fortune--2020-07-07--The Fug Girls on the book publishing industry and maintaining a small business online

Flying into London Heathrow any time soon ?
You may be subjected to a coronavirus swab

For authors, there may be no greater pressure than the few months, weeks, and final days leading up to a book launch. Preorders are crucial to the success of a book release, as it gives both publishers and booksellers an idea of who is going to buy the book and how many copies it might sell, which in turn fuels how much both parties want to continue to sink into a marketing push.
On sale July 7, The Heir Affair, by fashion journalists and business partners Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan, has already been named one of this summer’s most anticipated reads by a variety of publications. The Los Angeles–based pair recently spoke with Fortune about what goes into the book publishing process…And what it’s like to do it all over again when a novel is successful and readers want (or even demand) a sequel.
The following interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
Authors Heather Cocks (left) and Jessica Morgan Moksha Bruno/Linc Imagery
Fortune: There have been countless think pieces claiming that the romantic comedy has been dead on the silver screen for the past several years, but in the literary world, rom-coms seem hotter than ever. Why do you think this might be?
Cocks: I truly don’t know, but I wonder if it has to do with there being better representation in romance and rom-com novels in general. Publishing as an industry still has a long way to go, obviously, in terms of diversity. But even so, it still seems like it’s doing better on that front than Hollywood. The mainstream movie industry hasn’t taken rom-coms seriously in a long, long time, and too often when it makes a cursory effort to do so, it’s with a stale gendered perception of romances being “chick flicks” and how they can twist them to get traditionally male butts in seats. Whereas publishing at least seems to respect and understand the power of a loyal audience that values a laugh and a love story, and that said audience is much bigger than how Hollywood defines it and deserves smart content.
Morgan: Yeah, as we noted, publishing is obviously deeply imperfect; publishers in general need to be publishing more books by Black authors and other authors of color, and paying them, and marketing them, much, much better than they do. But they do seem to have made more of a place for the rom-com as a reliable moneymaker than Hollywood has. The tradition of the beach read is something that has a lot of room in it for books that are romantic comedies. That is a specific space for readers that is already baked in as a reliable source of sales in that business.
For the uninitiated to the publishing industry, could you explain a bit about the book-pitching process? How long did it take to complete your previous book, The Royal We, from start to finish?
Cocks: The publishing process varies from author to author and project to project, which I know is an annoyingly vague answer, and so I will get more specific, but that is also part of it. I would be negligent if I didn’t note that we are two white women, which means our experience will have been unjustly easier than that of Black authors, or other authors of color. Our personal road to publishing is somewhat unusual: We had Go Fug Yourself, a public platform on which our voice and our writing (and occasionally our made-up dialogues) were on regular display, and we had a fair amount of published freelance columns that went beyond what we did on GFY. So we were considered a known quantity and were therefore able to sell our YA books and The Royal We based on a detailed outline and several sample chapters. Unpublished or debut authors—though there are exceptions to this—generally need a completed draft of the book for their agent to submit. So, there’s that amount of time to consider before the process even begins.
We started writing sample chapters for The Royal We in the summer of 2013 and then turned that in with an outline, and sold it in September of that year and started writing around Thanksgiving, with a research trip to the U.K. in early 2014. Most of the earnest work was done in the ensuing six months of 2014. And then the next six months involved one very large trim pass—it was over 800 pages in [Microsoft] Word—and then proper editorial notes, and then the final phases of production before the advance reader copies [ARCs] came out in, I think, January 2015. The hardback came out in late April of that year, and that is considered a tight turnaround from ARC to pub date. So for us, it was almost two years from conception to birth, as it were, but there were some periods of waiting and negotiating in between bursts of work.
Morgan: There is also a lot of hurry up and wait when your book is out on submission to publishers, which can really vary. I know authors whose books have taken months to sell, and which went on to be successful. Nothing about this is a marker of future success, and others who have sold in mere days. It’s an incredibly unpredictable path, even from book to book. This is one of the reasons why, if you choose to be traditionally published, having an agent you trust, with whom you have good communication, is important.
“The Heir Affair” is the fourth book by Morgan and Cocks, following up “The Royal We,” published in 2015. They have also written two young adult novels: “Spoiled” and “Messy.” Courtesy of Hachette
Loosely based on the British royal family circa 2010, The Royal We was published in 2015. Its sequel, The Heir Affair, is coming out this week. That seems like a large time gap these days as many readers have become accustomed to popular reads getting a sequel within a year or two. Was there already a plan in place for a sequel? Do you feel more pressure from publishers or readers in getting the second book right?
Cocks: I feel pressure from myself about it! I was terrified. Still am. People are so nice about The Royal We, and have really taken it into their hearts, and I have had massive anxiety for almost two years now about whether we will let them down. There was never a plan for a sequel. We always refer to the ending of The Royal We as the Cutting Edge ending, after the ice skating movie, where you don’t necessarily need to know exactly how all the threads tie up, because the most important thing is that they’re in it together and that is cemented. But readers seemed increasingly open to it, as did our publisher.
Around the time of [Prince] Harry’s engagement, we toyed with the idea of doing a Kindle single about Freddie [one of the main characters in the first book] meeting someone after the events of The Royal We, and when we sent it to our agent, she was like, “I mean, now that you’re back in this world…what about a full sequel?” And I guess even The Cutting Edge got some sort of sequel, so we’re in good company again.
Morgan: Our publisher never pressured us, though. Our agent didn’t really either, although I have to think that the delay in us writing something new was making her very antsy. One of the reasons that this book took so long was because it was very difficult for us to come up with a story that felt like it was new ground for these characters. I guess it’s TBD whether we accomplished this.
But also, to be honest, Heather and I are very slow plotters. I have such huge huge respect for authors who can publish on a yearly (or tighter) schedule; that takes massive talent and skill to be so prolific. We are not really slow writers, but the creative process to get to the point where you sit down and write takes us some time. And to be honest, this book was a tough one. We missed some deadlines. We restructured it a lot on the fly, and there were some plot points we didn’t really figure out until we were halfway through. So one of the reasons The Heir Affair took so long was just that we had a lot of work to do to it.
Cocks: And the characters did need to live a little, also. We ended The Royal We pretty much in present-day—the month and year that it was published—so they needed a little time and space for life to happen.
Many authors who had books slotted to be published from March onward have had to reckon with the fact that promotional events and book tours—which are scheduled months in advance and are critical to publishing revenue—were going to be canceled. Some authors pushed onward, but others have postponed their releases until late 2020 or even 2021. The Heir Affair was already scheduled to be released in July, but things aren’t back to normal like they were in February or even the first week of March. How has all of this factored into the marketing strategy for this book? Have you had to make any adjustments?
Cocks: Grand Central [Publishing] never suggested canceling, honestly. At least not to us. I wonder how much of that is because our release date, July, felt far enough out from the beginning of the pandemic that they were optimistic about being able to print and sell it. I don’t know; we weren’t part of those conversations, and that’s probably for the best, as we would have no idea what we were talking about.
If anything, I kind of wished we could have released it earlier for all the people who were tearing through all their reading material back when we were still adjusting to isolation. But it’s hard to do that when you can’t get physical copies into their hands, and we and GCP also both wanted independent bookstores to be involved here. So the release date stayed put, and now I think that’s a good thing, because people are still grappling with how much is safe to do outside, but indie bookstores are able to do fulfillment. We’ve definitely had to cancel all our plans for in-person bookstore appearances, though. It’s a bummer—we love meeting people—but we do not want to be super-spreaders. Having Go Fug Yourself on which to promote it mitigates a bit of that, at least.
Morgan: Yeah, I think we’re all learning on the fly here. It’s sort of ironic, because before the pandemic, all the authors I knew were desperate to get their books out as far away from the election as possible, just because we all know that it’s going to (correctly!) take up so much media space. And now people are pushing back closer to that date to be able to hopefully go out and do some promotion. There is no easy answer here.
I think people are just doing their best. I do think that the uptick in virtual promotions is going to be beneficial going forward, though. A lot of readers live somewhere that is remote or in a city that doesn’t get a lot of love from traditional book tours, and they can actually attend virtual events, and they’re excited about that. I hope in the future that it will be possible for bookstores to do a combination in-person/virtual event to include those people going forward, like streaming in-person events on their Facebook or Instagram, which I know that some do already.
Your daily bread-and-butter comes from your fashion website, Go Fug Yourself. Before the pandemic, many of your posts and slideshows covered red carpet events from indie film festivals to the Oscars. But with everything canceled since mid-March, you’ve gone in a new direction with content. Some critics might argue that entertainment isn’t a priority right now, but your site is still a small business. What has your experience working during the shutdown been like? And what is there to be said about entertainment providing some much-needed levity for some readers?
Morgan: It’s certainly been an adjustment for us, as I think it has been for literally every business in these, as they say, unprecedented times. In addition to not having any current content, ad sales have tanked, and that’s the prime way that we (and every online site) monetize our work. We need ad sales money to pay for hosting, photos, and our salaries, as well as stuff like legal fees, our accountant, our web developer, and the rest of the back-end costs that go into a business like ours. So it’s certainly been somewhat more stressful than usual.
But, ultimately, this is a job that we are fortunate enough to be able to do from home. We are not frontline workers, or working in a career that requires a lot of contact with the public. So while it’s definitely been stressful—I think everyone is stressed!—we are very lucky in many ways.
Cocks: Basically, we have to hope nobody gets tired of being reminded of how we all used to dress in the ’90s and early aughts, because we’re in for a very long haul of that. Interestingly, the idea of “That’s not important right now” has been kicking around for a long time, particularly after November 2016. There were any number of news cycles where people tsk-tsked the idea of talking about fashion when the world was burning—and I completely get it. But also, the human mind is capable of caring about multiple things at once, and everyone needs a break from screaming into the void, even if it’s just for 30 seconds of screaming about January Jones’ pants or something. Fashion can be brilliantly subversive and it’s art and it does matter, but yes, in the scheme of the world, there will always be bigger things happening than what people are wearing. But self-care and stress relief are real, and that’s theoretically where sites like ours come in.
Morgan: We’ve always said that our job is to provide procrastination material for people whose jobs are more stressful and more important than ours are. So we’re still just trying to do that as best we can.


