"Breaking report from ABC News."
"According to information our station just received, law enforcement officers from the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided several field-operation companies under the well-known social media giant Facebook this morning and took away a large number of related personnel."
"The information currently known is that the FBI received a real-name report alleging that Facebook is suspected of organizing, leading, and carrying out a premeditated, large-scale infringement of the intellectual property rights of multiple Hollywood content owners."
"According to an informed source who wished to remain anonymous, Facebook's specific illegal conduct may be related to systematically hiring outside personnel to imitate and create derivative works based on well-known Hollywood content and flagship IPs."
"Facebook hired a large number of creators to produce character derivatives, scene derivatives, and story derivatives related to well-known films such as Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Transformers. It then strategically used this infringing content to organize and operate fan groups related to these works on its platform."
"After learning of the news, a marketing expert who wished to remain anonymous stated that Facebook's behavior appeared to be an attempt to strengthen user stickiness and absorb specific fan groups during the fierce social media competition, by creating popular IP gathering places that seemed to be spontaneously run by fans, thereby converting copyrighted content into platform traffic and user numbers."
"If all of this is true, this will be an unprecedented copyright conflict between digital platforms and traditional content giants."
"Its scale may even be larger than the Content Capital v. YouTube case back then."
"Because YouTube back then didn't have subjective intent to infringe, but Facebook seems to have been caught with solid evidence."
"Another legal expert who wished to remain anonymous told ABC that this kind of organized derivative-work infringement for commercial gain, if supported by solid evidence, could expose Facebook to sky-high fines, or even direct shutdown."
"Due to the seriousness of the incident, this station will continue to follow its developments."
The assistant's shouting made Isaac Perlmutter decisively turn on the television in his office. Immediately afterward, ABC News' urgent report appeared before him.
To be honest, after listening to ABC News' report, Isaac Perlmutter was completely shocked!
Because before seeing the news, he'd thought Isabella's move against Facebook was an attack aimed at him. Striking the mountain to shake the tiger, using Facebook to hit him.
But after seeing the news—
"Isabella is really hitting Facebook this time?"
"Isabella is really hitting Facebook this time??"
"Oh my God—"
"Isabella is really hitting Facebook this time???"
Isaac Perlmutter collapsed onto the sofa! His eyes stared fixedly at the television! His face was filled with disbelief!
There was no helping it. The current "facts" were a little hard for him to accept. Because Isabella had already declared war on him! Because Isabella had already released the news that she intended to acquire Take-Two!
When Isabella had already sent him a declaration of war, in the very next second, she suddenly swung out a slap and smacked Facebook?
What the fuck was this???
"She, she, she, she must be insane, right???"
Isaac Perlmutter was so shocked that he could barely speak properly! He forcefully turned his head and looked at the assistant who had come to report the news and told him to watch television, as well as the secretary who had already been standing in his office because of the FBI's message. He shouted, "Is Isabella a lunatic?"
"On one hand, she's telling us that she already sees our communication with Microsoft as a declaration of war! On the other hand, she swings out a punch and smashes it onto Facebook's head! This, this, this, what kind of operation is this!!"
Isaac Perlmutter roared with all his strength!
Right now, he felt that even if he had ten years' worth of cerebral thrombosis, he still wouldn't be able to see through Isabella's true purpose!
And his confusion, whether it was his assistant or his secretary, neither of them could answer it. The two looked at each other, then shook their heads at the same time.
Their silence also plunged the large Marvel chairman's office into dead stillness.
Uh, there was actually still sound in the office. But it was Isaac Perlmutter's heavy breathing, like an old blower. It made a "huff, huff" sound.
And from the television, there was ABC News' anchor continuing another report: "Yesterday, August 9, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 387.18 points, marking its largest single-day drop since February 27, 2007. The Dow Jones Industrial Average's weakness may suggest that a global economic recession has already arrived."
No one knew how long the pause lasted. In any case, after ABC's evening news ended, Isaac Perlmutter finally "regained" his senses.
"Sigh—"
He took a deep breath and let out a heavy sigh. Shaking his head, he said, "Tell me, is Isabella trying to solve both Facebook and me all at once?"
