Jason Kint Profile picture
CEO DCN. Media strategy, streaming, antitrust, privacy. @wustl, Sporting News, CBS Sports alum. #HoldTheLine #PressFreedom Hear more at @dcnorg

Aug 15, 11 tweets

Bam. Facebook just filed its brief for Nov 6th SCOTUS hearing. As much as you may think you know the cover-up, you really should read. I will link to Facebook's petition (and response when filed) along with the actual complaint moving fwd in 9th circuit. But two things. /1

First, if Justice Kavanaugh doesn't recuse then I argue it's the biggest conflict of interest by SCOTUS this year considering he's best friends and reportedly roomed at home of Facebook's top policy exec - Joel Kaplan, in middle of scandal - during confirmation hearings. /2

It's good the complaint captures nuanced items like Facebook hiring one of the two co-founders of GSR (the other they made the fall guy) after they found out their data was being sold but before the public knew it. We knew this, but most press missed on it in the noise. /3

But it also picks up on new items like Katie Harbath (mentioned 60+ times in the complaint) appears to be "M" and "N" in the Facebook message thread revealing they knew about issues with the company back in 2015. /4

They also capture the deceptive label of "certification" applied by Facebook and Zuckerberg during press statements and testimony despite knowing it was legally dubious cover-up material. And that Andy Stone was reportedly the spokesperson helping bury this. /5

However, despite my following near every detail, they also found new items like Kogan had TWO agreements with Facebook to delete data. One was dated a day after Brexit vote (so likely signed under pressure) but I was unaware it came after a Sandberg/Kaplan meeting in DC. /6

Ultimately, it's a securities case getting at when Facebook knew risks and how it chose to (not) disclose them. But underlying evidence strikes at heart of governance, prior testimony and a huge derivative lawsuit in Delaware. If Facebook fails to get SCOTUS to kill it. /7

Here is a link to the actual full complaint. You may be surprised at how much has been recorded into history wrong. Even the simple idea that Facebook data was actually sold. /8 supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/23/2…

And here is a link to Facebook's brief to SCOTUS. It's led by Gibson Dunn (Lipshutz is big gun. GD was involved in "audit" - scandal clean up with FTI and Stroz Friedberg. Also sanctioned for burying and delaying related evidence in the mdl lawsuit). /9 supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/23/2…

This thread will take you into the original cert request and various documents from the lawsuits and history of the case (for those interested). Back to Google antitrust now ;) /10

Adding the Wired citation to the end here. /11

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