fortune--2020-07-07--If you’re reading this, Beijing says its new Hong Kong security law applies to you

The full text of Hong Kong’s controversial new national security law came out late at night on June 30, the day it was enacted. Lawyers and legal scholars were quick to dissect the text and offer their analysis. In those early hours, one feature of the legislation stood out.
Its 38th article seems to give the national security law (NSL) boundless reach. The text states that the NSL, in addition to covering anyone in Hong Kong, regardless of nationality or residency status, also applies to offenses committed against Hong Kong “from outside the Region by a person who is not a permanent resident of the Region.”
“The scope of the law exceeds the wildest of expectations,” said Cora Chan, associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong.
Legal experts question the feasibility of enforcing Article 38 on foreign nationals outside China, and its massive jurisdiction won’t be tested until the first case arises. But the provision’s sweeping latitude and threats of detention and surveillance are enough to prompt self-censorship and discourage visitors from traveling to Hong Kong—the kind of fallout that could undercut business confidence in the financial hub.
“The sheer uncertainty of when Beijing would feel the need to use the law…will be the main way through which the law reaps its effect: by chilling conduct,” Chan said.
Extraterritorial jurisdiction
Beijing argues that the NSL will bring stability to Hong Kong and reinforce the “one country, two systems” framework established in Britain’s 1997 handover of the city. However, the text of the law says its enforcement goes beyond that “one country”; in fact, it professes to cover everyone, everywhere.
“I know of no reason not to think it means what it appears to say: It is asserting extraterritorial jurisdiction over every person on the planet,” Donald C. Clarke, a professor at George Washington University who specializes in Chinese law, wrote in a June 30 blog post.
Clarke wrote that Article 38 gives the NSL—which covers the vaguely defined offenses of secession, subversion, terrorist activities, and collusion with foreign forces—“an even broader reach than mainland [China’s] criminal law” that is limited to crimes committed within China.
China’s foreign ministry, for its part, said the law “will only target very few criminals but protect the vast majority of Hong Kong people.” Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam on Tuesday called the law “relatively mild as far as national security laws are concerned” and dismissed fears of the NSL’s impact on Hong Kong, saying, “This is not doom and gloom.”
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam speaks to the media about the new national security law introduced to the city at her weekly press conference on July 7, 2020. Isaac Lawrence—AFP/Getty Images
When a government claims extraterritorial jurisdiction, it is extending its legal power beyond the borders of its country. Many countries have extraterritorial jurisdiction laws that apply to their own citizens, usually for serious crimes committed in another country, or when a suspect flees abroad.
U.S. law, for instance, claims extraterritorial jurisdiction for the arrest and return to the U.S. of American citizens and nationals. Under the U.K.’s extraterritorial jurisdiction policy, citizens and residents who commit certain violent and sexual crimes outside the U.K. can be prosecuted in the U.K. if they are physically present in the territory, including by extradition.
Article 38 differs in that it asserts extraterritorial jurisdiction over people who are not residents of Hong Kong, meaning any person on earth could technically violate the NSL and face prosecution.
Legal experts suggest the likelihood of enforcing such a claim on foreign nationals in other countries is as infeasible as it sounds.
How would it be enforced?
Article 38 does not explicitly mention extradition, but carrying out the statute as written would rely a great deal on the process in which authorities in one country hand a person accused of a crime over to law enforcement in the jurisdiction where the charges were filed.
Twenty countries have extradition agreements with Hong Kong, including the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia, France, Germany, and New Zealand.
Already, nations are taking steps to sever that relationship.
Canada suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong on July 3 in response to “grave concern” over the new law, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.
Aircraft operated by Cathay Pacific and its Cathay Dragon unit on the tarmac at Hong Kong International Airport on June 9, 2020. The broad scope of Hong Kong’s new national security law could put the city’s reputation as a transit hub at risk. Roy Liu—Bloomberg/Getty Images
There is mounting pressure on other countries to follow suit. The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC)—a coalition of legislators from the U.S., Canada, Europe, Uganda, and elsewhere, and which formed in June to reform democratic countries’ approach to China—called on its members to suspend their Hong Kong extradition agreements.
IPAC said on Saturday that Hong Kong’s rule of law has been “severely compromised following the imposition of the so-called national security law,” and said its members are “urgently seeking assurances from their respective governments that no such extraditions will take place and that existing treaties with [Hong Kong] are reviewed,” according to the South China Morning Post.
But even if extradition treaties stay intact, exercising them is no cinch.
If a person in a country with an extradition agreement with Hong Kong committed a crime under the NSL, that person would “not necessarily” be extradited to Hong Kong, as Hong Kong extradition law “only applies if the offense is also a criminal offense in the reciprocal country,” said Andrew Powner, managing partner at Hong Kong–based criminal defense law firm Haldanes.
There are also existing legal and human rights protections that prevent extradition if it is deemed politically motivated, Powner said.
“Extradition is a lengthy and complex process that is reserved for only the most serious cases,” and there are built-in checks and balances that allow different levels of appeal against extradition that “can be argued before the courts for many years,” Powner said.
For people who live in countries that don’t have extradition treaties with Hong Kong, they could only face prosecution under the NSL if they were to travel to or through Hong Kong—a possible threat to the Asian transit hub.
The NSL could also be enforced if the person is subject to an Interpol Red Notice and they transit through a country that has an extradition treaty with Hong Kong, Powner said. At the same time, Interpol has protections and appeal procedures, and a Red Notice “does not necessarily trigger the start of the extradition process [and] is reserved for only the most serious cases.”
Jerome Cohen, a Chinese law expert and professor at New York University, wrote in a July 2 blog post that there will be a “huge” international reaction to any attempt by China to punish a foreign national for acting in violation of the NSL if the act is “not proved to have serious consequences at home or against the nationals of China abroad.”
“The international community is likely to reject any attempt at such a claim as another [People’s Republic of China] violation of public international law,” Cohen wrote.
The ‘chilling effect’
Despite the jurisdictional challenges and the likely international outcry, Article 38 could still succeed in discouraging dissent and criticism of Hong Kong worldwide.
The law is “so vague and broad” that many people—foreign journalists, scholars, political activists—may avoid traveling to Hong Kong over fears of investigation and surveillance under the NSL, said Chan.
Hong Kong police stand guard during a demonstration at a mall on July 6, 2020. Critics see Hong Kong’s new security law as a direct response to the city’s ongoing protest movement.
Chan said Hong Kong’s financial importance as a conduit for mainland Chinese companies and money means that, in her estimation, “the law is not going to be used frequently or wantonly to target businesses and investors, at least in the short run.”
But, Chan said, the law could stymie freedom of expression and academic freedom in the city and “diminish the attractiveness of [Hong Kong] for investors and talent,” who traditionally have been drawn to the city’s rule of law and independent judiciary.
Reporters Without Borders, an international nonprofit for defending press freedom, condemned the new law in a July 2 statement, saying the NSL would stifle press freedom in Hong Kong and beyond, as journalists worldwide consider the ramifications of Article 38.
“This grotesque regulation, that is widely open to interpretation, not only gives the Beijing regime a tool to harass and punish journalists in Hong Kong under appearances of legality, but it also allows China to intimidate and threaten news commentators abroad with incarceration,” Cédric Alviani, East Asia bureau head for Reporters Without Borders, said in the statement.
The provisions of Article 38, Powner wrote on the Haldanes website, seem “exceptionally difficult to enforce and perhaps are designed more as a deterrent to stop persons who advocate matters covered by the NSL from setting foot in Hong Kong.”


fortune--2020-07-07--For Danone’s CEO, stakeholder capitalism “is a fact”

Good morning.
The biggest challenge in turning “stakeholder capitalism” from a public relations talking point into a true operating system is metrics. We know how to measure returns to shareholders. But how do you measure returns to “stakeholders”? And how do you hold companies accountable for delivering, or not delivering, those returns?
One group that’s been working on that question for over a decade is the B Lab, whose goal is to “balance purpose with profit.” It has developed a rigorous certification process for companies to become “B Corporations.” To date, mostly smaller companies have been certified—Patagonia, Ben & Jerry’s, Eileen Fisher. But earlier this year, Danone—a global food company with nearly $25 billion in revenues—announced it planned to become a B Corp by 2025, committing to specific goals for its impact on health, the planet, its people and inclusiveness.
We invited Danone CEO Emmanuel Faber to join us this week on our podcast Leadership Next, to talk about that decision. You can listen to the interview here. An excerpt:
“We want Danone to become a B Corp because we believe that in the world in which we live, and certainly in the world we are entering right now, there will be increased attention paid to the ethos of companies and of brands by consumers, governments, employees, civic society, and many more.”
In Faber’s view, the move toward stakeholder capitalism will continue whether businesses want it to or not.
“Look at the reality…there are many stakeholders jumping into the scope of our business, whether we like it or not. When governments are just shutting down borders, forbidding exports or imports, when they are forcing localization, when in Argentina you have nationalization of soy companies…When health authorities are closing channels and sending everyone home…these are all stakeholders.” Stakeholder capitalism “is a fact.”
Faber says that, based on discussion with other CEOs, the interest in B Corp certification is growing … although “obviously still small.” But he also says, “I don’t think you need to be a B Corp to do stakeholder capitalism.” Metrics, however, remain key. What gets measured will get managed.
More news below. And thanks to all the sharp-eyed readers who dinged me yesterday for using “principle” when I meant “principal.”
More news below.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com


fortune--2020-07-07--How Hong Kong’s new security law is already throttling its open Internet

