July 7, 2020 ![]() By DYLAN BYERS in Los Angeles & AHIZA GARCÍA-HODGES in San Francisco Good morning. 📅 Save the date: Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai and Mark Zuckerberg will all testify before the House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee on Monday, July 27 at 12 p.m. ET.
• The big picture: The hearing will be a landmark moment in the regulatory battle between Washington and Silicon Valley, and marks the first time the four CEOs have testified together before Congress.
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![]() Bloomberg/Getty Boycott watch Facebook is meeting with civil rights groups today. Here's what's likely to happen.
Moving the Market: Mark Zuckerberg and top Facebook executives will meet this morning with the civil rights groups that organized the Facebook ad boycott. The executives will seek to address the groups' concerns but will not announce any major policy changes, several people familiar with the company's plans tell us.
• The meeting is unlikely to placate the boycott organizers, who are demanding, among other things, that Facebook refund companies when their ads appear next to hate speech, and that it hire a C-suite executive to oversee concerns about discrimination, bias and hate.
What's next: Before today's meeting, Sheryl Sandberg will post a statement announcing Facebook's plan to publish the findings of its latest civil rights audit. She will stipulate that whatever changes Facebook makes in light of that audit will be made "not for financial reasons or advertiser pressure, but because it is the right thing to do."
• The Sandberg post attempts to do two things: 1. Highlight Facebook's longstanding commitment to fighting hate speech (the audit, run by ACLU veteran Laura Murphy, started two years ago). 2. Distance Facebook's actions on hate speech from the boycott and its organizers.
Roll call: Joining Zuckerberg and Sandberg in the meetings are chief product officer Chris Cox, global affairs VP Nick Clegg, public policy director Neil Potts and other product and policy leaders, as well as members of the Facebook policy teams, the sources said.
• At 11 a.m. PT, they will meet with the boycott organizers, including Anti-Defamation League chief Jonathan Greenblatt, NAACP chief Derrick Johnson and Color of Change President Rashad Robinson.
• They will then hold a second meeting with other civil rights leaders who have been working with Facebook, including Murphy, Vanita Gupta of the Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights and Sherrilyn Ifill of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
The big picture: Two weeks ago, we laid out how we thought this boycott would end. That was before Unilever, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Starbucks and hundreds of others jumped on board. We still see this ending the same way: Facebook will not cave to the organizers, it will make some small changes based on the audit, and the advertisers will eventually make their way back.
![]() Billy H.C. Kwok/Getty 🇭🇰 Foreign affairs Silicon Valley hits pause on Hong Kong, TikTok pulls out
Big in Beijing, big in the Bay: "Google, Facebook and Twitter said on Monday that they would temporarily stop processing Hong Kong government requests for user data as the companies reviewed a sweeping national security law that has chilled political expression in the city," NYT's Paul Mozur reports.
• "The companies said they were still assessing the law, which has already been used to arrest people who have called for Hong Kong independence. Facebook said its review would include human rights considerations."
• "TikTok went even further than the American companies on Monday, saying it would withdraw its app from stores in Hong Kong and make the app inoperable to users there within a few days."
The big picture: "The surprising consensus from the rival American internet giants, which each used similar language in each statement, was a rare public questioning of Chinese policy."
• "It was also a stark illustration of the deep quandaries the companies face with the sweeping, punitive law."
🇭🇰 Hong Kong dispatch 🇭🇰
Protesters in Hong Kong "have quickly learned that actions that weren’t worthy of police attention a little more than a week ago could now warrant an arrest, DNA sample and search of their home — in addition to the possibility of jail time," Bloomberg's Jamie Taraby reports.
• The new security law "has sent a shudder through free speech proponents and prompted activists to dissolve political groups and shut down social media accounts."
![]() Stephane Cardinale/Getty Loan stars Kanye West got a PPP loan. So did Nobu.
Big in the Beltway: The Small Business Association has published a list of the businesses and non-profits that received at least $150,000 in Paycheck Protection Program loans. The list includes more than a few notable names, our colleague Ben Popken reports.
• Kanye West's Yeezy LLC, a holding company that includes the hip-hop star's clothing and sneaker line, received a loan worth somewhere between $2 million and $5 million to retain 106 jobs.
• Jeff Koons' art studio, "known for sculpting metal balloon animals that fetch tens of millions of dollars at auction," got a loan for up to $2 million, supporting 53 jobs.
• Robert De Niro's Nobu, the luxury restaurant and hotel chain, took 14 loans for as much as $28 million.
Big in the Bay: "Some businesses are disputing the data," The Information's Kate Clark reports. "A spokesperson for the electric scooter company Bird, which is listed as a PPP beneficiary, told The Information it was 'erroneously listed.'"
• "Venture capital funds including Index Ventures and Foundation Capital also denied applying for a loan despite being included on the list. ... Andreessen Horowitz is named as a recipient ... [but says] they did not apply or receive any PPP loan."
Market Links
• Greg Maffei will buy Stitcher from Scripps (WSJ)
• Phil Spencer eyes the Warner games unit (Information)
• Bob Iger sees "Hamilton" boost at Disney+ (Variety)
![]() Bebeto Matthews/Getty New chapter Dana Canedy named Simon & Schuster publisher
Moving Midtown: Dana Canedy, a former NYT journalist and the administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes, has been named senior vice president and publisher of Simon & Schuster’s flagship imprint, NYT’s Elizabeth Harris reports.
• The big picture: Canedy will be the third woman and first Black person in the job. She takes over as parent company ViacomCBS is looking to sell the publishing house.
![]() Drew Angerer/Getty Diversity push Bob Iger signs Kaepernick
Talk of Tinseltown: Bob Iger has signed an overall first-look deal with Colin Kaepernick’s Ra Vision Media that will also see Disney produce a series about the life of the former NFL quarterback. It's the latest in Iger's push to develop more stories from the perspective of Black and Brown communities.
• "During this unprecedented time, The Walt Disney Company remains committed to creating diverse and inclusive content that resonates and matters," Iger said in a statement.
• The deal comes as Disney is also reportedly in talks with Beyoncé for a $100 million deal that would see the star musician work on three films, including "Black Panther 2."
The big picture: The deal with Kaepernick, a face of the civil rights movement, is a progressive move for a media company that has long tried to avoid political controversy — even to the point of forbidding ESPN talent from sharing political opinions.
• As Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw notes, the Disney deal also "ties one of the NFL’s biggest media partners to one of its highest-profile critics. Disney, the owner of ABC and ESPN, airs 'Monday Night Football.'"
Bonus: For fans of Magic Kingdom Kremlinology, the fact that Iger announced this deal is a reminder that he is still running the show at Disney, despite handing the chief executive title to Bob Chapek.
🎬 What's next: Jeffrey Katzenberg can't catch a break. "Is Anyone Watching Quibi?" NYMag's Benjamin Wallace asks in the latest autopsy of the failed streaming platform.
See you tomorrow.
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