Tag: iab-internet

The US government is once again threatening to ban TikTok. What you should know | CNN Business

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Nearly two-and-a-half years after the Trump administration threatened to ban TikTok in the United States if it didn’t divest from its Chinese owners, the Biden administration is now doing the same.

TikTok acknowledged to CNN this week that federal officials are demanding the app’s Chinese owners sell their stake in the social media platform, or risk facing a US ban of the app.

The new directive comes from the multiagency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), following years of negotiations between TikTok and the government body. (CFIUS is the same group that previously forced a sale of LGBTQ dating app Grindr from Chinese ownership back in 2019.)

The ultimatum from the US government represents an apparent escalation in pressure from Washington as more lawmakers once again raise national security concerns about the app. Suddenly, TikTok’s future in the United States appears more uncertain – but this time, it comes after years in which the app has only broadened its reach over American culture.

Here’s what you should know.

Some in Washington have expressed concerns that the app could be infiltrated by the Chinese government to essentially spy on American users or gain access to US user data. Others have raised alarms over the possibility that the Chinese government could use the app to spread propaganda to a US audience. At the heart of both is an underlying concern that any company doing business in China ultimately falls under Chinese Communist Party laws.

Other concerns raised are not unique to TikTok, but more broadly about the potential for social media platforms to lead younger users down harmful rabbit holes.

If this latest development is giving you déjà vu, that’s because it echoes the saga TikTok already went through in the United States that kicked off in 2020, when the Trump administration first threatened it with a ban via executive order if it didn’t sell itself to a US-based company.

Oracle and Walmart were suggested as buyers, social media creators were in a frenzy, and TikTok kicked off a lengthy legal battle against the US government. Some critics at the time blasted then-president Donald Trump’s crusade against the app as political theater rooted in xenophobia, calling out Trump’s unusual suggestion that the United States should get a “cut” of any deal if it forced the app’s sale to an American firm.

The Biden administration eventually rescinded the Trump-era executive order targeting TikTok, but replaced it with a broader directive focused on investigating technology linked to foreign adversaries, including China. Meanwhile, CFIUS continued negotiations to strike a possible deal that would allow the app to continue operating in the United States. Then scrutiny began to kick up again in Washington.

Lawmakers renewed their scrutiny of TikTok for its ties to China through its parent company, ByteDance, after a report last year suggested US user data had been repeatedly accessed by China-based employees. TikTok has disputed the report.

In rare remarks earlier this month at a Harvard Business Review conference, TikTok CEO Shou Chew doubled down on the company’s prior commitments to address the lawmakers’ concerns.

“The Chinese government has actually never asked us for US user data,” Chew said, “and we’ve said this on the record, that even if we where asked for that, we will not provide that.” Chew added that “all US user data is stored, by default, in the Oracle Cloud infrastructure” and “access to that data is completely controlled by US personnel.”

As for the concerns that the Chinese government might use the app to spew propaganda to a US audience, Chew emphasized that this would be bad for business, noting that some 60% of TikTok’s owners are global investors. “Misinformation and propaganda has no place on our platform, and our users do not expect that,” he said.

In response to the CFIUS divestiture request, a TikTok spokesperson told CNN this week that a change in ownership wouldn’t impact how US user data is accessed.

“If protecting national security is the objective, divestment doesn’t solve the problem,” TikTok spokesperson Maureen Shanahan said in a statement. “A change in ownership would not impose any new restrictions on data flows or access. The best way to address concerns about national security is with the transparent, US-based protection of US user data and systems, with robust third-party monitoring, vetting, and verification, which we are already implementing.”

TikTok is really only a national security risk insofar as the Chinese government may have leverage over TikTok or its parent company. China has national security laws that require companies under its jurisdiction to cooperate with a broad range of security activities. The main issue is that the public has few ways of verifying whether or how that leverage has been exercised. (TikTok doesn’t operate in China, but ByteDance does.)