Facebook, WhatsApp, Google, Twitter, Signal, Zoom, Microsoft, and Telegram all announced this week that they will temporarily stop responding to Hong Kong government requests for information on users in the city amid Beijing’s new national security law. Apple, meanwhile, is still “assessing” the law and will await guidance from the U.S. government. Chinese-owned TikTok has decided to pull out of the Hong Kong market altogether.
Beijing implemented the new national security law in Hong Kong on June 30. It’s aimed at preventing and punishing acts that jeopardize China’s national security, namely secession, terrorism, subversion, and collusion with foreign forces. The Tuesday announcements from foreign tech firms followed the Monday introduction of Hong Kong’s new rules outlining Article 43 of the law; they give Hong Kong police sweeping power over Hong Kong’s Internet.
The rules say that all online publishing platforms in Hong Kong, whether locally based or foreign-owned, must provide data, remove content, or restrict access to users upon police request. What’s more, any “foreign agent” or service provider that fails to comply with police could face a fine of nearly $13,000 and six months of imprisonment.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam did not answer a direct question about foreign tech firms’ refusal to share data with the Hong Kong government but reiterated her determination to enforce the law.
“For Internet service providers and other organizations, they may be asked to remove information or messages online. There is this power,” Lam said.
Such statements may do little to assure compliance by foreign tech firms. For now, they are taking a stand against the apparent erosion of Internet freedoms in Hong Kong.
Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, is seen on smartphone screens during a news conference in Hong Kong on June 30, 2020. This week she dodged questions about tech giants’ refusal to cooperate with government data requests. Lam Yik—Bloomberg/Getty Images
“We believe freedom of expression is a fundamental human right and support the right of people to express themselves without fear for their safety or other repercussions,” Facebook said in a statement. Its stance and those taken by other tech giants seem to be proactive and not in response to new government requests for user information.
The messaging app Telegram has said that it will wait for an international consensus to emerge over Hong Kong’s political changes. Facebook said it will consult international human rights experts before moving forward. A Twitter spokesperson told Fortune that it is reviewing the law to assess its implications, particularly because “some of the terms of the law are vague and without clear definition.”
Skepticism among foreign tech firms about Beijing’s new legislation in Hong Kong reflects the fears long harbored by some users in the region that are now being realized: that Beijing’s tightening grip on Hong Kong will throttle the unfettered Internet that has shaped the city’s cultural and business landscapes.
A VPN boom
Hong Kong’s relative autonomy from China since Britain’s 1997 handover has meant city residents have never been subject to China’s Great Firewall, which blocks access to websites like Google, Facebook, and the New York Times and employs trackers that monitor Internet users and censor sensitive posts. Hong Kong’s online experience more closely mirrored that of the U.S. than Shenzhen, the Chinese city it borders, a trait that endeared Hong Kong to business professionals, students, and academics alike.
The anti-government protest movement in the summer of 2019 provided the first inklings that Hong Kong’s Internet freedoms were under threat. Protesters took steps to protect their online data, switching to encrypted messaging apps like Signal and Telegram to organize protests and hide their identities from authorities.
The push toward online privacy spiked this year in late May, after China introduced the new national security legislation for Hong Kong. At the time, virtual private networks (VPNs), which mask a user’s online activity, reported massive upswings in demand in Hong Kong.
People walk on a pedestrian bridge near Hong Kong Polytechnic University on June 6, 2020. The city’s history of an unfettered Internet has endeared it to business, academia, and the arts. ISAAC LAWRENCE—AFP/Getty Images
On May 26, a Hong Kong protester told Fortune that he downloaded a VPN hours after Beijing announced the new law because he was “really afraid that the [Chinese Communist Party] will get my personal information.”
Now that the law is in effect, VPN demand in Hong Kong remains high.
Top10VPN, a research firm based in London that tracks global VPN use, says that the day before the national security legislation went into effect, searches for VPNs in Hong Kong surged by 321% in comparison to the rest of June.
“The criminalization of ‘secession’ and ‘subversion of state power’ has led many to believe that speaking out online may be grounds for arrest,” said Samuel Woodhams, a researcher at TOP10VPN. “It appears only a matter of time before the mainland’s strict digital censorship and constant surveillance is also felt in Hong Kong.”
At a press conference on Friday, spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not directly address concerns about diminished online freedoms but said the law “will help ensure Hong Kong’s lasting security, stability, and prosperity, [and] safeguard residents’ lawful rights and freedoms.”
Social media exodus
In the lead-up to the law’s implementation, there also were signs that Hong Kong’s Internet users were starting to scrub their online identities.
The exodus was perhaps most pronounced on Twitter, a platform that gained popularity in Hong Kong last year during the anti-government protest movement as activists sought to reach a more global audience. The company declined to comment on whether it’s seen a drop in users in Hong Kong recently. But public sign-offs and shuttered accounts from some of Hong Kong’s top pro-democracy figures point to a meaningful migration off the platform.
On June 30, a Twitter user going by the name mono posted a goodbye to another user who often shared Hong Kong protest artwork. Other users noted how Hong Kong activists appeared to be leaving the platform en masse.
“The Exodus of Hong Kong Twitter accounts is honestly depressing to behold,” wrote Jan Renders on Twitter, a Ph.D. candidate in China.
Users seemed to leave other major U.S. social media platforms too. In a video post on May 22, Hong Kong actor and activist Wong He demonstrated how to delete a Facebook account. The video has garnered over 170,000 views. On Instagram, at least one prominent activist organization, a law group at Hong Kong’s Tsuen Wan Public Ho Chuen Yiu Memorial College, announced it would delete its account in light of the new law.
Facebook declined Fortune’s request for comment on the potential drop-off in users on Facebook and Instagram, which Facebook owns.
Yet there remain online spaces where Hong Kongers continue to share pro-protest content. LIHKG, an independent Reddit-like online messaging board that became popular among protesters in 2019, is still active and full of posts expressing anti-government criticisms.
Beijing’s new Internet restrictions for Hong Kong, enforced just seven days ago, are still taking shape. But already there’s proof that Beijing is remaking Hong Kong’s online experience to reflect that of the mainland, where overseas tech giants are neutralized and dissenting content is hard to access, having been relegated to farther-flung corners of the Internet.


fortune--2020-07-07--How designers are visualizing America’s failure to cope with COVID-19

This is the web version of Business x Design, a newsletter on the power of design. Sign up here to get it in your inbox.
The pandemic has destroyed jobs everywhere but created new demand for the services of at least one category of designer: data visualization specialist.
Mapping the spread of the coronavirus is an inherently data-rich endeavor, lending itself to the creation of myriad charts, tables, graphs, and dashboards. We’ve all become connoisseurs of these displays, and many of us have developed daily routines for checking them.
My own begins with the Hong Kong government’s coronavirus “latest situation” dashboard, which offers up-to-the-minute information on not only the number of new cases but age, address, and current quarantine status of every infected patient. (Touch wood, still no cases in our village!)
Next, I scan the “Worldometer” league tables to see which countries have had the highest number of new cases over the past two days. Then I jump to the New York Times to check hot and cool spots by country (the virus is raging in Latin America while, remarkably, there have been few new cases for two weeks in Southeast Asia), and scan the state-by-state and county-by-county numbers for the United States (where the virus seems to be spreading fastest in Florida, Texas, and Arizona).
Many corporate visualization leaders, including Tableau and IBM’s Cognos Analytics on Weather.com, provide useful tools and data for tracking the outbreak. Amanda Makulec, an expert in health care data visualization and the operations director for the Data Visualization Society, offers insights on the uses and misuses of this wealth of data in this Medium post.
Typically, I’ll conclude my daily data dive with a look at the Financial Times‘ coronavirus tracker, where I check the chart that I find most flabbergasting: the seven-day rolling average of new cases per day for each country by number of days since 10 average daily cases were first recorded.
The FT‘s chart allows me to see new cases by country in both logarithmic scale, which is bad, as well as a linear scale, which is horrifying. In either scale, the story that visualization tells is unmistakable. The virus has been more or less contained in every advanced industrial democracy except the United States, where the daily rolling average has soared above 45,000 people—far exceeding any other nation—and continues to hurtle skyward.
On an absolute number basis, only Brazil (with an average of about 37,000 new cases per day) and India (with an average of about 21,000 new cases per day) come close to matching America’s daily increase in infections.
A glance back at the Worldometers table shows that, if considered on a per capita basis, no major economy has a higher rate of infection than the United States, which ranks 13th globally—behind a gaggle of small states including Qatar, San Marino, Bahrain, and the Vatican—with more than 9,100 cases per million people. And that’s not because the U.S. tests more than other countries; 24 other nations, including Iceland, Denmark, Russia, and Portugal, exceed the U.S. testing ratio of 115,000 per million citizens.
Any good data scientist will warn you: correlation is not causality. But how to explain the abysmal failure of the world’s richest nation—which boasts the world’s most advanced health care system—to cope with COVID-19?
Journalist James Fallows tackles that question in a long essay in last month’s Atlantic. He begins with the observation that coping with a pandemic requires design thinking on a vast scale. It is, he argues, one of the most complex challenges a society can face, requiring leaders and citizens to mobilize a wide array of resources and tools.
Fallows, an amateur pilot, draws parallels between the complex, systemic approach required to fight a pandemic to the systems we have evolved to prevent catastrophes in commercial air travel. “In these two fundamentally similar undertakings—managing the skies, containing disease outbreaks—the United States has set a global example of success in one and failure in the other,” he writes. His explanation for the divergent outcomes is both meticulous and devastating.
More design news below.
Clay Chandler
– clay.chandler@fortune.com
NEWS BY DESIGN
Mirage
Foster + Partners unveiled its winning design for Saudi Arabia’s latest airport, which will service a forthcoming luxury resort, Amaala, in the desert. The exclusive airport, designed to look like a shimmering mirage, “personifies luxury” but there’s little indication it was designed with social-distancing protocols in mind. Critics also says the airport design is a betrayal of the Architects Declare climate change pledge that Foster + Partners signed last year.
Cleared for take off
Frankfurt Airport has partnered with biotech company Centogene to trial an on-site, in-airport testing facility for COVID-19. Passengers are processed in booths within the terminal, then their samples are taken to a lab (which sits on the back of a truck). Interestingly, the tests are voluntary and priced. If passengers pay more, they can get their results faster.
Shades
Facebook created a proof-of-concept prototype for a new line of virtual reality headsets. Unlike the bulky Oculus, which Facebook acquired in 2014, Facebook’s new VR headset looks just like a pair of shades. The ultra-thin eye piece is made possible by a holographic lens, which can be installed much closer to the display panel than a conventional refractive lens.
Refunding
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pledged $1.5 billion in funding to keep the country’s arts industry afloat. The sector, which suffered major budget cuts when the Conservative party came to power ten years ago, has been decimated by the pandemic. Without support, it was estimated the creative sector could lose 400,000 jobs.
Reduce, reuse, recharge
Last year the world produced 53.6 million tons of electronic waste, including smartphones, computers and other gadgets. Only 17% of the waste was recycled officially, and the amount of waste produced is expected to double from 2014 levels by 2030—suggesting designs for a circular economy have some way to go. Apple’s reported decision not to ship the iPhone12 with a charger at least offers a guide on how to “reduce” and “reuse.”
Return to fun
One more thing on Apple: the Cupertino company's redesign of macOS into Big Sur has stepped away from functional, minimalist buttons and shuffled towards skeumorphic design. Designer Michael Flarup argues this subtle change signifies a shift in Apple's core design philosophy, towards one that welcomes fun back into UX.
EVENTS BY DESIGN
July: Christie’s is planning a semi-virtual auction for July 10. The “first of its kind” event will livestream auctions from four cities—Hong Kong, New York, Paris and London.
September: Art Basel in Switzerland—initially rescheduled from June to September—has been cancelled, set to return in June 2021.
Ongoing: D&AD’s New Blood Festival—a celebration of upcoming talent in design—will be running online this year, ending July 10. The digital festival marks New Blood’s 40th anniversary. Dezeen’s Virtual Design Festival comes to a close this week on July 10, after a staggering 12-week run.
QUOTED BY DESIGN
"This notion of dealing with incredible uncertainty and totally new territory is the realm of artists and designers…It's the realm in which they perhaps have the best skill set to move forward. So I think it is telling that art and design students, as traumatic as this experience was, really managed to make some incredible discoveries during this time."
Says Rosanne Somerson, president of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), discussing how the school is preparing to welcome back students in the fall. The school was forced to close in March, due to the pandemic, and is now redesigning courses and facilities to allow for safe-distancing when students return. Somerson says, "This is without a doubt the biggest challenge we've faced in our entire history as an institution."
This week’s edition of BxD was curated by Eamon Barrett. Email him tips and ideas at eamon.barrett@fortune.com


