also have a sufficient deterrent effect. If the punishment can't sufficiently deter the behaviour, it should at least deter the capital enabling that behaviour at scale. In other words: void the stock.

[bigwheels]

Are you going to take away all of Zuckerberg's vast personal fortune, and all the other execs at Meta? What about all the folks who've wokred as engineer and product managers? Otherwise they're still making out like bandits.

[ethbr1]

The Sackler family ultimately had to pay $6.5b of ~$10b they took out of the Purdue Pharma in its last decade of control.

It'd be more than fair that Zuckerberg has to pay 65% of his personal wealth gained by preying on adolescent insecurities.

And anyone else who was in a leadership role at Meta.

The deterrent is not allowing "Oops, I created a bad social outcome, but I'm keeping the profit I made from it" to be a viable way of getting rich.

And at least plant some doubt in folks doing evil that retribution might claw back their wealth in the future.

   1. Facebook knew its products were addictive.
   2. They knew this addiction had negative effects on its users.
   3. After knowing the above, they tried to make them more addictive to make more money.

It's not a complicated judgement call.

[Anonbrit]

Yet we still have tobacco and vape companies

[ethbr1]

Cigarette companies who as part of the 1998 MSA (1) are banned from television and radio advertising, (2) are banned from outdoor and transit ads, and (3) have print media, retail displays, and sponsorships federally regulated.

Most of these regulations apply to vapes, if they're owned by a legacy MSA cigarette company. With more regulation teed up for the new vape companies (i.e. JUUL youth marketing lawsuits).

If we treat social media companies like tobacco companies, I'd be perfectly happy.

[ryandrake]

$0'ing the shares would probably spread the punishment roughly proportionally with the harms they did. It's not a perfect solution (people who previously sold their equity would be missed), but better than most.

[BizarroLand]

I feel like if you know that the previous company was executed for its crimes, its property auctioned off to the highest bidder, and its managers and executives thrown in prison, that THAT would have a chilling effect on other companies that might follow in their footsteps.

[s1artibartfast]

The "corporations are people" argument is better understood as "corporations are made of people".

The analog of people not losing speech when speaking through a corporation would be persecution for criminal acts while working for one.

This absolutely exists already. The challenge is finding a law that was broken.