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Comment by paxys | Hacker News Reader

This was fake news since day 1. There was never any source which pointed back to Facebook implying any such thing. Just tech bloggers/clickbait journalists doing what they do best.

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Reading Facebook's own reports? "“If a new transatlantic data transfer framework is not adopted and we are unable to continue to rely on SCCs (standard contractual clauses) or rely upon other alternative means of data transfers from Europe to the United States, we will likely be unable to offer a number of our most significant products and services, including Facebook and Instagram, in Europe."

That's not a threat, that's a disclosure of what the law says. Every multinational non-user-siloed company makes the same disclosure.

That's not a "threat". It's a legally-required warning in a regulatory filing for investors of a possible negative event which might occur.

That doesn't mean it's not also a threat. It just means that if it is a threat they can always say "That's not a "threat". It's a legally-required warning in a regulatory filing for investors of a possible negative event which might occur." Facebook knew journalists would see this and may have wanted it to be reported on.

LOL Impossible to argue with such "logic".

Given that the warning is, as you say yourself, legally required, what do you consider to be the most likely primary reason for it being published? It being legally required (and the consequences of violating that), or "knowing journalists would see this"?

Especially since this wasn't the first report where it was included...

It's also enough to make news and sound bites. We are talking about mass media here, not a peer review scientific journal.

They are telling their shareholders if something becomes illegal they will have to cease doing it. You will find similar "threats" in every financial statement or disclosure by every public company.

It already is illegal. Just no regulatory body made a crackdown on it, not yet at least.

Their form 10-k, in listing all the business risks, said something along the lines of "if it becomes illegal to operate in Europe we'll have to stop operating in Europe". Then the clickbait factories were off to the races.

You mean I got my hopes up for nothing?

Yes, too bad. Whosoever gets rid of that cancer can count themselves lucky.

This is actually an interesting case study of who is spreading and consuming fake news.

This fake news reached the top of reddit and trended on Twitter. Both are dominated by users who think of themselves as smarter than the fake news consuming boomers on Facebook.

In my country it was reported by both the tabloids and mainstream media. Only the publicly owned Danmarks Radio (Danish BBC) didn't spread this fake news.

It also made it to the top of Hacker News multiple times, a site much worse than Reddit in its users having inflated measures of their group's intelligence.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30241635

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30207734

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30234026

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30234444

This was not just fake news, this was deliberate misinformation. A title saying 'FB threatens to leave EU' means something very different from 'FB lists EU regulation as a potential threat to business in SEC filings'

IIRC, the possibility was raised in SEC filings

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