fortune--2020-07-07--Investors hit pause on global stocks rally—for now

This is the web version of the Bull Sheet, Fortune’s no-BS daily newsletter on the markets. Sign up to receive it in your inbox here.
Good morning, Bull Sheeters. Investors have hit pause on this incredible stocks rally with Asia and Europe down this morning. U.S. futures are also in the red.
But that’s after the Nasdaq hit yet another all-time high yesterday, and the S&P 500 has now battled back to within 1.6% of break-even for 2020. It’s also after the U.S. topped 130,000 coronavirus deaths. And it comes as too many frazzled parents have no idea if America’s schools will fully reopen in September, and companies wonder which state or city will be the next to close down bars, restaurants and businesses. The uncertainty feels like an all-time high, too.
Let’s check in on today’s action.
Markets update
Asia
The major Asia indexes are mostly lower in afternoon trade. Shanghai is the lone major index in the green.
is the lone major index in the green. The focus is again today on Hong Kong after a number of popular tech services, including Facebook’s WhatsApp and Telegram , said they will cease handing over data to authorities. And TikTok is pulling out of the region altogether as the fallout of Beijing’s new security law forces tech companies to pick a side.
after a number of popular tech services, including Facebook’s and , said they will cease handing over data to authorities. And is pulling out of the region altogether as the fallout of Beijing’s new security law forces tech companies to pick a side. Speaking of TikTok… U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the U.S. is “looking at” banning TikTok and other Chinese social media apps over security issues.
Europe
The European bourses faltered at the open, with Stoxx Europe 600 down 0.55% .
faltered at the open, with down . In a further sign Europe is open for business, the Louvre in Paris opened its doors yesterday, quickly selling out of the 7,400 tickets on offer. That’s roughly one-quarter the normal crowd , however, and losses are piling up.
opened its doors yesterday, quickly selling out of the on offer. That’s roughly , however, and losses are piling up. A key piece to Bayer’s mega Roundup weedkiller settlement case is in limbo, sending shares down 3.8% in the opening minutes of trade.
U.S.
The major averages started the week on a tear with the Dow on Monday gaining 450 points and the Nasdaq hitting a fresh all-time high. Futures today point to a negative open.
and the hitting a fresh all-time high. Futures today point to a negative open. Among the stellar movers yesterday were Amazon, which topped $3,000 for the first time ever, and Netflix, which jumped 3.3% to hit a record high. And Tesla is up 36% in the past five days. It too hit a record.
for the first time ever, and Netflix, which jumped to hit a record high. And Tesla is up in the past five days. It too hit a record. Speaking of record highs… Epidemiologists are tracking a different kind of rally. The U.S. yesterday notched its 27th straight day of record daily coronavirus cases.
Elsewhere
Gold is flat.
is flat. The dollar is up
is up Crude is falling, with Brent continuing to trade in a tight range between $42- and $43/barrel.
***
Q2: What to look for
Let’s talk earnings. ‘Tis the season, after all.
Next week is the first big week on the quarterly reporting calendar with JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo all scheduling analyst calls. It should give us, in many cases, the clearest picture yet of the economic destruction from the quarter that just passed—Q2.
Beginning three months ago, we got a startling number of companies pulling guidance, so much of what we hear will truly be new. Investors, so far, have gone easy on companies for their EPS misses. The big question remains: does earnings-per-share even matter this year, or will some other metric emerge to determine the fitness of companies in the age of COVID? Perhaps it will be cash flow or debt levels or top-line growth.
Now, let’s look back at Q1. For many (non-tech) companies, it was a brutal quarter that nevertheless will look better than what we’re about to hear.
Taken in aggregate, S&P 500 companies saw the top- (sales) and bottom lines (earnings) fall quarter-on-quarter, as this BofA breakdown shows:
There was just one exception to that. Health care outperformed all other segments in both earnings and sales in Q1. (If you had thought it would be tech, you’re not alone.)
But there’s a big disconnect between business performance and share price. YTD, the best performing S&P sector, shares-wise, is not health care. Yep, it’s tech. Health care is trading nearly flat—up just 0.7% in 2020—while tech is up nearly 17%.
That makes some sense. Investors mostly look forward, so share price tends to more heavily reflect future performance. Hence, investors are betting that tech is the sector best positioned to weather this crisis, and to grow in the post-COVID economy as well.
But is the recent run-up in tech stocks truly justified? Here’s where these earnings calls are important. We’ll begin to see which of these high-flyers are the next great hope, and which are nothing but hype.
***
Have a nice day, everyone. I’ll see you here tomorrow.
Bernhard Warner
@BernhardWarner
Bernhard.Warner@Fortune.com
A note from my Fortune colleagues on a timely new initiative:
Many companies are speaking out against racial injustices right now. But how do they fare in their own workplaces? Black employees in the corporate world, we want to hear from you: Please submit your anonymous thoughts and anecdotes here. https://bit.ly/WorkingWhileBlack
As always, you can write to bullsheet@fortune.com or reply to this email with suggestions and feedback.
Today's reads
Chasing meaningful returns. Is ESG investing—that is, dedicating a portion of your portfolio to companies that uphold “environmental, social, and governance” principles—something retirement savers should even consider? Patrick Pizzella, the U.S. deputy secretary of labor, has his doubts. Here's why.
A long awaited IPO. Peter Thiel's Palantir has long been tabbed as a sure-thing IPO. The secretive big data specialist credited with tracking down Osama bid Laden has in fact filed with the SEC to go public. Beyond that, little is known about its finances or how much it's seeking.
A Biden bounce? We're about four months away from Election Day, and Wall Street is looking into its crystal ball to see whether a Trump or Biden presidency is good for stocks. JPMorgan came out with a contrarian call yesterday, noting “the consensus view is that a Democrat victory in November will be a negative for equities. However, we see this outcome as neutral to slight positive.” Here's why.
Some of these stories require a subscription to access. There is a discount offer for our loyal readers if you use this link to sign up. Thank you for supporting our journalism.
Market candy
Quote of the day
“They knew that government ‘help’ to business is just as disastrous as government persecution, and that the only way a government can be of service to national prosperity is by keeping its hands off.”
Yep, that's Ayn Rand, that most famous and influential of small-government advocates, in a 1960s essay. That quote is being trotted back out onto the Internet this morning after we learned that the Ayn Rand Institute won approval for a Paycheck Protection Program loan of up to $1 million, according to Reuters. Lest you think this is a stroke of hypocrisy with a capital H, the institute responded to Reuters with a link to an op-ed from May in which a board member and senior fellow wrote: “We will take it unapologetically." They add, "the government has no wealth of its own…. It can only redistribute the wealth of others.” Objectivism at its finest.