Privacy and security researchers who have looked under the hood at TikTok’s app say that, as far as they can tell, TikTok isn’t much different from other social networks in terms of the data it collects or how it communicates with company servers. That’s still a lot of personally revealing information, but it doesn’t imply that TikTok’s app itself is inherently malicious or a kind of spyware.

That’s why the concern really focuses on TikTok and ByteDance’s relationship to the Chinese government, and why the Biden administration is pushing for TikTok’s Chinese owners to sell their shares.

India banned TikTok in the summer of 2020, following a violent border clash between the country and China, in a move that abruptly disconnected the more than 200 million users the app had amassed there.

While stopping short of banning the app on personal devices, a number of other countries, including the United States, Canada and United Kingdom have recently enacted bans of TikTok on official, government devices.

Late last year, President Joe Biden signed legislation prohibiting TikTok on federal government devices, and more than half of US states have enacted a similar mandate at the state level. A TikTok spokesperson previously blasted this ban as “little more than political theater.”

“The ban of TikTok on federal devices passed in December without any deliberation, and unfortunately that approach has served as a blueprint for other world governments,” the spokesperson added.

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March 18, 2023
Meta rolls out paid verification option for Facebook and Instagram users in US | CNN Business

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CNN
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Facebook and Instagram users in the United States will soon be able to pay to get a coveted blue check on their account.

Meta on Friday began testing a paid verification option for US users of the two social networks, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Instagram. The company plans to gradually roll out the paid option to more US users over the next few weeks.

First tested in February in Australia and New Zealand, Meta Verified starts at $11.99 a month on the web or $14.99 a month on mobile. In addition to verification, the option offers perks such as extra protection from impersonation accounts and direct access to customer support.

To avoid fake accounts, customers who want to get the blue badge would need to provide a government ID which matches their profile name and picture. Users must also be above 18 to be eligible for the new service.

“This new feature is about increasing authenticity and security across our services,” Zuckerberg wrote in February in an Instagram broadcast channel.

Meta joins other platforms, like Discord, Reddit and YouTube, which have their own subscription-based models. Twitter relaunched its own verification subscription service, Twitter Blue, in December, after an onset of fake “verified” accounts forced it to pull the feature. Twitter Blue costs $11 a month for iOS and Android subscribers, part of owner Elon Musk’s attempt to raise its subscriptions business after buying the platform for $44 billion.

For Meta, the move offers the promise of another revenue stream beyond advertising, at a time when its core ad sales business is under pressure from a number of factors, including privacy changes on Apple and tightening budgets amid recession fears.

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March 17, 2023
SVB collapse was driven by ‘the first Twitter-fueled bank run’ | CNN Business

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CNN
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The massive amount of customer withdrawals that led to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank had all the hallmarks of an old-fashioned bank run, but with a new twist befitting the primary industry the bank served: much of it unfolded online.

Customers withdrew $42 billion in a single day last week from Silicon Valley Bank, leaving the bank with $1 billion in negative cash balance, the company said in a regulatory filing. The staggering withdrawals unfolded at a speed enabled by digital banking and were likely fueled in part by viral panic spreading on social media platforms and, reportedly, in private chat groups.

In the day leading up to the bank’s collapse, multiple prominent venture capitalists took to Twitter in particular, and used their large platforms to raise alarms about the situation, sometimes typing in all caps. Some investors urged startups to rethink where they kept their cash. Founders and CEOs then shared tweets about the concerning situation at the bank in private Slack channels, according to The Wall Street Journal.

On the other side of a screen, startup leaders raced to withdraw funds online – so many, in fact, that some told CNN the online system appeared to go down. Still, the end result was a modern race to withdraw funds, which House Financial Services Chair Patrick McHenry later described in a statement as ” the first Twitter-fueled bank run.”

“Even back in the ancient days, way before we had any form of modern communication, this stuff tended to be rumors that moved really fast. The reason it would happen is people would walk down the street and observe people standing outside of banks,” Andrew Metrick, Janet L. Yellen Professor of Finance and Management at the Yale School of Management, told CNN. “Now we don’t have that, but we have Twitter.”

