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Facebook had a problem on its hands. People were making posts that got caught in the company's automated moderation system or were taken down by its human moderators. The problem wasn't that the moderators, human or otherwise, were wrong to take down the posts. No, the problem was that the people behind the posts were famous or noteworthy, and the company didn't want a PR mess on its hands.
So Facebook came up with a program called XCheck, or cross check, which in many instances became a de facto whitelist. Over the years, XCheck has allowed celebrities, politicians, athletes, activists, journalists, and even the owners of "animal influencers" like "Doug the Pug" to post whatever they want, with few to no consequences for violating the company's rules.
"For a select few members of our community, we are not enforcing our policies and standards," reads an internal Facebook report published as part of a Wall Street Journal investigation. "Unlike the rest of our community, these people can violate our standards without any consequences."
"Few" must be a relative term at Facebook, as at least 5.8 million people were enrolled in the program as of last year, many of them with significant followings. That means a large number of influential people are allowed to post largely unchecked on Facebook and Instagram.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 14 2021, @04:24PM (3 children)
"The PDT exists to protect smaller investors that might not have the money to cover their trades"
No, because when you buy a stock and sell it the trade is covered by the sale.
The PDT rule does not exist in other countries and there is no problem. The brokers just keep track of everything and make the necessary exchanges.
This is just an arbitrary rule the SEC imposes on the brokers. Otherwise the brokers can (and in other countries do) figure it out.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 14 2021, @05:49PM (2 children)
But, that's not the case, the money isn't back until the trade has cleared, usually a few days later and definitely not before the end of the day. It takes time for the funds to actually move between different banking institutions to make that happen. You're owed the money when you sell, and you owe the money when you buy, but that doesn't magically happen immediately. It takes several days for the bankers to get the money transfer to complete the transaction.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 14 2021, @06:06PM (1 child)
I understand what you're saying but the banks can keep track of who is owed what until the exchanges are finalized and it's not a problem. They do it with accounts over 25K and the U.S. is one of the only, if not the only (I'm sure if you tried hard enough you can find some other country) country that has the PDT rule and this is never a problem in other countries. It was also never a problem in the U.S. before the SEC passed the PDT rule.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 14 2021, @06:11PM
Also I don't believe the PDT rule applies to crypto (ie: on Robinhood). The banks/brokers figure it out.
It's just an arbitrary rule the SEC imposes on banks/brokers for no good reason. It's oppressive and needs to be abolished.
Also, yes, I have more than 25K in one of my accounts. I don't want to fund every single brokerage account with 25K just to trade freely. I shouldn't have to. In other countries they don't have to. Abolish the PDT rule.