fortune--2020-07-07--The B Corp movement is accelerating during the pandemic

Subscribe to CEO Daily for must-read business insights from Fortune CEO Alan Murray, delivered free to your inbox.
To Emmanuel Faber, CEO of food giant Danone, the coronavirus pandemic is a reason to accelerate social and environmental impact goals, not abandon them in the name of his company’s bottom line.
On the latest episode of Leadership Next, Fortune’s podcast about the changing role of business leadership, the CEO joins cohosts Alan Murray and Ellen McGirt to talk stakeholder capitalism in today’s tumultuous world.
Danone is on the path to become a certified B Corporation by 2025. That means the company will be held to strict standards of “verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.” Most B Corps are small businesses, but a growing number of larger businesses, with Danone being one of the largest, are interested in achieving the certification, according to Anthea Kelsick, co-CEO of B Lab U.S. and Canada.
Faber said that the company believes that committing to these goals will provide Danone a competitive advantage while achieving good in the world. And becoming a certified B Corp creates tangible, measurable targets that must be hit, which keeps businesses accountable for their public commitments.
At the 8:30 mark, McGirt cuts in with Kelsick to discuss the B Corp movement, corporate accountability, and infusing business with more anti-racism. Kelsick says that since the Business Roundtable’s statement embracing stakeholder capitalism last fall, there has been a spike in interest at B Lab, the nonprofit that certifies B Corps. And further interest has come from the COVID-19 pandemic and the global reckoning with systemic racism spurred by George Floyd’s killing by police, she said. Business is asking itself what role it plays in society and what value it truly brings.
“There is no better tool than B Corp certification to measure and also manage how to deliver that value,” she said. “Being armed with the right tools to put that thinking into practice is so incredibly important right now.”
To close the episode, Murray asks Faber for his advice to companies starting out on their journey to B Corp certification or including social and environmental good in the fabric of their business.
“I think, first of all, that you have to be conscious of where you started and why is your company existing,” he said. “Your company does not just exist to create profit.”
After reconnecting with your company’s purpose, Faber said, it is important to listen to your critics and younger generations. Seeing your business from an outside perspective is key to moving forward on this journey, he added.
To hear more insights from Faber and Kelsick, listen to the episode below.


fortune--2020-07-07--Beijing proves a 2nd coronavirus wave doesn’t have to mean a 2nd lockdown

Beijing reported zero new coronavirus cases for the first time in 26 days, a sign the resurgence that ignited fears of a second wave in China looks to have been brought under control for now.
The city of more than 20 million people appears to have quelled a flare-up that infected 335 people, with infections down from 36 a day at their peak in mid-June. Authorities took a different approach to the virus when it reappeared in China’s political and economic hub after nearly two months of no locally transmitted cases than they did in Wuhan, the central city where the pathogen first emerged.
Instead of resorting to a sudden across-the-board lockdown that risked reversing the gains made since China started reopening, Beijing deployed more targeted measures. While some — like confining whole neighborhoods to their homes — may be more difficult to replicate in western democracies, they could hold lessons for other countries as they grapple with the inevitable return of the virus given an effective vaccine is months, potentially even years, away.
The Beijing resurgence, which took root in a wholesale food market in the city’s southwestern district, injected fresh uncertainty into the global struggle against the virus, hitting as citizens were getting used to a semblance of normal life. It served as a warning to places that look to have nailed the pandemic: the virus is elusive and isn’t easily beaten.
The outbreak, which seeded small virus skirmishes in other parts of China, was contained in less than four weeks. This is how they did it:
Millions Tested
Hesitant to fully seal off Beijing like officials did in less economically important regions, the city relied on targeted testing at unprecedented speed.
Reminiscent of the mass operation conducted in Wuhan in May, when most of the population was tested for the virus in about two weeks, Beijing has tested more than 11 million people so far, according to Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Overall, China has the capacity to test 3.8 million samples nationwide every day, officials said June 24, likely one of the fastest speeds worldwide.
Such scale is achieved using a method known as batch testing, where multiple samples are assessed simultaneously with detailed follow-up if any trace of the virus is found. Even without this method, Beijing can test over 300,000 people a day, six times more than the city’s capacity in March, according to Beijing Health Commission official Zhang Hua.
During the Beijing outbreak, entire groups were tested whenever an infection was found in their midst, including all the vendors at several major wet markets. All workers at a PepsiCo Inc. food factory where a case was diagnosed had to undergo testing, and every delivery courier in the city — over 100,000 — was also sampled in weeks.
Targeted Lockdowns
Rather than confining everyone in Beijing to their homes once the new outbreak emerged, authorities just locked down apartment blocks and housing compounds close to the epicenter. In these high-risk areas, only one member per household was allowed to leave to purchase necessities.
It’s an approach that other countries are also looking at, with authorities in the Australian city of Melbourne implementing localized lockdowns to quell a resurgence in cases there. Specific streets or neighborhoods would be told to stay home and practice social distancing, but the rest of the city would remain open. South Korea, too, has taken a targeted approach, shutting down businesses or schools where there have been outbreaks, but never imposing city-wide lockdowns.
Schools in Beijing were also closed again to limit commuting, while some entertainment venues were shuttered, too.
Lessons From Wuhan
China appears to have drawn from the lessons of Wuhan’s devastating outbreak in January, when the virus was not well-understood by experts and the system unprepared for how contagious it is. Then, people swarming hospitals for help spread the virus to other patients and infected the environment.
This time in Beijing, residents were banned from entering hospitals unless they had tested negative for the virus, and makeshift test sites were set up in neighborhoods where cases were found to assist those showing symptoms.
Rather than seal off the city’s borders like in Wuhan — a move that caused widespread panic among residents, causing them to rush the city’s highways — China imposed quarantine requirements at destinations instead. People going from Beijing to some other provinces have to be isolated for two weeks in government-run facilities upon arrival, naturally discouraging travel. Carriers canceled flights, even though the airport remained open.
Still Cautious
Despite what seems to be a relatively quick containment, the flare-up has shifted the contours of China’s fight against the virus. Prior to the Beijing outbreak, the nation appeared to be largely triumphant in its fight against a disease that continues to devastate the developing world, and China’s biggest rival, the U.S.
The cluster in the capital is believed to have started at the market, but its exact genesis and how it spread remains unknown.
After the virus was detected on a chopping board used for imported salmon at the market, a nationwide boycott of the seafood took place that affected exporting countries like Norway and Australia.
Experts say it’s more likely that the salmon was contaminated by an infected person, or by being in a dark, humid and low-temperature environment where the virus was present. China’s customs department tested over 47,000 samples of imported meat, seafood, vegetables and food and all were negative. Still, the country has suspended imports from some foreign meat plants, including a Tyson Foods Inc. plant in the U.S. where hundreds of employees tested positive for Covid-19, a move that potentially undermines its trade deal with Washington.
Amid that uncertainty — and as cases continue to pop up in areas around Beijing — China’s strategy is to remain circumspect. Even as infections taper, officials say that they won’t ease the restrictions until Beijing has seen two weeks without any new cases.


fortune--2020-07-07--TikTok is withdrawing its app from Hong Kong as tech reckons with new security law

TikTok is withdrawing its popular short video app from Google and Apple app stores in Hong Kong, a company spokesperson told Reuters late Monday.
TikTok, which is owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, will pull out of the Hong Kong market within days, and the app will be inoperable there. The announcement comes one week after the enactment of a controversial new national security law in Hong Kong that prompted a spate of technology companies to suspend some operations in the region while they review the new law.
“In light of recent events, we’ve decided to stop operations of the TikTok app in Hong Kong,” the TikTok spokesperson said on Monday. A company spokesperson did not immediately respond to Fortune’s emailed request for comment.
Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Telegram have stopped processing user data requests from Hong Kong authorities while they review the national security law, and Apple said it is “assessing” the new law, which went into effect in Hong Kong on June 30.
The national security law is expected to give authorities in Hong Kong wide-ranging powers that analysts worry will curtail data privacy rights and online freedom there.
TikTok’s departure from Hong Kong—a small, unprofitable market for the app, according to Reuters—comes a week after its ban in India, which accounted for 30% of worldwide TikTok downloads in the first quarter of 2020.
India banned TikTok and other Chinese-owned apps last week after a violent border clash between Chinese and Indian military troops left 20 Indian soldiers dead. ByteDance may lose more than $6 billion as a result of the ban. The TikTok parent is the world’s most valuable startup, according to CB Insights; its investors include Sequoia Capital China, SoftBank, and SIG Asia.
Several U.S. Congress members have criticized the app for allegedly storing user data on servers in China and for censoring content to comply with China’s censorship rules, charges that TikTok denied last year. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said late Monday that the U.S. is “certainly looking at” banning TikTok and other Chinese social media apps.
This story has been updated.


fortune--2020-07-07--Anthony Fauci says coronavirus vaccine immunity is likely to be ‘finite’

Any vaccine developed to ward off the novel coronavirus would likely be limited in how long it would shield against infection, top U.S. infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said Monday.
“You can assume that we’ll get protection at least to take us through this cycle,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an appearance on a live-streamed video conference hosted by the National Institutes of Health.
“We’re still knee-deep in the first wave” of the pandemic, Fauci said. Health officials are assuming a shot would offer a degree of protection, though it’s likely “going to be finite.”
Subscribe to The Capsule , a weekly brief monitoring advances in health care and biopharma, delivered free to your inbox.
A shot to protect against Covid-19 won’t work like the measles vaccine, which lasts throughout a person’s lifetime, Fauci said. “We may need a boost to continue the protection, but right now we don’t know how long it lasts.”
Fauci said he expects the American public will have an answer before the end of the year or by early 2021 as to whether one of the more than 140 experimental shots in development has proven safe and effective.
In the meantime, Fauci said public health measures such as wearing a mask, social distancing, and frequent hand-washing should be used as a vehicle to a safe re-opening. “It’s not an obstacle, it’s a pathway to do that. We can’t create this binary thing where it’s ‘us against them,’” he said.
NIH Director Francis Collins, who led the interview with Fauci, responded, saying: “Even this issue tends to get polarized, maybe even politicized. Imagine that!”