The experience of the bank run was also far removed from prior eras when a large number of customers would physically show up at a bank to withdraw funds (though some did line up outside Silicon Valley Bank locations, too.) Now, many could do so online or through mobile devices.

“What made the Silicon Valley Bank run unique was (1) the ease with which its customers could execute withdrawals and (2) the speed with which news of Silicon Valley Bank’s impending demise spread,” Ben Thompson, an analyst who tracks the tech industry, wrote in a post on Monday. “It was the speed, fueled by zero distribution costs for both rumors and withdrawals, that was so destabilizing.”

Silicon Valley Bank was arguably uniquely susceptible to those factors given its tech-focused customer base. Moreover, its clients, many of whom were venture-backed businesses, were far more likely than the average consumer to keep more than the standard maximum FDIC insured amount of $250,000 in their accounts.

“The FDIC covers 250K, but am I going to recover my whole 8 figures?” one startup founder told CNN last week, after the bank had collapsed. Other large tech companies kept even larger sums with the bank. That likely made the bank’s customers even more susceptible to the panic spreading online.

Some prominent tech figures, including Mark Suster, a partner at venture capital firm Upfront Ventures, urged those in the VC community to “speak out publicly to quell the panic” around Silicon Valley Bank last week and cautioned against creating “mass hysteria.”

“Classic ‘runs on the bank’ hurt our entire system,” he wrote in a lengthy Twitter thread on Thursday. “People are making public jokes about this. It’s not a joke, this is serious stuff. Please treat it as such.”

His calls for calm weren’t enough. The next day, the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation stepped in and took control of the bank, which only added to the viral panic on Twitter.

“YOU SHOULD BE ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIED RIGHT NOW,” Jason Calacanis, a tech investor, wrote on Twitter Sunday. “THAT IS THE PROPER REACTION.”

Hours later, the Biden administration stepped in and guaranteed the bank’s customers would have access to all their money starting Monday.

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March 17, 2023
Twitter could have a new rival — a platform created by Meta | CNN Business

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Facebook-parent Meta is exploring building a new, standalone platform for sharing text updates, the company confirmed to CNN on Friday, in what could mark the most high-profile new contender to take on Twitter as it falters under Elon Musk.

“We believe there’s an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement to CNN, which essentially described Twitter’s mission statement without naming the platform.

The platform, plans for which were earlier reported by Platformer and MoneyControl, would be decentralized, meaning users could ostensibly create different servers or communities, each with their own rules rather than one central platform controlled by Meta. The concept is similar to Reddit or Discord, but a departure from how Meta’s other platforms function.

If Meta’s new platform were decentralized, it could allow third parties to build apps and features into the platform, potentially giving users experiences beyond what Meta itself might build.

The effort, codenamed P92, is in its early stages and is being led by Instagram head Adam Mosseri, according to Platformer.

Meta declined to comment beyond its statement, including in response to questions about the new platform’s potential features or a timeline for launch.

A number of upstart platforms have in recent months attempted to capitalize as Twitter struggles with frequent outages, the return of controversial users and a drop-off in advertisers. Many of them had an early jump in users following Musk’s takeover at Twitter, but have since struggled to gain widespread adoption.

Mastodon, a decentralized social network that was launched in 2016, grew its user base from 300,000 users to more than 2.5 million in the weeks after Musk completed his acquisition of Twitter in late October. But its growth has slowed in recent months, in part as users struggle with the somewhat less straightforward and user-friendly nature of a decentralized platform.

A new service from Meta, however, could benefit from the existing, large user base of the company’s other platforms, including the two billion people who use Facebook daily.

Plans for a new platform come as Meta is also shifting the strategy for its older platforms, emphasizing video and recommended content in an effort to better compete with TikTok. Earlier this week, Facebook head Tom Alison told CNN that the app is testing reincorporating messaging so that users don’t have to go to a separate app to share content they find on Facebook.

