News Information and Media Site: Byers Market: China, India and the new tech geopolitics

July 1, 2020

By DYLAN BYERS in Los Angeles &

AHIZA GARCÍA-HODGES in San Francisco

Good morning. 🇭🇰 Hong Kong is at a turning point. Xi Jinping's sweeping new security law, which has already led to arrests, could mark the end of the city's semi-autonomous status. It's yet another step in China's expansion of power in Asia.

• What's next: "The legislation grants Beijing broad powers to crack down on a variety of political crimes, including meting out life imprisonment for 'grave' offenses," NYT's Javier C. Hernández writes. "But the law is rife with ambiguities."

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🇮🇳🇨🇳 Foreign affairs

India's TikTok ban and the new tech geopolitics

Moving the Market: India's dramatic move to ban TikTok, WeChat and more than 50 other Chinese mobile apps provides a glimpse into a new era of tech-centered geopolitics, where nations use their citizen-consumers as leverage in international disputes.

• For years, China has walled off foreign tech firms from its nearly 1 billion internet users, a strategy that has allowed companies like Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu to thrive without competition from the likes of Amazon, Google and Facebook.

• India's move provides China with a taste of its own medicine. Now, ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, can no longer reach its more than 200 million users in India, its biggest global market.

The big picture: India's ban "may present a model for other countries from Europe to Southeast Asia that seek to curtail the pervasiveness of apps like TikTok while safeguarding their citizens' enormously valuable data," write Bloomberg's Colum Murphy et al.

• The prohibition "provides further evidence that nations are using tech to assert themselves geopolitically, following the Trump administration's worldwide campaign to contain China and national champions like Huawei."

But... the TikTok ban is different from U.S. vs. Huawei in a very significant regard: the bans aren't about infrastructure, but apps. Shutting off China's access to Indian consumers requires nothing more than a mandate ⁠— and the cooperation of Google and Apple, the firms who control the vast majority of the world's smartphones.

• "Apple and Google have helpfully provided the Indian government with a one-stop shop," Ben Thompson of Strachery writes. "This... gives a roadmap for how the U.S. government could respond to TikTok, if it chose to: there is no need to build a great firewall — simply give the order to Apple and Google."

What's next: India's ban is intended to extract concessions from China in their border dispute, which means it may be short lived. But if it lasts, the big question is whether a non-Chinese TikTok competitor (Indian or otherwise) emerges in the interim.

• If it does, and if it gains traction with Indian consumers, the ban will have had very significant long-term effects.

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🇺🇸🇨🇳 U.S.-China watch

Ajit Pai cuts Huawei, ZTE

Big in the Beltway: "The Federal Communications Commission [has] designated the Chinese telecommunications firms Huawei and ZTE as national security threats, cutting them off from billions of dollars in federal broadband subsidies," NYT's David McCabe reports.

• "The agency voted unanimously last year to bar telecommunications manufacturers it deemed to be threats from receiving money meant to expand internet access to underserved areas, including rural America. The announcement on Tuesday was the final step in blocking Huawei and ZTE from the funds."

The big picture: "The Trump administration has been applying pressure on Chinese companies over security concerns. American officials have pushed countries around the world not to use Huawei's networking equipment in their next-generation, or 5G, wireless networks."

💸 How to give it 💸

Reed Hastings says Netflix will give 2 percent of its holdings, or $100 million, to lenders that serve the Black community, Dealbook's Michael J. de la Merced reports.

The move comes two weeks after Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin, donated $120 million to historically black colleges and universities.

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Speech policy

Facebook bans 'Boogaloo'

Big in the Bay, big in the Beltway: "Facebook... is removing groups dedicated to the Boogaloo extremist movement, one month after federal officials alleged the anti-government network's adherents used the platform to plan the murder of a federal agent," our colleagues Ben Collins and Brandy Zadrozny report.

• "The social media giant said it removed 220 Boogaloo Facebook groups and 95 Instagram accounts that violated its policies against organized violence. It said 400 additional groups... tangentially associated with the movement would be taken down, too."

The backstory: "In May, federal officials alleged that Steven Carrillo killed a federal security officer... [and] allegedly plotted the attack with a man he met in a Boogaloo Facebook group."

• "The Boogaloo is a heavily armed, mostly conservative libertarian militia movement with extreme anti-government views that advocates for a violent uprising targeting mostly law enforcement."

• "Several self-professed 'boogaloo boys' have been arrested... charged with crimes including the murder of law enforcement officers and planning terror attacks at Black Lives Matter protests."

The big picture: "Facebook's announcement comes amid several crises at the company. A growing chorus of Facebook employees have spoken out against company policies surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement and the lack of policy enforcement for politicians. And a growing advertising boycott now includes Unilever, Verizon, Ford, Starbucks and nearly 250 other advertisers."

• "Facebook has reacted to the mounting pressure with new policies that include labeling political speech that violates the company's content rules and cracking down on 'hateful content.'"

Market Links

• Susan Wojcicki hikes YouTube TV price (9to5)

• Jimmy Pitaro hikes the price of ESPN+ (Verge)

• Mark Zuckerberg modifies the news algorithm (Axios)

• Steve Huffman explains "The_Donald" ban (NYT)

• Mary Trump's book is temporarily banned (NYT)

Bryan Bedder/Getty

Revolving door

'Boz' Saint John joins Netflix

Big in the Bay, big in L.A.: Reed Hastings has hired Bozoma "Boz" Saint John to serve as Netflix's chief marketing officer, her fourth job in five years following roles at Apple, Uber and Endeavor. Jackie Lee-Joe, the streamer's current CMO, will leave the company.

• The big picture: "Saint John is one of the highest-profile marketing executives in the industry, and is now the senior-most Black executive at Netflix," Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw writes.

Money line: Netflix's longtime CMO Kelly Bennett made $7 million last year in compensation, per the company's most recent SEC filing. It's safe to assume Saint John will make something in that ballpark.

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#OscarsLessWhite

The Academy diversifies

Talk of Tinseltown: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited 819 new artists and executives to become members this year, officially meeting its goals to double the number of women and voters of color in its membership by 2020, NYT's Kyle Buchanan reports.

• "Some 45 percent of this year's new members are women, while 36 percent are racial minorities."

• The 2020 class is also "49 percent international, hailing from 68 countries. ... a boon for foreign-language Oscar contenders."

The big picture: "Despite all those gains, only 19 percent of the current members are people of color while just 33 percent of Oscar voters are female."

• What's next: "The academy has announced a new program, called Academy Aperture 2025, that will implement new representation and inclusion standards for Oscars eligibility."