Canada might hold Mark Zuckerberg in contempt of parliament
gimtae.com
gimtae.com
I’ve seen this story a couple of times now and both sources had the quote, “Nobody is going to come with some handcuffs and arrest them, but to be held in contempt by an entire country would not serve any platform well.”
I would assume that there would be some punishment though, otherwise what power does a summons really have? Or is it just assumed that the market will punish Facebook because users won’t want to use the service of a founder who has been held in contempt of parliament?
In the few other times contempt charges have been laid no punishment was applied, at the discretion of Parliament, or Parliament dissolved before any punishments were prescribed.
What's really fun to consider is that Parliament could apply criminal charges upon Zuck, and the USA may have to arrest and extradite him.
Most importantly, extradition requires the crime to be illegal in both nations. This is not. Contempt of Canadian parliament is not a crime on American soil, whereas something like murder is.
> her case should be tossed anyway because: her arrest was an abuse of process; the fraud charge she is facing in the United States is for a crime that doesn't exist in Canada; and the U.S. government's extradition request represents an 'abuse of power'.
Consider that this is where political pressure from the US (and I'm sure all countries would do the same in such a case) comes into play to prevent such instances. Also consider the kind of diplomat present at the helm of that ship. Most countries would rather not trigger him into irreparably damaging long term relations between them. He seems to do that even when there's obviously no long term benefit for the US.
So don't hold your breath for this decision to hold anything other than a symbolic meaning. But this to be honest is good enough in this case. It sends a signal to people, it sends a signal to FB, and it's plausible that the legal framework targeting such companies will be adjusted to mirror the sentiment.
Canada can put diplomatic pressure on the United States to do something about Facebook, and few things are more indicative of a need for Corporate dissolution than a corporation beginning to make diplomatic enemies of your allies.
Also, should Zuckerberg keep up this belligerence, and the share price of Facebook drop as a result, he could be held responsible under securities law.
Thus is the downside of making big waves. It gets you a lot of attention, and makes everything you do that much more complicated.
Going after company executives is not going to solve this problem, maybe they should try to force companies to address these issues.