FTC Considers a Dangerous Precedent That Would Be Used to Target & Punish Conservatives & Christians

by Erick Erickson: Mark Zuckerberg may be someone the media loves to loathe these days (and have you hate too), but some on the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") want to drag Zuckerberg down a path that would be deeply destructive to our free market system.

As the FTC considers a massive, multi-billion dollar fine against Facebook for violations of a previous agreement with the FTC related to privacy, some on the FTC want Zuckerberg to be personally liable for everything the company does moving forward.The F.T.C.'s five commissioners agreed months ago that they wanted to pursue a historic penalty that would show the agency's teeth. But now, the members are split on the size and scope of the tech company's punishment, according to three people with knowledge of the talks who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The division is complicating the final days of the talks. Along with disagreement about the appropriate financial penalty, one of the most contentious undercurrents throughout the negotiations has been the degree to which Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive, should be held personally liable for any violation of a 2011 agreement, according to two of the people.Emotionally, some people will see this as a good thing. The media has fomented as much hate as possible at the company for not helping unprofitable media outlets become profitable and Facebook has continued to be its own worst enemy. So make sure the CEO gets a perp walk if anyone screws up. Undoubtedly, this is going public now while some conservatives are upset over Facebook blocking various reactionaries from their platform.

There's just a problem.

That's not how it is supposed to work and we should not want it to work that way. In fact, no one should want any federal agency to have the power to go after a CEO for the actions of his employees, particularly when there are, in Facebook's case, 35,000 or more of them.

Within corporate law, having the corporate CEO be liable either civilly or criminally when he himself did not participate in or insist upon the action, is wrong. Were this to change, corporations would increasingly have hard times finding competent managers who want to preside over large corporations out of fear they could get perp walked for some junior deputy underling's misbehavior. We saw capital flee the U.S. after Sarbanes-Oxley, we don't want to see it happen again.

The appropriate recourse is to do as the FTC is currently doing, which is impose a massive fine and allow the corporate shareholders, i.e. the actual owners of the company, to take action. To do otherwise will be to jeopardize both competent management and also legitimate risk taking by businesses.

On top of that, this would be a dangerous precedent that would undoubtedly spread.

Oil spill? Perp walk the Exxon-Mobil CEO or whichever offending oil company caused the spill.

Data breach? Perp walk the CEO of Target or whichever company whose data got hacked.

Mass shooting? Perp walk the CEO of Glock or whichever other gun manufacturer's guns were used.

Christian small businessman? We're already seeing the state harass Christian small businesses. Wait till the FTC or another entity decides to perp walk the Green family of Hobby Lobby for offending the elites with their Christian values.

We should never want our government to have powers we'd fear our opponents having. This is where the FTC is looking and conservatives should speak up with a loud, clear voice that this is wrong. You may be mad at Facebook banning various reactionaries, but if you think Zuckerberg should be personally liable for this, soon you'll see the CEO's of gun manufacturers, oil companies, and other companies you like treated the very same way.
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Erick Woods Erickson (@EWErickson) is a politically conservative American blogger who hosts the radio show Atlanta's Evening News with Erick Erickson, broadcast on 750 WSB (AM). Erickson blogs at The Resurgent.

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