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narwhal @lemmy.ml

1y ago

eBay pays $3m fine in blogger harassment case

eBay pays $3m fine in blogger harassment case

11 comments

Holy shit
- Yeah Jesus Christ that is some bad shit huh 😶

The subhead misses out the worst stuff. How on earth?
Criminal charges still in the works, I would hope.
- One of them was already jailed back in 2021 and the others were awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty
  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-57997117 [apologies for the bbc link so heres an archive link as an alt: https://archive.ph/QIGcn]
  
  Two have been jailed. Cooke for 18m and Baugh for 5y. There is a third named person that has not been charged but was fired.
  
  Thank you! Surprised the report didn't mention that (I was too lazy to do a search).
- Yeah seriously. This is some wannabe mafia shit. Spiders? Funeral wreath? Tracking their car?
  Dude you work at a e-commerce company that peaked in 2005.
- For real! I was like, "oh, they probably got some emails and calls that were a bit abrasive"
  Wow, was I wrong!! Not only are these executives some real snowflakes, but they're also psychopaths. Shit, i hope they don't read this message, lest a fetal pig be delivered to my door 👀

This is the best summary I could come up with:
eBay has agreed to pay a $3m (£2.36m) fine to resolve harassment charges against bloggers critical of the company.
The US Attorney's Office in the District of Massachusetts said Jim Baugh, eBay's former senior director of safety and security, had targeted the couple for producing EcommerceBytes, a newsletter that the company's executives were unhappy with.
The acts of intimidation included sending live insects, a foetal pig and a funeral wreath to the Steiners' home in Natick, Massachusetts.
Baugh and his associates also installed a GPS tracking device on the couple's car and created posts on the website Craigslist inviting sexual encounters at their home, according to the filings.
Baugh's lawyers said he faced pressure from former eBay CEO Devin Wenig to reign in the Steiners over their coverage of the company.
"eBay engaged in absolutely horrific, criminal conduct," acting Massachusetts US Attorney Josh Levy told the AP news agency by email.
The original article contains 293 words, the summary contains 151 words. Saved 48%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

A large corporation turning their wrath against individuals should be punished severely. Not exactly a fair fight.

11 comments