"???"
His boss's words left the assistant and secretary somewhat puzzled. The two glanced at each other and asked, "Boss, why would you think that?"
"Because Isabella made moves against both me and Facebook at the same time."
Isaac Perlmutter shrugged and said, "Because her Order of the Phoenix is almost finished filming?"
The reasoning was so abstract that Isaac Perlmutter's assistant and secretary were both stunned. At this moment, they truly wanted to reach out and touch their boss's forehead to see whether he'd been driven muddle-headed by anger.
But before they could think of how to respond, Isaac Perlmutter suddenly laughed again.
"Heh." "Since Isabella looks down on me this much, then let's have a real fight!"
Before his voice even fell, Isaac Perlmutter had already stood up. Ignoring the secretary and assistant beside him, he walked straight past them and left the office.
That resolute figure made the two lick their lips.
Only after their boss's back completely disappeared did the assistant murmur, "Where do you think the boss went?"
The secretary sighed and said, "Do you even need to ask? Definitely Lehman."
"So, you're not surprised?"
"Surprised about what?"
"Don't you think the things we're facing are too abnormal?"
"Uh, although I also feel that Isabella's actions are completely impossible to understand, what I want to say is that Isabella has the right to be willful, because she has never been fighting alone. And I also want to say that it's normal for the boss to want to fight back, because our boss also has capital to be proud of. He always has—"
Isabella's move left Isaac Perlmutter both shocked and furious.
Shock, because Isaac Perlmutter felt that he couldn't understand Isabella's behavior at all. He simply couldn't use the logic of a normal person to sort through Isabella's bizarre methods.
Fury, because if he analyzed all of Isabella's actions according to normal logic, Isaac Perlmutter could instantly feel that he'd been underestimated and looked down upon by Isabella. Isabella wanted to beat him and Facebook at the same time?
Who the fuck gave her that courage?
He wouldn't even talk about Facebook's background. Just behind him alone, there was Lehman! If he kept calling in people, he could even call in Mossad!
So!
Isabella wanted to teach both him and Facebook a lesson at the same time?
"Then I'd really like to see just how hard your teeth are!"
After leaving the office, Isaac Perlmutter immediately arrived at the underground parking lot of Marvel's headquarters. He got into his car, slammed the door hard, and said to the driver in the center rearview mirror, "Go to Lehman."
Before his words even fell, a fierce engine roar suddenly sounded!
And while Isaac Perlmutter was losing his rationality—
California.
Palo Alto.
Facebook's headquarters had already fallen into extreme madness.
"She, she, she, she, she is trying to kill us!"
"Kill our Facebook!"
"She doesn't want even the slightest bit of peace talk with us! She doesn't want even the slightest bit of negotiation with us!"
"She only wants us dead!!!"
"She only wants us to die!!!"
Mark Zuckerberg's face was flushed red, veins bulging in his neck, his mouth opening wildly, like a vulture in the desert fighting hyenas over carrion, letting out waves of shrill, ear-piercing screams.
The moment that voice capable of piercing through everything appeared, Sean Parker and Peter Thiel both frowned at the same time! Because the pain coming from their ears was somewhat unbearable! Because Isabella's actions had shocked them beyond measure!
Over the past half hour, they'd watched the news programs of CNN, ABC, CBS, and BBC. When all four of these world-class media giants were reporting on Facebook's "illegal incident," they understood that right now, between themselves and Isabella, the relationship had already become one where only one side could survive.
Because at this moment, the weapon Isabella was swinging was called the media cudgel. Once she exposed everything Facebook had done, Facebook's reputation would suffer severe damage.
Then, in the best case, Facebook's development would fall into deadlock. In the worst case, Facebook could at any moment fall to the brink of bankruptcy and dissolution.
The logic here should be easy to understand, right? When a company carries a large amount of negative news, its development will be obstructed. Unless that company is irreplaceable in the world.
For example, Boeing, Raytheon, and Lockheed Martin. When they're the physical guarantees on the aircraft carrier known as America, even if thousands point fingers at them, they can still live extremely comfortably.
But Facebook?
