this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2023
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Privacy

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[–] Xylight@lemmy.xylight.dev 87 points 1 year ago (17 children)

They make $1.4B per day. This is basically just a cheap subscription for them

[–] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 96 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

For comparison, if you made $365,000 per year this would be the same as you paying 7 cents per day in a fine, or $25 per year.

If a fine is less than the profit it is legal and the cost of doing business.

[–] Elw@lemmy.sdf.org 16 points 1 year ago

Exactly right. Facebook will factor this in as am expected cost of doing business (if they didn’t already) and their stock will go up. This isn’t a penalty, this is just like paying a bribe. In the end, both are just lining the pockets of officials more interested in appearing to do something for the next news cycle so they can get re-elected.

[–] ech@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Did you mean $365,000,000? Or did you get confused by the "."? Cause that's used as a comma for numbers in a lot of European countries, so it's $100k per day, not $100.

Also, it'd be exactly 10 cents per day, since $365k per year would be $1k per day, which 100 is 10% of.

[–] walrusintraining@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

No, they meant 100k is 0.0071428571429% of 1.4b, and 26 is the same percent of 365k. Basically, if you made 365k a year and had an equal percentage fine, it would come out to less than 7 cents per day.

[–] ech@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago

Ah, my mistake.

Thanks for checking my math

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[–] riccardo@lemmy.ml 53 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

From the article:

$100,000 per day for a country with ~5.4 million people is a lot. If even 20 percent used Facebook regularly, then that would still be 10 cents per user per day. It's unlikely that Meta is generating so much profit per user - every day.

This is a reasonable observation and I wonder what Meta would do once one of their services becomes unprofitable in a specific country. Anyway if you add Instagram and WhatsApp to the math, maybe they would still generate profits from the Norwegian userbase

[–] julianh@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I wonder if this is a big amount for Norway's government. After 3 years you've got 100 million dollars. Not huge but you could build a nice hospital or something with that.

[–] merde@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 year ago

per capita, iirc, Norway is richer than U.S.

they don't need to fine fecesbook to get rich

[–] Version@feddit.de 5 points 1 year ago

Dude, Norway is one of the richest countries in the world.

[–] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 43 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I don't know where you're getting that number but it's definitely wrong. Their most profitable year so far was 2021, and they made $39.4 billion for the entire year. Source

[–] Draces@lemm.ee 11 points 1 year ago

You also have to consider how much of that profit is from operating in Norway.

[–] ech@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So assuming things haven't changed too much for them, this is about 1%. Barely noticeable.

[–] biddy@feddit.nl 5 points 1 year ago

No, it's 0.1%. But Norway could be less than 1% of their market, so it's somewhat significant.

[–] Xylight@lemmy.xylight.dev 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Ah. Got that number from a Google search. Thanks for telling me.

[–] KonekoSalem@lemm.ee 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think the 2 points the article makes about that are pretty valid though. It's most probably more than Facebook's revenue in this single country plus it's just the beginning.

[–] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Companies operate at a loss in certain markets all the time in order to keep competition out. Even if they're not profitable in Norway, they don't want a Norwegian social network muscling in on their territory.

"Competition is for losers." - Peter Thiel, first investor in Facebook and mentor of Mark Zuckerberg

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[–] kayaven@lemmy.world 71 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Fines like these should be exponential in some way, that way they can't keep getting away with it.

[–] drbluefall@toast.ooo 39 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Nah, exponentiation is too good for them.

Fines should be tetrated.

[–] grue@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] SuperSpruce@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Explanation for the downvoters: The double up arrow is the symbol for tetration.

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[–] fubbernuckin@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

You owe us $2

You owe us $4

You owe us $16

You owe us $65536

You owe us $2*10^19729

[–] KrimsonBun@lemmy.ml 51 points 1 year ago

Not enough. The price for violating a human right should be enough to leave anyone bankrupt.

[–] Phen@lemmy.eco.br 38 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Meta was also recently ordered to pay a thousand dollars to every brazilian who can prove they were using Facebook in a specific year. Though they are still fighting back on that decision and no payment was made yet.

This will probably be changed into some fixed payment to the government instead, if not overturned completely, but it would be fun to see the whole country getting some extra paychecks for using Facebook.

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 10 points 1 year ago

Facebook should pay it. Imagine the user uptick when people think other countries might get the same payout.

[–] Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 24 points 1 year ago (4 children)

This is exactly the sort of thing I want governments doing. Let bad businesses fail! Help them down the drain, even.

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[–] covert_czar@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 1 year ago

All the governments should do like this

[–] MalReynolds@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago

Anti revenue stream.

I likey

[–] utopify_org@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I should visit Norway, sounds like there are cool people there.

[–] kworpy@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)

From what I've been hearing, it's actually one of the best places to live in.

[–] Muffi@programming.dev 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's like a more mountainous Denmark, with a more arrogant population. Awesome place!

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Danegeld.

Danegeld never changes.

[–] tonytins@pawb.social 5 points 1 year ago

Norway just became even more wealthier.

[–] Apeeksiht@lemdro.id 5 points 1 year ago (7 children)

I wish WhatsApp get similar treatment also. the entirety of my country depend on it.

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[–] Kerred@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

What would facebooks reaction be if they had to pay the full amount of taxes without ways around it?

[–] schwim@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Oh no, not 100k. How will they ever scrape up that kind of money?

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