I don't think it's really true that they've outsourced the costs. Meta sending one of their lawyers to defend the company in small claims court a single time would be hundreds of thousands of times the cost of resolving the case using a customer service rep. Of course, this approach also generates costs for the taxpayer, which sucks for everyone.
> I don't think it's really true that they've outsourced the costs.
Sure they have because only 1 in N (for some very large N) of facebook users who have been wronged by facebook are going to have the time and knowledge to navigate the small claim process. So while that lawyer is more expensive than a customer support agent, if they only have to respond to one millionth (or so) of the complaints, huge win for facebook, at the cost of the taxpayers.
But their lawyers are probably staff or have retainers anyway, so I doubt it costs them anything extra. Meanwhile if the legal system has to staff up and/or ignore other work then that cost is real
If enough different people sued Meta their legal department would be snowed under, and they'd have to increase the number of lawyers they employ. For every lawyer you employ to do what is in essence customer service, you could be employing several customer service employees.
It would, however, be funny if Meta was sued into oblivion by millions of Facebook users. Poetic justice.
they can't do the usual work of checking contracts and tracking law changes and handling other more serious lawsuits... so does it mean Meta employs someone with a bar exam to answer support tickets at the courthouse?