Putting aside the fact that in the social networking field, only YouTube had so far possessed its own corporate moat, since YouTube could use Content Capital's things unscrupulously without being sanctioned by the law, unlimited power was the key to a company's immortality. Everything else was bullshit.
Just looking at the iteration of products in the social networking field, from the time the internet truly entered ordinary households until now, twelve years had passed. Over these twelve years, people had already changed countless internet social applications.
In the early days there were Source, Delphi, and America Online. In the middle period there were Open Diary, Mii, and Friendster. At present there were MySpace and Facebook.
When even Microsoft's MSN could be ruthlessly swept into the garbage heap of history by time, why couldn't Facebook die too? Not to mention, its name itself sounded like "must die."
So, right now, Isabella was guiding public opinion and pushing them into the ranks of demons?
This—
"What do we do now?"
"Isabella really is a lunatic!"
"We previously thought that when she arrested our people, she wanted to force us to negotiate!"
"So she could extract benefits from us!"
"But now it seems—"
"Our Facebook has absolutely no value in her eyes!"
Mark Zuckerberg's roar made Sean Parker meet his gaze.
Looking at those bloodshot eyes, Sean Parker slowly spoke the helplessness in his heart.
That was right.
In their previous judgment, they'd thought Time Warner's aggressive action was merely a bluff. They believed Isabella only wanted to put on a tough posture to intimidate them, and then seek as many benefits as possible from their hands, because they believed their own actions weren't illegal.
Or rather, they didn't believe Isabella would truly dare to grab them and kill them.
As for the reason behind this judgment? That was related to Isabella's age. Right now, she was only seventeen!
So how could she possibly be like those old foxes who'd floated up and down in the business world for many years, making every move a killing blow?
This was also related to their own backgrounds. They all had people above them. Then, even if Isabella had helped the Ross family regain control of Time Warner, causing the Ross family to be willing to share their power with Isabella, the relationship between the Ross family and their stepmother Amanda Burden had already become very weak.
Yes.
Amanda Burden and Steve Ross had no children. Their relationship back then—
Uh, platonic love.
This was what Steven Spielberg had said. He said Steve Ross, when he was young, was even more handsome than Dustin Hoffman. Amanda Burden being with Steve Ross was truly because she purely liked his face.
So, when the true masters of America most likely wouldn't personally step onto the stage over a small matter like the Facebook infringement case, whether it was Sean Parker or Peter Thiel, they both felt that they still had a chance to resist!
But now, Time Warner hadn't used the divine power behind it at all, hadn't gone to call in the North American Brahmins, but had chosen to directly flip the table?
Honestly, flipping the table was even more disgusting than borrowing divine power! Because with the former, they could still find people to negotiate and seek a chance to survive. But with the latter, Isabella equally wanted every single one of their lives!
"Ask Microsoft for help."
Although Sean Parker's words were directed at Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel knew that Sean Parker was communicating with him, so he said, "We have to settle everything in a short time."
"Because once public opinion ferments and our reputation is damaged, the investors will come looking for trouble with us."
"They won't care whether we actually broke the law or not!"
"They will only know that we encountered a major public opinion crisis!"
"And then—"
"They will start liquidating us!"
"And this is Isabella's real killing move!"
That was right.
In the current era, killing Facebook was actually a very simple thing. Because the current Facebook didn't yet have the kind of market-monopolizing position it would have in the future, and it hadn't reached the point of being too big to fail.
So, before Facebook had established its own unique revenue model and monopolized the social networking field on the European and American servers, as long as the world learned that they did all kinds of evil and no longer dared to use them, they'd die directly.
It was still the same saying: there were no angel investors in this world. When capital discovered that the money it had invested might suffer losses, it would only do two things.
First, it would check whether its losses had been caused by external factors. If so, it would then check whether it could help the invested company solve its difficulties. If it could, then naturally everyone would be happy.
If it couldn't, second, they would take out a knife and demand that the invested company repay the money.
This was actually the real reason why startups in many emerging industries eventually chose to merge and go public! It wasn't that the founders didn't want to eat alone! It was that the masters behind them no longer wanted to keep burning money!
