Feds charge eBay over employees who sent live spiders and cockroaches to couple; company to pay $3M
Feds charge eBay over employees who sent live spiders and cockroaches to couple; company to pay $3M
Online retailer eBay has agreed to pay a $3 million fine to resolve criminal charges over employees who harassed a Massachusetts couple by sending live spiders, cockroaches and other disturbing items to their home
The Steiners, the newsletter's publisher and editor, have also sued the e-commerce giant in federal court, describing how cyberstalking and upsetting deliveries of anonymously sent packages upended their lives.
Ina Steiner received harassing and sometimes threatening Twitter messages as well as dozens of strange emails from groups like an irritable bowel syndrome patient support group and the Communist Party of the United States.
Along with a box of live spiders and the cockroaches, the couple had a funeral wreath, a bloody pig mask and a book about surviving the loss of a spouse show up at their door. Their home address also was posted online with announcements inviting strangers to yard sales and parties.
The harassment started in 2019 after Ina Steiner wrote a story about a lawsuit brought by eBay that accused accusing Amazon of poaching its sellers, according to court records.
A half-hour after the article was published, eBay's then-CEO, Devin Wenig, sent another top executive a message saying: “If you are ever going to take her down ... now is the time,” according to court documents. The executive sent Wenig’s message to James Baugh, who was eBay's senior director of safety and security, and called Ina Steiner a “biased troll who needs to get BURNED DOWN.”
That's it?! Just 3 million?! Also, why are the execs who orchestrated this not personally liable as well?! This insanely small award from a corporate behemoth just encourages corporate terror. Fucking disgusting.
The execs who did this need to be in prison. Any lower level employee would have been arrested and charged with a felony
117While the CEO didn't unfortunately and I'd consider that an injustice, the other 2 did.
Baugh was among seven former employees who ultimately pleaded guilty to charges in the case. He was sentenced in 2022 to almost five years in prison. Another former executive, David Harville, was sentenced to two years.
42Personal liability is for poor people.
19Like seriously how is this not stochastic terrorism?
17Its is. 2 of 3 execs involved are in prison. The 3rd was just vague enough to skate by.
10Stochastic terrorism is spreading hatred and fear that is likely to make someone, somewhere, commit a violent act against the targets (or individuals within the targeted demographic). In this case, specific eBay employees were told to target this specific couple to shut them up. I don't know how precise the instructions were but the targets, and the people told to target them, were not random.
2
Because you live in a capitalist playground, not a citizen’s democracy.
11The $3 million criminal penalty was the maximum possible fine under the charges.
3
That's messed up.
How is it, I've never heard of this until now?
That's super terrible business tactics.
45And super bizarre for a company of eBay's size...
"Hey boss, someone is saying mean things on the internet. What should we do? Send a cease and desist? File a lawsuit?"
"Naw, send 'em a box of spiders."
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There’s a lot of wtf here, I’ll start with — why is eBay doing Scientology kind of shit to people
14I don't get it, why would they do this? I can't fathom why
An article by a nobody isn't going to affect eBay in the slightest
9OOOO!!!... that 0.012% fine should really teach them a lesson.
8Fuckingcapitalists
0