fortune--2020-07-07--A closer look at transgender activism in Europe

For nearly eight years, much of my work has involved documenting the many evolutions of the French capital, as it transforms from a change-phobic city to a European powerhouse with global ambitions. Although representations of Paris have started to transcend stereotypes and deeply embedded misconceptions, the stories about its people have regretfully remained myopic, particularly when it comes to women. They perpetuate unchallenged myths about Parisian women—what they look like, how they live, and what they experience as they navigate the city.
In my new book, The New Parisienne: The Women & Ideas Shaping Paris (Abrams), I wanted to recast the archetypal Parisian woman and celebrate the stories, careers, and lives of some of the real women inhabiting and influencing Paris: women such as Clémence Zamora-Cruz—profiled in the excerpt below—whose work as a teacher, trans activist, and spokesperson for the Inter-LGBT nonprofit illuminates Paris as both a place of great possibility and great isolation for those who do not match the myth.
IT WAS EASY TO SPOT Clémence Zamora-Cruz when I went to meet her at the Gare du Nord on an early November morning. She was standing off to the side, scanning the crowds for me with trance-like focus and looked just as she did in her photos—long silky black hair and piercing blue eyes that were impossible to turn away from. We searched for a quiet place to talk, something of a feat in Europe’s busiest railway station. We ended up with coffee and a snug spot among travelers inside the brasserie L’Étoile du Nord, where she insisted that the fact that we were bookended by people who might overhear bits of our conversation wasn’t a concern. And so she spoke candidly about her life, as if we were alone.
Her story begins in a staunchly Catholic family. Zamora-Cruz was 6 years old when she announced that she was a girl. It wasn’t so much a coming out as an affirmation of her identity. There was no wavering or confusion about it, no gender dysphoria—she knew. “My parents told themselves my longer hair and interest in girls’ clothing would be a passing phase,” she tells me. But one particular family dinner set a different tone. Her parents went around the table, asking her brothers and sisters about their futures, what they wanted to do and be when they grew up. “I want to marry my English teacher!” said Zamora-Cruz proudly when it was her turn to answer. Her father rebuked the idea immediately. “You can’t. Boys can’t marry other boys.” She shot back, “Well, there’s no problem, because I’m not a boy.”
Lindsey Tramuta, author of “The New Parisienne.” Joann Pai
This was the early 1980s in Mexico, which was then, as now, one of the most dangerous countries in the world for trans people. (Currently, it is the third deadliest after the U.S.; Brazil ranks first, according to reports by the Trans Murder Monitoring [TMM] research project.) Gender identification issues were heavily stigmatized and either conflated with sexual orientation or treated as a form of mental illness.
“Conversion therapy” and other medicalized care aimed at convincing trans individuals to identify with the gender they were assigned at birth were systematically recommended as “solutions.”
Distraught by Zamora-Cruz’s revelation, her parents took her to see a psychologist, who prescribed “strict masculinization”—no more folk dancing, no more drawing, no activity that could be construed as feminine. “They pushed me into football, which isn’t a problem in principle, but I wasn’t interested in it at all,” she recalls.
Roadblocks and humiliation followed her through her academic life. Her school’s director considered her to be the source of the problem, provoking unwanted attention and abuse with her long hair and feminine clothing. But the school also blamed her parents for their questionable child-rearing and their inaction in “fixing” the problem, as if it were as simple as slapping a Band-Aid on a gash and waiting for it to heal. “As bad as things got, it’s hard for me to blame my parents—there was no support for what they were going through. There were hardly any specialized centers in Mexico or even in countries that were supposedly more ‘advanced’ on the issue,” she can say now with physical and emotional distance. The weight of the social pressure was intolerable and led to harassment not only in school but at home, where verbal and physical abuse abounded. Her siblings blamed her for the bullying they had started to incur by association, and her parents felt helpless. “People often forget the collateral damage that coming out trans can have on a family. It was [an] unhappy place for everyone,” she says.
The transphobia she encountered within her own family isn’t uncommon. Households that reject or deny a young person’s identity or sexuality often compound the sense of alienation they feel at school, and a lack of support puts them at great risk; many choose to emancipate themselves by leaving home but end up homeless (an estimated 40% of the homeless youth population in America is LGBTQ), and the prevalence of suicide and suicide attempts is “much higher among transgender people than the general population” (in France, two out of three transgender adolescents consider taking their own lives, and one out of three act on it). At 15, Zamora-Cruz was pushed into making such decisions as transphobic tensions at home came to a head. It was the night of Christmas. “Insults turned into shoving, then slapping, then hitting, until finally I hit back. I knew I couldn’t stay. I left home and slept outside in Puebla’s main square. I spent the night talking with other ‘social rejects,’ young people who had left home for similar reasons, and took the first bus out to Mexico City the next morning,” she tells me with great composure.
She lived in the streets for over a year, a time she reflects on now as a blessing in disguise. “It gave me a closer look at the social injustices that exist. Even though it was hard at home, I always had a roof over my head and food on the table. That year taught me solidarity, about figuring things out and getting by,” she says, closing her eyes briefly in gratitude. “But also about the kinds of oppression that others suffer, not just gender or sexual identity but economic and social injustices.” It was also a crash course in women’s rights and the issue of prostitution, which is typically discussed from a moralist stance. “I was a sex worker for part of the time I was out there. Many transgender people are refused jobs and become prostitutes as a means of survival. Yet white feminism will try to say that it isn’t an acceptable way for women to liberate themselves,” she notes, realizing this period in her life was the catalyst for her intersectional feminism.
As much as it forced her to grow up, she was still a teen runaway, and the police eventually found her. Her parents were notified, but when she returned to civilian life, it was instead under the protection of her grandmother, who took her in and cared for her despite their estrangement. “She respected me even if she didn’t understand me. She gave me all of her support so that I could go forward,” says Zamora-Cruz. “She encouraged me to go to college. She taught me survival rules—never isolate myself, always come home from school accompanied, for starters.” Combined with the defense mechanisms she learned in the streets, she was on a stable path—for a time. Her grandmother helped her get an apartment in Puebla, and she worked toward a degree in tourism administration, despite experiencing hostility from professors. She pressed on, graduated, and landed her first job. By this point, she had also become an engaged human-rights and political activist, regularly participating in student demonstrations calling for democracy.
“In the beginning, I was left alone during protests and marches. But as police oppressions picked up again, I started being harassed. The Dirty War wasn’t really over,” she explains. If she left home again in 1996, it was because no amount of survival skills could protect her from the increasingly hostile and dangerous political climate: “I was approached at a bus stop one morning by a group proclaiming to be the police. They placed a revolver to my head and told me to leave or they’d come after my family.” Was it because she was trans or associated with the student movement? I ask her. “Surely both. But it didn’t matter—I had to flee,” she recalls.
With a French boyfriend at the time, applying for a visa to France presented itself as the best option. But the fight was far from over. She went through a grueling interview process for a student visa that concluded with a meeting at the French Embassy with a senior official who held her fate in his hands. “I told him that if he didn’t issue the visa, he’d be condemning me to death. He stopped taking notes at that point, and we had a very frank, human conversation,” she says, knowing that he was pivotal in the decision to approve her application. “I’ve found natural allies along the way. They haven’t always declared themselves as such, like that man, but they’ve protected me when I needed it.” She considers herself lucky.
Paris is a lot of things. It’s a fragmented melting pot city and a refuge city for people who come in search of a better life. It’s a city that regenerates as much as it crushes. It’s a living paradox, just like the Parisienne. There’s an image and a lifestyle that isn’t in line with reality.
When she finally arrived in France, Zamora-Cruz thought that life was going to be easier, that she’d have greater rights and more support. In her imagination, she was settling into le pays des Droits de l’Homme—the country known for its Rights of Man. “And in one way, it was. But it was primarily the rights of the white man,” she begins. “Even if the violence in France isn’t necessarily physical or overt, it’s almost more vicious.” She describes a litany of discriminations, from deadnaming to pathologizing doctors to bias-based harassment or discrimination by police who brushed off reports of violence. She recalls a particular moment in her university class where she was ignored by her professor while giving a presentation. When she confronted him, he simply said, “People like you don’t interest me.”
“I wish I could say that life is better for the trans community in Paris [compared with Mexico], but it depends on a variety of factors. You have to consider it from an intersectional point of view: Often, trans people live through other oppressions, be it their race or class, and find themselves in a permanent state of precarity,” she tells me, specifying the difficulty that persists in employment, housing, and health care.
While the country has made inroads in terms of rights and ranks high on the Rainbow Europe Index—France was the first country to remove transgenderism from the classification of mental illnesses in 2010 (the World Health Organization recategorized “gender incongruence” in 2018 from a mental disorder to a sexual health condition); anti-trans discrimination was entered into the penal code; and since 2017, transgender people can legally change their gender without undergoing sterilization or proof of medical treatment, long considered a human rights violation—Zamora-Cruz and her fellow activists say the efforts don’t go far enough. “There remains a barrier to accessing many of the services and rights that exist. Legislation on its own doesn’t protect; it needs to be accompanied by awareness, training, and education. Practical measures, not just theory,” she explains. A police officer may have the responsibility to take violence against trans people seriously but lack the competency to do so without amplifying discrimination.
Clémence Zamora-Cruz Joann Pai
If things are going to improve in France, she believes it will be through education. Gender stereotypes need to be broken down from an early age. I ask her if she believes it’s possible—can Paris be a leader for LGBTQ rights? Only on the condition that it devotes the resources to it and treats the issue intersectionally, she says. “Paris needs to be at the forefront of antidiscrimination efforts overall. The city has to allocate more funds to LGBTQ rights and to the collective fight.” The question she asks herself now is how the state can combat institutional LGBTQ-phobia—as it insists it is committed to doing—if budgets are being cut in education, and teachers are losing their jobs.
There may not be a good answer for that, but she remains committed to her activism. In her volunteer roles as spokesperson of the Inter-LGBT organization and copresident of Transgender Europe, she is working to make conditions better and safer for future generations. Part of that fight involves advocating for gender self-determination so that trans people may modify their identity documents through a statutory system, not the court system. As part of the transgender organization Pari-T, Zamora-Cruz gives French lessons to trans migrants, and as secretary of the nonprofit Au-delà du Genre, she helps trans youths and their families combat transphobia. “We can’t fight with our words forever,” she says.
Now, 20 years after arriving in France, she no longer experiences the same level of discrimination, nor is she afraid of putting herself at risk. She is happily married and, in the past several years, happily in contact with her family, whom she hadn’t seen since she left home as a teen. When she finally reconnected with them in person, all the transphobic clichés they harbored fell away, one after the other. They not only accept her, they respect her. But she also knows it’s because she fits into their binary conception of the world. “They see me as I am: a woman,” she says. “And so, in the binary of man and woman that they find reassuring, there is a place for me.”
Joann Pai
Her Paris: Clémence Zamora-Cruz
FAVORITE WOMAN–RUN BUSINESS?
Marina, an Italian restaurant in the 10th arrondissement. I’ve always loved going there with my husband. The owner is welcoming, and I know her to be a real fighter.
A SOLO RITUAL?
Walk or cycle along the Canal Saint-Martin (shown above). When I lived nearby, it’s where I would go almost daily to recharge.
YOUR HAPPY PLACE?
The library at the Sorbonne. It is a magnificent space with frescoes and lamps. But it’s not a place everyone can go—you must be a researcher or a student. The library will always be an important place for me—it saved my life. As a teen and as a university student in France, it was one of the few safe places I could go.
The New Parisienne (Abrams) will be published on July 7, 2020. Interested readers can order copies now.


