Good morning. 🏎️ NASCAR has banned Confederate flags from its events, saying its presence "runs contrary to our commitment to providing a welcoming and inclusive environment." This is in 2020, but... better late than never.

👒 Meanwhile, “Gone With the Wind” surged to the top of Amazon’s sales chart one day after AT&T’s HBO Max pulled the movie for its "racist depictions."

Join the Market: 🗞️ Newsletter | 🎙️ Podcast

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New era

Jeff Bezos temporarily bans police use of Rekognition

Moving the Market: Jeff Bezos has placed a one-year ban on police use of Rekognition, Amazon's facial recognition software, as tech companies face growing pressure to commit to the fight for racial justice following the killing of George Floyd.

• The big picture: Facial recognition technologies have been criticized for exhibiting built-in racial and ethnic biases and misidentifying African Americans and other people of color.

• Earlier this week, IBM chief Arvind Krishna said his company was getting out of the facial recognition business entirely due to concerns about its role in perpetuating racial bias.

What's next: Amazon has been calling on Washington to implement regulations that would better govern police use of the technology. On Wednesday, it said it hoped "the one-year moratorium might give Congress enough time to implement appropriate rules."

• "Amazon here is basically daring Congress to walk the talk on facial recognition," Politico's Cristiano Lima reports. "The push for limits on police use of facial recognition has stalled big time in Congress."

For Bezos, it's also another opportunity to demonstrate his concern for racial justice. Amazon announced last week that it would donate $10 million to organizations "that are working to bring about social justice and improve the lives of Black and African Americans."

• In recent days, the Amazon chief has also posted photos of emails from angry customers who oppose his stated support for the Black Lives Matter movement. His response: "You're the kind of customer I'm happy to lose."

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Future of social

Jack Dorsey seeks to improve social sharing

Big in the Bay: Jack Dorsey is testing a new feature that asks Twitter users to open articles before sharing them, part of his effort to promote meaningful, informed discussion and reduce the spread of harmful content and misinformation.

• The feature is currently available to Android users in English, but may extend to other platforms.

The big picture: Twitter has shown a willingness to experiment openly with how users interact with content. In recent weeks, it has started to let users limit who can reply to their posts and been more aggressive in contextualizing President Donald Trump's tweets.

• It's arguably a more nimble and transparent approach to solving content issues than that taken by Facebook.

👻 Snap Summit 👻

Today in L.A.: Evan Spiegel hosts the annual Snap Partner Summit today at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET.

Virtually, of course.

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Condé trouble

Anna Wintour, Bon Appétit issue mea culpas

Moving Manhattan: Anna Wintour took responsibility for Vogue's failure to elevate black creators, and Bon Appétit issued a "a long-overdue apology" for its "white-centric viewpoint" on Wednesday as Condé Nast continued to struggle with accusations of racial bias.

• The big picture: Condé Nast has been at the center of a push for greater diversity in media following the resignation of Bon Appétit editor-in-chief Adam Rapoport earlier this week.

• In a note to staff, Wintour said "Vogue has not found enough ways to elevate and give space to Black editors, writers, photographers, designers and other creators. We have made mistakes too, publishing images or stories that have been hurtful or intolerant. I take full responsibility for those mistakes."

• In a statement, Bon Appétit said it had been "complicit with a culture we don’t agree with and are committed to change." It said its leaders have been “far too white for far too long," and that too much of its content came from a “white-centric viewpoint."

The latest: On Wednesday night, Condé Nast’s head of video, Matt Duckor, resigned "after accusations of bias from several employees," the NYT's Edmund Lee reports.

What's next: Media companies with newly vacant editor roles are starting to promote, or at least pledging to promote, more BIPOC editors, as we noted yesterday. Bon Appétit said it would prioritize people of color for its editor-in-chief candidate pool.

• The changes, while merely a start, may mark the beginning of a new era of diversity among the media industry's top ranks.

Market Links

• LeBron James starts a voting rights group (NYT)

• Travis Kalanick says he's a victim of arson (Bloomberg)

• Bob Chapek plans to re-open Disneyland in July (LAT)

• President Trump goes to war with CNN, again (NYT)

• Tucker Carlson sells his stake in Daily Caller (NYT)

🌴 What's next: Not Coachella. The annual concert festival is now officially cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

See you tomorrow.