Trying to avoid antitrust suits, Google systematically told employees to destroy messages, avoid certain words and copy the lawyers as often as possible.
If it’s about internal messages about illegal activities, yes. In a court case, during discovery, internal messages may be requested.
The idea for this asshat is that if those particular messages are missing, then that evidence is gone, making it tampering with evidence.
Normally that would result in a victory for them but if it comes out that they deleted relevant messages, like right now, then normally that would be very bad. If it were me, I would probably go to jail over that.
However, this is the US and it’s about some rich asshole, so probably nothing will happen
Is it illegal for them to delete messages? I had always been under the impression that FOIA only covered government.
If it’s about internal messages about illegal activities, yes. In a court case, during discovery, internal messages may be requested.
The idea for this asshat is that if those particular messages are missing, then that evidence is gone, making it tampering with evidence.
Normally that would result in a victory for them but if it comes out that they deleted relevant messages, like right now, then normally that would be very bad. If it were me, I would probably go to jail over that.
However, this is the US and it’s about some rich asshole, so probably nothing will happen