Meta company logo seen on smartphone which is plased on top of Macbook with blurred apple logo. By Ascannio/stock.adobe.com
Last week, the European Union (EU) announced they were fining Apple $600 million and Meta (Facebook) $230 million.
When regular people break minor laws, like parking in the wrong spot, they might be fined $30. Wealthy individuals, when they break major financial regulations, might pay millions of dollars. Together, Apple and Meta were fined nearly $1 billion.
That said, to them it might be like a parking ticket: frustrating, but by no means devastating.
Context and narratives matter. Otherwise, news like this will seem irrelevant, even if it’s not. So why did the EU fine Apple and Meta?
And what does this fine have to do with a story of a shark attack from three decades ago?
Why did the EU fine Meta and Apple?
The EU adopted the Digital Markets Act (DMA) in 2022, which aims to promote competition in online spaces. Companies like Apple and Meta, as “digital gatekeepers,” can control whether their customers see their competition’s products. The DMA attempts to regulate this power.
Last week, the commission claimed, “Apple violated the Digital Markets Act by restricting how app developers could communicate with customers about sales and other offers,” according to the NYT. At the same time, “Meta violated [the law] by imposing a ‘consent or pay’ system that forces users to either allow their personal data to be used to target advertisements or pay a subscription fee for advertising-free versions of Facebook and Instagram.”
In other words, these companies broke the law by not allowing fair competition or an easy way to opt out of their data collection. If the tech giants don’t comply with the regulations, the EU will fine them again. Both companies deny wrongdoing.
The Trump administration expressed disapproval of the rulings, calling them “economic extortion.” However, the US sued Google for similar antitrust violations last year and won in two cases. Meta, Apple, and Amazon are all currently facing antitrust lawsuits by the US government.
Why do these fines matter?
These companies are a new kind of corporate powerhouse with combined revenue far greater than most countries’ GDP. To some degree, they control information, entertainment, and business. Antitrust laws protect the free market from tyranny—not from governmental tyranny, but from corporate tyranny.
Still, it’s hard to care about these rulings. Even with the jaw-dropping figures, it’s challenging to keep up. Last year, for example, the EU fined Apple $2 billion for using its App Store to suppress competing music streaming companies.
Psychologically speaking, it’s nearly impossible for humans to grasp such large numbers, and international ruling bodies deciding on such niche cases seem disconnected from our lives, even if it’s not.
Arguably, humans understand the world through stories best. That’s where sharks come in.
“Careless People,” the Facebook exposé memoir
Sarah Wynn-Williams nearly died of a shark attack as a child. The harrowing experience, she says, “at the very least probably made me bolder. Any time I glimpse a possible adventure and have to decide, do I go for this? I do.”
How does this story of bravery relate to Meta and Apple’s fine? Eventually, her daring landed her a job at Meta (Facebook, at the time). She eventually rose in the ranks to become the director of global public policy.
The shark attack was one of the first stories she tells in her book Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism. Her explosive tell-all memoir acts as an exposé of Meta’s carelessness and lawlessness, as they hone in on one value and one value only: Growth. On their company wall is spray-painted, “Move fast and break things.”
Because of reading that memoir, I’ve never been closer to erasing my Facebook account. (I probably will any day.) Why? Because Wynn-Williams put Meta’s rashness into a narrative. She speaks from her personal experiences, uncovering the behind-the-scenes recklessness, corrosive work culture, and sexual harassment claims.
Meta’s reckless mistakes
In her recent testimony before Congress, she outlines how Meta lied under oath about their dealings with China, undermining American privacy if it meant getting a foothold in the Chinese market (one-sixth of the globe’s population). What’s revealed in her narrative is damning.
Now, I somehow trust Meta even less than I did before.
That’s likely why Meta instantly sued her for disparagement. Her lawyer claims they are trying to fine her $50,000 every single time she even mentions Meta in a public space—even if what she says is true. This intimidation tactic backfired. Despite her not being able to promote Careless People, it’s now number one on the NYT bestseller list.
Stories are powerful, and we rely on stories to understand the world.
The one “true myth”
God made us, and he knows we need stories. Even the books of law, Numbers and Leviticus, contain stories of Israel interspersed throughout. Jesus taught in parables. Some think the Gospel of Mark, for example, purposefully resembles a Greek tragedy.
Biblical stories are true, of course. As C.S. Lewis writes, “The story of Christ is simply a true myth: a myth working on us the same way as the others, but with this tremendous difference that it really happened.”
While the fines on Meta and Apple may, eventually, affect your life by loosening their vice grip on the markets, what matters even more is the grand narrative of reality itself. That story is found in the story of the creation, fall, and redemption promised by Jesus.
What impact has the true story of Jesus made on the world? What impact has it made on you, and how will you let it move your life today?
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