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March 16, 2023
A New York man was arrested after allegedly threatening a shooting at Tops Friendly Markets in a social media post | CNN

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CNN
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A 20-year-old man from Upstate New York has been charged with making a terroristic threat after threatening to carry out a shooting at the Tops Friendly Markets in Manlius, New York, in a Discord post, according to court documents and local police.

Police responded to a call Saturday from the manager of the Tops in Manlius – a village in Onondaga County – who said that the store got phone calls from two different people expressing their concern over statements made by a Discord user saying he was going to harm shoppers at their supermarket, according to court documents obtained by CNN affiliate WSTM.

The two witnesses who called the supermarket reported that the threatening remarks on Discord – which included a racist reference – came from a 20-year-old man named Zachary who lives in the Manlius area and whose father recently died, according to the documents.

Police investigated the posts and identified the user as Zachary Mullen of Jamesville, according to a statement from the Town of Manlius Police Department.

Law enforcement arrested Mullen on Saturday for making a terroristic threat and, when conducting a search of his home afterward, found guns and ammunition, according to the police statement.

A judge also issued an Extreme Risk Protection Order against Mullen on Sunday, which allowed authorities to seize at least two firearms from his home.

CNN was unable to identify an attorney for Mullen.

“There were some racist overtones to the posts made by Mr. Mullen and as of this moment we’re still trying to connect the dots as to why he picked the Tops in Manlius, but certainly the location of the store, the name of the store, the racist natures of the post, would cause anyone pause, that this may have been far more dastardly than it even looks on the surface,” Onondaga County District Attorney Bill Fitzpatrick told WSTM.

Discord is the same social media site that a convicted mass shooter posted on before killing 10 people at a Tops Friendly Markets in Buffalo.

Law enforcement officials verified that Mullen’s father, who they say was an avid hunter, had died a few days prior to Mullen’s posts on Discord and that he was grieving, according to the affidavit.

Mullen, who lives with his mother, is not currently in jail, according to the county district attorney.

“Unfortunately, he’s out on what’s known as pre-trial release because we live in New York and that’s the nature of Bail reform in New York. Incredibly enough he is out so if he has secret access to a gun, God forbid, that’s something we just don’t know but we’ll certainly be monitoring him as much as we can,” Fitzpatrick said in a statement to WSTM.

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March 14, 2023
Facebook-parent Meta plans to lay off another 10,000 employees | CNN Business

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Facebook-parent Meta plans to lay off another 10,000 workers, marking the second round of significant job cuts announced by the tech giant in four months.

The latest layoffs, announced on Tuesday, come after Meta said in November that it was eliminating approximately 13% of its workforce, or 11,000 jobs, in the single largest round of cuts in the company’s history.

In a Facebook post Tuesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the job cuts will take place “over the next couple of months.”

“We expect to announce restructurings and layoffs in our tech groups in late April, and then our business groups in late May,” he wrote. In a “small number of cases, it may take through the end of the year to complete these changes.”

“Overall, we expect to reduce our team size by around 10,000 people and to close around 5,000 additional open roles that we haven’t yet hired,” Zuckerberg said.

As of September 2022, Meta reported a headcount of 87,314, per a securities filings. With 11,000 job cuts announced in November and the 10,000 announced Tuesday, that would bring Meta’s headcount down to around 66,000.

Meta is far from the only Big Tech company to undergo layoffs amid higher inflation, recession fears and a whiplash in pandemic-induced demand. In the first months of this year, Amazon, Google-parent Alphabet and Microsoft have all confirmed major job cuts impacting tens of thousands of tech workers.

Shares of Meta rose more than 4% in early trading Tuesday following the announcement.

When the first round of job cuts was announced in November, Zuckerberg blamed himself at the time for the company’s over-hiring earlier in the pandemic. Meta  nearly doubled its headcount between March 2020 and September of last year, as the Covid-19 crisis led to a surge in demand for digital services.

