Malicious compliance

Malicious compliance (also known as malicious obedience) is the behavior of strictly following the orders of a superior despite knowing that compliance with the orders will have an unintended or negative result. It usually implies following an order in such a way that ignores or otherwise undermines the order's intent, but follows it to the letter.^[1][2] It can also describe a willful act of regulatory interference, for example when a corporation releases a compliant but inferior version of a product in response to new legislation. A form of passive-aggressive behavior,^[3] it is often associated with poor management-labor relationships, micromanagement, a generalized lack of confidence in leadership, and resistance to changes perceived as pointless, duplicative, dangerous, or otherwise undesirable. It is common in organizations with top-down management structures lacking morale, leadership or mutual trust. In U.S. law, this practice has been theorized as a form of uncivil obedience.^[4][5]

Malicious compliance was common in the Soviet Union's command economy; examples are used in the studies of behavior, management, and economics to hypothetically show differences between the Soviet command economy and a free market.^{[6][unreliable source?]}. As of the 2020s, the term is often used to describe commercial response to digital governance, for example the response of American big tech to the European Union's requirement for informed consent in their General Data Protection Regulation.