Because Microsoft understood all of the above, or rather, Microsoft itself was exactly this kind of demonic investor, when the secretary said that Sean Parker had already called him for help, Steve Ballmer wasn't surprised at all.
But he had no intention of replying, because—
"William, why do you think Isabella has to be this crazy?"
"Is she really choosing to kill Facebook just because Facebook infringed on her rights?"
"I don't think so."
Bill Gates shook his head and said, "I think she probably wants to ensure that she has a sufficiently leading position in the social networking field. Of course, it's also possible that she doesn't want us to get involved in the social networking field."
There was no wall in the world that didn't let wind through. An organization like the FBI was like a sieve to real capital.
So, at the same time that the FBI took down Facebook's field department, Microsoft had already received information from its own people.
Mm.
Microsoft actually learned about the matter earlier than when Steven Spielberg passed along the news. But at the time, they hadn't paid much attention. This was not only because they all knew about Facebook's behavior of using the "rubbing up against others" method to siphon traffic, and knew that once Isabella noticed Facebook, she'd definitely take action to counter it. It was also because they felt that no matter how powerful Isabella was, it was impossible for her to press Facebook to death all at once.
But right now, only three hours had passed since they first received the news. And then, the world had changed.
Isabella's move wasn't aimed at profit at all! She had directly flipped over the table everyone was eating at!
This forced Steve Ballmer to find Bill Gates and discuss countermeasures!
As for this—
"William, since you think Isabella may be coming for us, then, do we still help them?"
"What are you thinking?"
"Me? We can indeed help Facebook suppress this matter. For example, we can contact Sumner Redstone and have CBS revise its report, then communicate with Comcast and have FOX broadcast news favorable to us, then say hello to General Electric and have NBC whitewash Facebook, and finally have the FBI issue a statement saying the outside information isn't entirely true. But—"
At this point, Steve Ballmer licked his lips and said, "Personally, I think Facebook must give us 50% of its shares. Otherwise, they aren't worthy of this kind of treatment, because we still have to face Disney and Warner."
"50% of the shares?" Bill Gates narrowed his eyes.
"Mm. We can't save them for free, and those idiots no longer have any reason to live. If the founder hadn't been stupid and greedy, and had cut ties with the illegal matters earlier, Facebook wouldn't have encountered this storm. Peter Thiel and Sean Parker deserve to die too, because when something happened, they didn't tell us immediately—"
Steve Ballmer looked serious.
In his eyes, whether to save Facebook was closely related to who Facebook belonged to. If Facebook belonged to Microsoft, then of course they'd save it! But if Microsoft only held a few percent of Facebook's shares, then why should they save it?
Right?
Regarding this—
"Tell Sean Parker that Microsoft can save them, but after the incident is over, we will acquire all their shares for 100 million dollars. If they're unwilling, then let them wait to be torn apart by the other investors."
Bill Gates waved his hand. He made the final decision on how to handle the entire storm.
And just as he was about to stand up and embrace the weekend that had already arrived—
Knock, knock, knock.
The urgent knocking made the two of them look toward the door at the same time.
"Come in."
Steve Ballmer exchanged a glance with Bill Gates. Only after seeing him nod did he call for the person to enter.
As his voice fell, the door to his office was pushed open from the outside.
The person who entered was his secretary. After seeing his boss, the other party said directly, "Boss! Isabella Haywood has made another move! She put the Facebook matter on Google and YouTube's recommendation sections!"
"???"
His subordinate's words made Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates instinctively frown.
The next second, neither of them spoke. They directly used practical action to express the surprise in their hearts. Steve Ballmer moved the mouse on his desk and opened Internet Explorer.
Bill Gates left the guest sofa and came to his side.
After they saw the trending keyword recommendations on Google Search and the trending videos on YouTube, their pupils suddenly contracted.
Because all of Google's trending keyword recommendations were Facebook's illegal-news reports! The trending video on YouTube was Warner Bros. solemnly declaring that it had never joined Facebook!
Yes.
Right now, what the people of the world could see depended entirely on what Isabella released to the outside world.
Not convinced? Then you can also shout Fake News while building Truth Social!
What? What she's releasing now isn't Fake News?
Oh.
Then you can't build Truth Social either.
Hehe~