But the situation changed radically for the social media giant and other tech companies last year as pandemic restrictions eased and people returned to their offline lives. Meta’s core business was also hit by privacy changes implemented by Apple and advertisers tightening budgets amid recession fears.

In its most-recent quarterly earnings report, Meta posted a sharp drop in profits and reported its third straight quarterly decline in revenue. But during the earnings call, Zuckerberg promised investors that 2023 would be the “year of efficiency” for the company, following years of heavy investment in growth and a more immersive version of the internet called the metaverse.

On that call, Zuckerberg also suggested that more job cuts could be coming.

“We closed last year with some difficult layoffs and restructuring some teams. When we did this, I said clearly that this was the beginning of our focus on efficiency and not the end,” Zuckerberg said during the earnings call in early February. He added that the company would be focused on “flattening” its org structure and “removing some layers of middle management to make decisions faster.”

“As part of this, we’re going to be more proactive about cutting projects that aren’t performing or may no longer be as crucial, but my main focus is on increasing the efficiency of how we execute our top priorities,” Zuckerberg said.

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March 14, 2023
CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin says covering the SVB meltdown is like ‘walking a tight rope’ | CNN Business

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Andrew Ross Sorkin woke up early Monday morning, long before the crack of dawn, after managing to sneak in a handful of hours of sleep.

The New York Times columnist had been up late into the night working on his DealBook newsletter. And now he needed to rise for a special edition of “Squawk Box,” the CNBC program he has co-hosted since 2011.

The special 5am edition of “Squawk” had been tasked with covering the continuing fallout stemming from the sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, a massive financial news story that has drawn some eerie comparisons to the beginnings of the 2008 financial disaster.

A version of this article first appeared in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter. Sign up for the daily digest chronicling the evolving media landscape here.

It is a story Sorkin described covering as “a balancing act, a little bit like walking a tight rope.” On one hand, he said, journalists must avoid sparking panic and causing a catastrophic run on the banks. But, on the other hand, journalists also owe it to their audiences to deliver them a clear-eyed assessment of the state of affairs.

“Our job as journalists is to tell the public what is happening — and if you believe in transparency, we should all want that,” Sorkin said. “The downside of transparency in real-time is sometimes news that may not be positive can pile on itself in a way. And so I think it is really just about trying to contextualize what we’re seeing.”

“You don’t want to cause a run on a bank,” Sorkin added, “but then at the same time, if everyone is running and they have reason to run, I think it’s important that the public understands what’s happening.”

The approach to delivering the news and covering the implosion of SVB that Sorkin described stands in stark contrast to some of the commentary saturating the internet and at other media outlets.

Over the weekend, some venture capital influencers amplified fear and suggested the entire US banking system was on the verge of collapse. The investor Jason Calacanis, who hosts a podcast and commands a Twitter audience of nearly 700,000 followers, tweeted, “YOU SHOULD BE ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIED RIGHT NOW.” On the right-wing talk channel Fox News Monday morning, “Fox & Friends” co-host Ainsley Earhardt suggested Americans needed “to go to our banks and take our money out.”

Unprecedented in its sheer speed and volume, SVB’s collapse is “fascinating,” Sorkin said, causing a meltdown only now possible in the “true age of social media, as well as what might be described as digital banking.”

“The ability for information to spread rapidly, both good information and bad, and for people to act on that information and then going to a bank app and transferring funds from one place to another, makes the responsibility [for journalists] even greater,” Sorkin said.

Sorkin said banking is ultimately a “confidence game,” explaining that it is “genuinely about whether people have confidence in leaving their money in a particular institution.” And in this current environment where social media influencers and other irresponsible voices thrive, Sorkin said it “inherently makes things less stable.”

“You have a lot of people who are on social media who don’t necessarily feel the same responsibilities to contextualize the news in the same way I might try,” Sorkin said. He suggested that in the case of SVB, there may have been “a little smoke in the corner of the theater” that could have been addressed before a fire burst out and prompted danger.

