Comment on YouTube coughs up $24.5 million to make Trump case go away
DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Google bends the knee.
I know the bet here is settling will cost them less than if they lose at trial, but it still feels like paying an extortioner.
It seems less about legal costs and more about siding with the head asshole of the US. The legal expert in the article mentions that all three of the recent lawsuits had no legal merit and likely would have gone nowhere.
My guess is that they’re paying up front now to hopefully get away with something else later.
That’s not the bet. It’s a frivolous lawsuit with no chance at succeeding.
They’re either betting that defending it would cost more than $25M, that a bribe will bring them favor, or, more likely, accepting that the cost of doing business in Mein Dönald’s America is to periodically pay large baseless “fines” at the whim of a dementia patient.
You could also say they paid the settlement to avoid any risk of creating a precedence that can be used in future court cases.
A lot of what we are seeing is similar to the inauguration fund every company pays into for every POTUS. Bend the knee, get more money from the feds. Google is seeing their customer/consumer base fading away (I wonder why) so Gov contracts are sometimes guaranteed revenue and they can jack up the prices because taxpayers really have no say in any of it.
PKscope@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Because that’s exactly what it is. Appeasement… Maybe it’ll work this time.