How Facebook Praises and Pressures a Country's Leader To Get Exactly What It Wants (qz.com)

The Irish Independent has published correspondence between Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg and Irish prime minister Enda Kenny, obtained through a freedom of information law request. Facebook's European headquarters are in Dublin, Ireland. The document reveals that Sheryl Sandberg lobbied Irish Prime Minister to influence Ireland's choice of official who would regulate them. From a report: The documents provides a rare window into how one of the world's most powerful technology companies conducts its business. In one email, after a meeting between Sandberg and Kenny at the annual World Economic Forum conference in Davos in early 2014, the Facebook executive praises the Irish politician's position on a set of sweeping, new, Europe-wide data privacy laws. "You and your staff really internalized our concerns," she writes. "And were able to present them in a reasonable way, which has had a positive impact." After that compliment, Sandberg turns to the matter of global tax law reform at the OECD, which Kenny was also involved in. Here, she raises the prospect of Facebook shifting its investment strategy in Europe. After noting that the tax discussions would be "very complicated," Sandberg wrote: "We hope to be helpful to you identifying the implications with different options for future investment and growth in Europe." That suggestion came as Facebook was in the process of expanding its Dublin office and headcount.

Comments

Haha

[Anonymous Coward]

You killed Kenny!

You bastards!

and?

[Anonymous Coward]

so the idea of 'praise and raise' is new?

Re: and?

[JoeRobe]

Exactly.

*NEWS FLASH* SCANDAL: Facebook lobbies governments.

If this is how they lobby, then this is some of the mildest I've seen. Compare this to NRA or Tobacco lobbies. E.g.

http://www.sacbee.com/news/pol...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/w...

Wow

[kamapuaa]

Wow. They wanted favorable policies, and said they might set up shop elsewhere if they didn't get favorable government policies. In the end, "Facebook appears to have won some concessions."

Holy shit, mind blown!

Re:Wow

[Anonymous Coward]

This kind of thing may be normal in the US, but in Europe it is considered a form of corruption.

Sheryl Sandberg --

[Anonymous Coward]

Lean the fuck out, lassie!

Double standard

[Anonymous Coward]

When wealthy Russian businessmen use their wealth and power to try to influence a government to adopt conservative policies, there's a partisan witch hunt and people act like it's incredibly scandalous. However, when Facebook uses their greater wealth and power to try to influence governments, it's tolerated. Facebook, of course, tends to support their own business interests and liberal positions. Why is it scandalous when conservative Russians try to influence governments but tolerated when a leftist American, Mark Zuckerberg, employs the same tactics?

- snruter rotsac

Re:Double standard

[Anonymous Coward]

I bet you will be downvoted as a troll.

Re:Double standard

[Anonymous Coward]

Sandberg and FB are negotiating with the Irish government, as many big businesses do with governments in a position to materially affect their bottom lines. I was prepared to make a snarky remark about Sandberg "leaning in", but after reading TFA I don't see a problem here.

The Russians successfully influenced the US election to install Trump as POTUS, who they correctly saw as 1) beholden to Putin and Russian banks, and 2) completely oblivious to the details, or even the objectives, of foreign policy. There may be an element of 3) blackmail as well, but we don't know because Trump won't release his tax returns. This is not negotiation, at least not a legal one.

Re:Double standard

[Anonymous Coward]

you dumb vatnik piece of shit.

Re:Double standard

[Anonymous Coward]

When wealthy Russian businessmen use their wealth and power to try to influence a government to adopt conservative policies, there's a partisan witch hunt and people act like it's incredibly scandalous. However, when Facebook uses their greater wealth and power to try to influence governments, it's tolerated. Facebook, of course, tends to support their own business interests and liberal positions. Why is it scandalous when conservative Russians try to influence governments but tolerated when a leftist American, Mark Zuckerberg, employs the same tactics?

- snruter rotsac

You are correct. It is vile in both cases and shows how much an oligarchy we actually live in here on Earth.

Re:Double standard

[rtb61]

When corporate ass holes use their power to influence the public as extortion to force obedience from politicians to inflate the power and profits of those corporations they are neither left nor right, progressives nor conservatives, they a greedy psychopaths who give not one fuck about anything except their own greed and lusts, they are fucking arse holes and all of them should be investigated and prosecuted for their intent, extortion with intent to harm society to benefit themselves. Don't give a fuck which country they are from, they should all be exposed and legally destroyed.

When corporations get so big they can corrupt democracy in this fashion, they should be broken up.

Thanks, Sheryl

[Anonymous Coward]

*Every* bit as sketchy as you'd imagined.

Foreign power meddling in an election

[ebonum]

if ( not US ) then evil

An Taoiseach

[Tomahawk]

Enda Kenny is An Taoiseach (pronounced very similarly to "On Tee-Shock"). That's his official title, and not Prime Minister, which is the official title in the UK.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...

Even the original article uses his actual title.

Re:An Taoiseach

[sabbede]

Well, yeah, but that's really just Irish for PM. Not literally, but the role is that of a PM. Given how few people speak Irish, I don't see a problem.

At least FB doesn't have a motto

[david.emery]

like "Don't be Evil" to violate with its behavior.

Re:At least FB doesn't have a motto

[Anonymous Coward]

Their unofficial motto happens to be the same as the NSA: "Collect it all"

Re:At least FB doesn't have a motto

[Actually, I do RTFA]

Yes, that's true. The thing that bothers me when Google does something evil is just the hypocrisy. I'm fine with the actual evil act.</sarcasm>

Re:At least FB doesn't have a motto

[sabbede]

Since when is trying to influence a politician evil? Sure, you can try and influence them to do something evil, but encouraging a favorable regulatory landscape isn't that.

This is something that professors teaching MBA classes might find interesting enough to use in the classroom, but it's nothing new or unusual. If anything, it's old and usual.

Re:At least FB doesn't have a motto

[david.emery]

That's a good point. What are the limits of ethical lobbying? I think there should be a clear limit when it comes to influencing the selection of your regulator.

Re:At least FB doesn't have a motto

[sabbede]

I'd say the limits are little different than ethical limits in general. I don't see a problem with weighing in on who should be regulating your business, having input on government decisions that directly affect you is essential to democracy.

If facebook was offering bribes, that would be a different matter entirely.

Facebook is not a technology company

[Anonymous Coward]

Period

aaaaand....

[kuzb]

...exactly nobody was surprised. Multi-billion dollar tech company screws with politics for profit. This isn't news, it's par for the course.