fortune--2020-07-07--The NFL’s apparent new wokeness might be performative, but it still matters

Overstock CEO : How blockchain can help pull us out of the coronavirus recession

We emerged from the holiday weekend with a newly woke NFL. I think, in time, we’ll find that it will matter.
On July 2, a league source told The Undefeated that the NFL will be playing “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” a song commonly known as the Black national anthem, prior to the kickoff of each game played during the season’s opening week. It is, as I noted, a significant break from the NFL’s “gloomy past,” and just one of a variety of measures the league is considering designed to express solidarity with the victims of police violence. Also under consideration, adding a list of the names of victims, like George Floyd, on player jerseys or helmets.
If you’re surprised by the capitulation, you’re not alone. I covered the story here.
Barely one day later, the Washington NFL team announced it was prepared to re-think its name and mascot, long derided as racist.
The team issued a press release distributed via Twitter announcing a “thorough review of the team’s name,” which “formalizes the initial discussions the team has been having with the league in recent weeks.” The statement cited “recent events around our country and feedback from our community.” Native American mascots can be found on playing fields at schools all over the country, and their imagery has been hurting people for a long time.
“Native Americans are the only group in the United States subjected to having a racial slur as the mascot of a prominent professional sports team,” wrote Michael A. Friedman, the clinical psychologist who compiled a 2013 report commissioned by the Oneida Indian Nation titled “The Harmful Psychological Effects of the Washington Football Mascot.” The marketing machine that amplifies the name, “not only repeatedly exposes Native Americans to a harmful stereotype, but also implicitly condones the use of this term by non-Native Americans, which if performed on an interpersonal level would possibly constitute harassment or bullying.”
If this is performative wokeness, I’m fine with this. If nothing else, it’s a rallying cry.
It took mere moments before the news broke about the Black national anthem — and the speed of millions of Google searches — for #BoycottTheNFL to trend on Twitter. But alongside the racist discomfort was an awakening. Come opening week, millions of NFL fans might learn about the poem that became a song that has meant perseverance, dignity, and hope to generations of Black families. Those same viewers would see the views of Black players and plenty of fans publicly respected, along with Black lives, more broadly. And it doesn’t matter if a white man, in this case, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, meant it or not when he said, “We, the NFL, admit we were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier and encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest. We, the NFL, believe Black Lives Matter.”
He said it. Now, the song. The name. The marketing machine. Everything is now in play.
What matters now is what happens next.
Now that the first wave of big announcements is winding down, raceAhead will be turning our attention to the nuts and bolts of the work that must happen in the longer term.
But what comes immediately next is a tired football reference, right? So, suit up, everyone. And plan to leave it all on the field.
Ellen McGirt
@ellmcgirt
Ellen.McGirt@fortune.com
On point
The first-ever virtual Fortune Brainstorm Health conference is happening The pandemic has driven the annual convening online and was front and center for the first of two days of programming. It would be worth a subscription to get all the insights: While the pandemic is worsening the opioid crisis, the sudden need for urgent collaboration between Big Pharma rivals is yielding powerful results. I’m just “offstage” after my conversation with Dr. Erin Thomas, VP, Head of Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging, Upwork and Dr. Ashwini Zenooz, GM & Chief Medical Officer, Global Healthcare & Life Sciences, Salesforce. Our topic was race, wellness, and justice, which I’ll cover in greater depth later this week. Follow along tomorrow from Noon to 3:00 pm ET #FortuneHealth
Fortune
The coronavirus: The big picture New federal data now offers the most thorough snapshot to date on who is getting and dying from the coronavirus in the U.S. Looking at nearly regional data, it’s clear: Latinx and Black residents of the United States are three times as likely to become infected as their white neighbors, and twice as likely to die. The New York Times dug into the details of 640,000 infections in some 1,000 U.S. counties — and the outcomes are the same whether the county is rural, suburban, or urban. The data also show spikes in Native American communities.
New York Times
The first Black man in every marketing role If majority culture organizations begin to diversify, they will welcome a slew of firsts — the first person of any underrepresented demographic will begin to populate roles in their org charts. And these first-in-the-role individuals will suffer without specific support. This is the sage advice of Michael Jackson, a marketing and sales veteran at Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Coors, and General Motors, and always the first Black man in the gig. Mentorship matters. At Coca-Cola, he says, “I survived for as long as I did because I had a guy relatively senior in the organization who mentored me and gave me an opportunity to be successful.”
Ad Age
Now, try being a Black woman in engineering Jocelyn Harper, a software engineer and host of the Git Cute podcast, breaks life as a Black woman in tech all the way down — and, trigger warning, she nearly broke down. Hers is a story about internalized bias, gaslighting, and bad, bad managers, occasionally punctuated by a sympathetic leader who was unable to help her thrive. Her most recent job was at Capital One. “It was abusive and led to me having to go on short-term disability leave and being diagnosed with PTSD before I finally parted ways with the company,” she writes. Her detailed account is a window into what inclusion work is and isn’t.
Sailor Ghoul on Medium
Black women experience racism most often at work Here’s the thing, my colleague Emma Hinchliffe reports: If someone said something racist at the gym or a social club, you could leave. It’s an option. But Black women need their jobs. And so, we suffer. "The workplace is tied to your livelihood. You have to go there every day. You can't choose to constantly walk away," says Thokozile Kachipande, a marketing professional who has been overlooked for promotions and mentoring opportunities. Then there’s the account manager who had a white senior leader grab her hair, which was up in a puff. The leader in question, when coached on the issue, avoided her thereafter. That sort of shunning can do real damage. "Racism has prematurely ended a lot of careers," says Minda Harts, author of The Memo: What Women of Color Need to Know to Secure a Seat at the Table.
Fortune
On background
A famous slave trade vessel comes back to life Lancaster University lecturer and historian Nicholas Radburn worked with a team from Emory University to create a 3D model of an 18th-century slaver ship called L’Aurore. According to reviewers, it is a digital depiction of the horror that 600 humans endured during the months they were imprisoned. Radburn is a co-editor of ‘Voyages: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database’, which documents some 36,000 trans-Atlantic trips. But drawings and other data don’t really tell the tale, he says. The video experience allows the viewer to board the ship, which set sail from La Rochelle in France in August 1784 to Africa and then on to what is now Haiti. “We hope it will provide teachers, museum curators, and the general public with a different way of thinking about the slave trade that goes beyond existing images,” says Radburn.
University of Lancaster
Research: Strict schools are contributing to the school to prison pipeline issue Research from Stephen B. Billings from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and David J. Deming of Harvard, studies how schools with high suspension rates have negative effects on all students, but primarily boys and black and brown students of all genders. The negative impacts include lower grades and graduation rates. “Students who attend a school with a 10 percent higher number of suspensions are 10 percent more likely to be arrested and 12 percent more likely to be incarcerated as adults,” they find. An eye-opening read, h/t Brown University’s Matthew Kraft.
NBER
The Lost Arcade is a really good documentary about the way people love games I'm re-upping this recommendation because trust me, we need to feel this kind of hope. The Lost Arcade was a complete surprise. On the surface of things, it’s the story of a sketchy looking arcade in Chinatown that drew together a diverse group of people who loved playing digital games. But it ended up being so much more. For one, it has the best opening scene of any documentary I’ve seen in ages. But it’s also about misfits and cast-outs, of people with imagination but no homes, business visionaries disguised as maintenance people, and how communities are transformed in the strangest ways by the people you least expect. It’s also about how the shallow victories of gentrification and technology innovation don’t really matter if you’ve got friends who will battle you and quarters in your pocket, especially if you’ve got next. It was so good, that when I finished watching it I watched it again, just to be sure.
Arcade Movie
raceAhead is edited by Aric Jenkins.
Today's mood board
This brilliant and revelatory interview of Thandie Newton published today in Vulture had us like:


