Meta ordered to name execs who approved torrenting for AI training
Meta argues nobody “decided” to pirate books to train AI.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/meta-ordered-to-name-execs-who-approved-torrenting-for-ai-training/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social
***Somebody*** decided to start the project. Who was that?
@arstechnica Corporate accountability is "not me" all the way to the top.
@arstechnica it was ... ... the AI itself that decided this to do!
"ahhh THEM, no, THEY dont work here anymore nor have they for 10 years so you see WE as a company are completely NOT responsible."
- mealy mouth corporate lawyer from ANY company
@arstechnica so we start at the top and jail them until we get an email saying “ make sure we get legal permission before we scan”. If it never got sent the entire c-suite gets RICO’d together.
@arstechnica "Everyone was just focused on their fiduciary responsibility to maximize shareholder value -- and not, you know, 'making decisions' that they might be 'held legally responsible for' later on -- that makes sense, guys, right?"
@arstechnica Zuckerberg is scum. Piracy is supposed to be a crime.
“According to a Meta court filing, its initial efforts to compile massive AI datasets were managed through an “informal approach” where supposedly nobody with authority made any decisions…
“And while Meta has argued that communications that might identify who specifically authorized certain torrenting instances are privileged, at least one string of unredacted messages unsealed early last year allegedly showed that the decision to download from LibGen, for example, occurred after “a prior escalation to MZ” (Mark Zuckerberg).”
Oct 20, 2026, 11:45 PM@arstechnica no accountability, only profits 🤡
@arstechnica I never told my car to hit that little old lady Your Honor, my car just went and did it...