Paxton
Flimsy
and
corrupt
authoritarian
populism
is
dedicated
to
pretending
that
the
oligarchs
and
autocrats really
care
about
the
people.
One
way
Trumpism
has
done
this
is
by
pretending
they
actually
care
about
reining
in
corporate
power.
That’s
included
an
elaborate,
multi-year
performance
about
how
MAGA
Republicans
were
going
to
curb
abuses
by
“big
tech”
and bring
back
meaningful
antitrust
reform.
As
we’ve warned and witnessed repeatedly,
that’s
always
a
lie.
The
Trump
administration
has
relentlessly
dedicated
his
second
administration
to devastating
whatever
was
left
of
regulatory
autonomy,
consumer
protection,
and
antitrust
reform.
If
MAGA
is
taking
aim
at
a
company
it’s
almost
always
either
to
harass
them for
doing
something
Trump
doesn’t
like,
or
to help
benefit
a
billionaire
ally.
Texas
AG
Ken
Paxton
is
no
exception.
Every
so
often
Ken
likes
to
take
a
break
from fueling
dangerous
conspiracy
theories and harassing
trans
people to
pretend
he’s
being
tough
on
corporate
power.
Ken’s
latest
gambit
is
a new
lawsuit
against
against
Netflix for…
monetizing
streaming
advertising
viewer
data
and
creating
“addicted”
users:
“Netflix’s
years-long
bait-and-switch
has
led
the
company
right
to
where
it
promised
never
to
be:
addicting
children
and
families
to
its
platform,
mining
those
users
for
data,
and
then
converting
that
data
into
lucrative
intelligence
for
global
advertising
juggernauts.”
Granted
Netflix
is
not
unique
here.
In
a
country
too
corrupt
to
pass
meaningful
privacy
laws
(because
MAGA
Republicans
just
like
Ken routinely
work
to
kill
them),
nearly
every
company
you
interact
with
on
a
daily
basis
now
monetizes
your
every
movement
and
online
choices,
“anonymizes”
it
(a
meaningless
term),
sells
access
to
dodgy
international
data
brokers,
then repeatedly
lies
about
it.
They
do
this
because
Republicans,
corporate
lobbyists,
and
many
“centrist”
Democrats
have,
quite
unsubtly,
worked
tirelessly
to
dismantle
corporate
oversight
and
regulatory
autonomy.
Most
companies
have
been
eager
to
take
advantage,
including
Netflix
CEO
Reed
Hastings,
who,
like
countless
other
CEOs,
used
to
at
least
pay
empty
lip
service
to
never
tracking
or
monetizing
consumer
data.
Paxton’s
lawsuit
insists
Netflix
has
built
a
vast
surveillance
economy
that
includes
peoples’
kids
viewing
habits,
violating
Texas
consumer
protection
law:
“Netflix
built
this
surveillance
machinery
to
scrutinize
how
users
and
their
children
behave—what
they
click,
how
long
they
linger,
what
they
avoid,
when
they
pause,
what
draws
them
in,
what
they
replay
or
skip,
where
they
are,
what
devices
they
use,
what
other
devices
are
in
their
home,
what
other
apps
they
interact
with,
and
much
more.
Each
action
is
a
data
point
revealing
something
about
the
user.
This
is
not
simply
about
deciding
what
show
to
queue
up
next.It
is
about
learning
who
the
users
and
their
children
are.”
Again:
almost
every
single
company
you
interact
with
does
this
now.
Many
in
ways
that
are far
worse than
Netflix
(see:
the entire
unregulated
data
broker
economy).
Paxton
knows
this.
So
why
single
out
Netflix?
And
why
now?
Well,
Netflix
has
been
a recent
thorn
in
the
side
of
Trump-allied
billionaire
Larry
Ellison’s
efforts
to
acquire
Warner
Brothers,
CNN,
and
HBO.
Starting
earlier
this
year,
Trumpland
made
Netflix
public
enemy
number
one,
pushing
a
pretty
broad misinformation
campaign
targeting the
company.
Missouri
Senator
Josh
Hawley
went
before
Congress
to
accuse
them
of
“pushing
trans
ideology.”
More
recently,
Paramount
has
been trying
to
blame
Netflix for
all
the
negative
criticism
of
their
giant,
terrible
Warner
Bros
merger.
These
sorts
of
lawsuits
take
a
while
to
build
momentum,
so
I
suspect
Paxton’s
inquiry
began
during
the
mad
conspiratorial
heat
of
MAGA’s
Netflix
breakdown
earlier
this
year,
and
is
only
culminating
now.
And
I
suspect
Paxton
will
be
eager
to
share
any
juicy
and
harmful
tidbits
found
during
trial
prep
to
help
frame
the
company
(which
in
reality
has
been pretty
amicable
toward
Republicans and trans
bashing
comedians)
as
a
useful
“woke”
culture
war
prop.
That’s
not
to
say
Netflix
doesn’t
do
anything
wrong
and
isn’t
(like
every
tech
company)
abysmal
on
surveillance
and
privacy,
but
it is to
say
that
authoritarians don’t
actually
care
about
the
public
interest.
And
they
certainly
don’t
actually
care
about
mass
commercialized
surveillance,
given
they’ve
played
a
starring
role
in
cementing
it
and eliminating
all
accountability
for
it.
The
American
public’s
broad
and
growing
hatred
of
corporations
and
the
extraction
class
has
long
been
a
fertile
recruitment
playground
for
autocratic
zealots
like
Trump
and
Paxton,
who
love
to
put
on
adorable
little
stage
plays
where
they
pretend
to
be
“reining
in
corporate
power”
and
“embracing
meaningful
antitrust
reform.”
But
it’s
uniformly
a
performance
always
driven
by
ulterior
motives.
If
guys
like
Trump
and
Paxton
actually
cared
about
consumer
privacy,
they’d
openly
and
loudly
support
a
national
privacy
law
that
holds all companies
(and
executives,
personally)
accountable
for
privacy
and
security
failures
when
it
comes
to
consumer
data.
If
they
cared
about
consumer
privacy,
they’d
relentlessly
target
data
brokers
that
sell
oceans
of
consumer
data
to
any
nitwit
with
a
nickel
(including
foreign
intelligence).
They’d
fund
and
staff
U.S.
regulators
tasked
with
policing
privacy
abuses.
They
don’t
do
that
because
that
might
impact
them
and
their
friends
financially,
and
disrupt
the
U.S.
government’s
ability
to spy
on
Americans
without
a
warrant.
So
instead
you
get
these
highly
selective
and
flimsy
populist
performances
that
single
out
administration
“enemies”
for
failing
to
adequately
bend
the
knee,
while
tricking
rubes
into
thinking
they’re
being
tough
on
corporate
power.
Ken
Paxton
Pretends
To
Care
About
Consumers,
Sues
Netflix
To
‘Protect
The
Children’
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