fortune--2020-07-07--Trump says he’s considering banning TikTok

The NFL ’ s apparent new wokeness might be performative , but it still matters

President Donald Trump said his administration is considering banning the short video app TikTok in the U.S. as one possible way to retaliate against China over its handling of the coronavirus.
Trump’s comments on Tuesday came one day after Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said officials were looking at barring the app, whose parent company is China’s ByteDance Ltd.
“It’s something we’re looking at, yes,” Trump said when asked in an interview with Gray Television’s Greta Van Susteren about Pompeo’s remarks. “It’s a big business. Look, what happened with China with this virus, what they’ve done to this country and to the entire world is disgraceful.”
Trump did not offer any specifics about a potential decision. He said that banning TikTok is “one of many” ways he is looking to hit back at the Beijing government over the coronavirus, which has infected nearly 3 million people in the U.S. and killed more than 130,000.
The president has seen his poll numbers plummet as his own response to the pandemic has come under widespread criticism, including for his refusal to unequivocally urge Americans to wear masks.
TikTok played up its U.S. ties and said it doesn’t feed user data to China, pushing back against comments by Pompeo, who said the government was weighing a ban in part over concerns about its ownership.
“TikTok is led by an American CEO, with hundreds of employees and key leaders across safety, security, product, and public policy here in the U.S.,” a company spokesperson said. “We have never provided user data to the Chinese government, nor would we do so if asked.”
TikTok hired former Walt Disney Co. executive Kevin Mayer as chief executive officer last month. He also serves as chief operating officer of ByteDance.
Calling attention to India’s recent move to ban almost 60 Chinese apps, including TikTok, Fox News host Laura Ingraham asked Pompeo whether the Trump administration would also consider banning the app in the U.S. “We’re certainly looking at it,” Pompeo responded.
He then recommended Americans not download the app unless they want to see their private information fall “in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.”
Pompeo joins other U.S. government officials, including Senators Marco Rubio and Chuck Schumer, who have called for investigations of TikTok over possible threats to national security. The U.S. government has also launched a national security review of ByteDance’s acquisition of Musical.ly, a startup that later merged with TikTok.
Young people organizing through TikTok were cited as one reason many people signed up to attend Trump’s first post-shutdown campaign rally last month in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but then didn’t show up. The Trump campaign denied the online organizing effort contributed to lower-than-expected attendance.
In the U.S., TikTok has been downloaded more than 165 million times, according to SensorTower estimates. TikTok has denied allegations that it poses a threat to U.S. national security.
In a public show of support for protecting user data from the Chinese government, TikTok said Monday it would cease operations in Hong Kong over a national security law that compels social media apps to hand over user data to Beijing. TikTok operates a separate version of its app in China called Douyin.


fortune--2020-07-07--Overstock CEO: How blockchain can help pull us out of the coronavirus recession

During Bill Clinton’s first term as President, the 104th U.S. Congress undertook a long-needed effort to overhaul telecommunications laws that had been on the books for over 60 years. Although the bill had a significant impact on phone, television, and radio services, the biggest outcome of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was nothing less than the blossoming of the Internet.
Now, as the country begins reopening the economy following the largest public health panic in a century, the U.S. government has a chance to take similar actions on another emerging technology: blockchain. Like the Internet, blockchain technology will change the game again.
The COVID-19 pandemic paused the development and implementation of many products built using blockchain technology, but the great restarting is the perfect opportunity for companies to embrace the power of the technology. Far from being just a niche interest for developers, real-world applications built with blockchain already provide secure transactions that benefit people everywhere, from agriculture to land management to mobile voting.
However, as the momentum around these projects picks back up, many companies will find themselves once again in gray areas where government reach is ill-defined and sometimes clarified only through after-the-fact enforcement. Collaboration between all stakeholders—including government agencies—is essential to the future adoption of blockchain technology.
Blockchain technology can be a vital driver of the new normal as industries and economies recover from the pandemic, but the government’s role in regulating blockchain technology must be understood. Creating clear policies that protect consumers and building a framework for cooperation are some of the government’s most vital tasks in the coming months as more companies and other organizations explore the unique benefits that applications using blockchain technology will bring.
It’s important for the government to take a hands-off and clarifying role in the development of products built using blockchain technology. As legislators create policies to help guide developing blockchain technology, their primary concern should be ensuring that all businesses in the industry behave responsibly and have fair access to customers and resources.
At Medici Ventures, we invest in organizations that are using blockchain technology to solve real-world problems exacerbated by the pandemic. GrainChain, for example, secures trust across the entire agricultural supply chain, ensuring that the most vulnerable people—the farmers—are paid. Evernym helps everyone from individuals to companies control their identities. Voatz helps people exercise their right to vote in a safe and secure way.
These companies—and all others developing blockchain technology—should be able to operate on a fair and equal playing field, without giving any group or organization an upper hand thanks to unbalanced regulations. Perhaps most important of all, the government should remember that consumers are generally in a better position than regulators to determine what businesses they want to support—a point that was made perfectly clear in the early development of the Internet.
Cooperation will be key to success in the future. Companies need the freedom to develop blockchain technology without onerous oversight, especially as they seek to escape the economic shadow brought on by the pandemic.
As it did in the early days of the Internet, this freedom will lead to creative products and solutions. Blockchain entrepreneurs have barely scratched the surface of the power of blockchain technology. The government needs to let the innovation continue.
It is also crucial that the U.S. government moves quickly. China is urging its financial institutions to support blockchain, which could prove very problematic for the U.S. if we do not match or exceed China’s efforts. The overwhelming benefits of blockchain technology—being able to transfer digitized assets without friction, for example—are already coming to fruition. Without taking a position of leadership, the U.S. risks both slipping further into a potential economic recession and losing its position as the global hub for technological innovation.
The world is moving forward with developing blockchain-based applications, and the post-pandemic economy is a perfect environment in which to embrace new technology. If the U.S. is not careful, we will lose the opportunity to be a blockchain leader.
Blockchain technology has incredible potential. It will grow best in a free environment, unfettered from needless and unclear regulations. By understanding and limiting the government’s role, we can give companies the power to establish a new normal while offering consumers the confidence to invest in and use new blockchain-based products.
Jonathan Johnson is CEO of Overstock.com and president of Medici Ventures.


fortune--2020-07-07--Facebook boycott organizers on meeting Mark Zuckerberg: ‘The company is functionally flawed’

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg met on Tuesday with leaders of the boycott that has led to hundreds of companies suspending their advertising on the social network because of a proliferation of hate and misinformation posted by users.
But despite Zuckerberg’s attempt to diffuse the firestorm during the discussion, the boycott organizers left disappointed.
“Today we saw little and heard just about nothing,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, one of the civil rights groups that attended the meeting. “The company is functionally flawed.”
The hourlong virtual talk came days after the start of the one-month ad boycott of Facebook, called #StopHateForProfit. Big businesses like PepsiCo, Verizon, Honda, and Levi Strauss have joined, along with a number of small businesses.
The organizers are pushing Facebook to add a C-suite executive with civil rights expertise, find and remove groups that focus on topics like white supremacy and misinformation about vaccines, and create specialized teams to review complaints about posts that include identity-based hate. But Facebook executives made no specific promises during the meeting and showed no evidence that they have made any changes, the organizers said.
“They showed up to the meeting expecting an A for attendance,” said Rashad Robinson, executive director at Color of Change. “We were expecting very clear answers to questions we put on the table, and we didn’t get them.”
Instead, Facebook executives argued that they’re doing better, including removing 89% of hateful content, according to the boycott organizers. In a statement to Fortune, Facebook also said it has invested “billions in people and technology to keep hate off” its service, created new policies to prohibit voter and census interference, and banned more than 250 white supremacist organizations.
“They want Facebook to be free of hate speech and so do we,” the statement continued. “That’s why it’s so important that we work to get this right.”
On Wednesday, Facebook is expected to release the third update to its annual civil rights audit, a review by a third party of how the service handles discrimination against people of color. But Facebook has failed to implement some of the recommendations in the two previous versions, the boycott organizers said, and they expect more of the same this time around.
“It’s like going to the doctor, getting a new set of recommendations about your diet, and then not doing anything about it and wondering why you’re not any healthier,” Robinson said.
He accused Facebook of letting politics get in the way of doing the right thing. He partly blamed Joe Kaplan, Facebook’s vice president of policy, a former Republican White House aide who supported Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his Senate confirmation hearings, for some of Facebook’s decisions like leaving President Donald Trump’s inflammatory posts on its service untouched.
In addition to Zuckerberg, attendees for Facebook included chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, chief product officer Chris Cox, and communications chief Nick Clegg. On the other side of the virtual table were the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Free Press, along with the Anti-Defamation League and Color of Change.
“We have found them more interested in dialogue than action,” said Derrick Johnson, CEO of the NAACP.
Jessica Gonzalez, co-CEO of Free Press, agreed, saying, “I don’t feel our demands were met with the seriousness of our stakes. This is a life or death issue.”
In the meantime, the boycott organizers said they’ll continue encouraging businesses to boycott Facebook ads. They hope to add more companies to the campaign and to make it more of a global movement.
“We’re going to continue to push,” Robinson said. “We’re going to ask corporations that have stood with us, ‘Are you comfortable with the fact that Mark Zuckerberg seems to think you’re just going to show back up? That he can thumb his nose at you, that he is all-powerful in so many ways that you simply have no leverage whatsoever.’”