“If you scream ‘fire,’ everyone runs out of the theater,” Sorkin said. “Could the smoke have been put out before everyone ran out of the theater? Maybe.”

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March 13, 2023
Chinese companies and founders rush to calm investors after SVB collapse | CNN Business

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The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), which courted Chinese start-ups, has caused widespread concern in China, where a string of founders and companies rushed to appease investors by saying their exposure was insignificant or nonexistent.

SVB, which worked with nearly half of all venture-backed tech and healthcare companies in the United States before it was taken over by the government, has a Chinese joint venture, which was set up in 2012 and targeted the country’s tech elite.

The SPD Silicon Valley Bank, which was owned 50-50 owned by SVB and local partner Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, said Saturday that its operations were “sound.”

“The bank has a standardized corporate governance structure and an independent balance sheet,” it said in a statement. “As China’s first technology bank, SPD Silicon Valley Bank is committed to serving Chinese science and technology companies, and has always had sound operations in accordance with Chinese laws and regulations.”

It’s unclear what will happen to SVB’s ownership of the joint venture.

SVB Financial Group, the parent company of SVB, also has two business consulting firms and one financial services firm in mainland China, according to corporate database Tianyancha.

Concerns about the failure of SVB have spread around the world, as investors fretted about the broader risks to the global banking sector and any potential spillover effect.

In an extraordinary move to restore confidence in America’s banking system, the Biden administration on Sunday guaranteed that customers of SVB and Signature Bank, which was closed by regulators, will have access to all their money.

That action appears to have appeased global markets, with US futures rallying in response and some Asian markets paring earlier losses.

In China, at least a dozen firms have issued statements since SVB collapsed trying to pacify investors or clients, saying that their exposure to the lender was limited. Most were biotech companies.

BeiGene, one of China’s largest cancer-focused drug companies, said Monday it had more than $175 million uninsured cash deposits at SVB, which represents approximately 3.9% of its cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments.

“The company does not expect the recent developments with SVB to significantly impact its operations,” it said.

Zai Lab, a pharmaceutical firm, announced that its cash deposits at SVB were “immaterial” at about $23 million.

The closure of SVB “will not have an impact” on the company’s ability to meet its operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements, including payroll, it said.

Other companies that publicly assured investors included Andon Health, Sirnaomics, Everest Medicines, Broncus Medical, Jacobio Pharmaceuticals, Brii Biosciences, CStone Pharmaceuticals, Genor Biopharma and CANbridge Pharmaceuticals.

Mobile ad tech firm Mobvista and wealth management firm Noah Holdings said their cash holdings at SVB were “minimal” or “immaterial.”

Popular selfie app Meitu said it hadn’t held any bank accounts at SVB since 2020. It issued a statement “to avoid any potential public misunderstanding.”

Ascletis Pharma, MicroPort NeuroTech, Antengene Corp, and Suzhou Basecare Medical Corporation also denied they had any deposits or business dealings with SVB.

Pan Shiyi, co-founder and former chairman of Soho China, a major Beijing-based property developer, denied he had any money at SVB after reports went viral on social media that he had lost billions of yuan.

“We never opened an account with Silicon Valley Bank, nor placed a deposit,” he said late Sunday on his Weibo account.

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March 13, 2023
China censors women modeling lingerie on livestream shopping — so men are doing it | CNN Business

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Hong Kong
CNN
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Donning a sassy piece of silk lingerie, a male model grooves to the beat and forms a heart shape with his fingers during a livestreaming session on Douyin, one of China’s most popular video-sharing platforms.

His modeling performance is the latest illustration of the kind of entrepreneurial innovation sometimes needed to bypass China’s rigorous internet censorship, a dragnet that can ensnare seemingly innocuous activities – in this case retailers selling women’s underwear online.

China deploys one of the world’s most stringent censorship regimes, with a track record of blocking out not just politically sensitive information but images of women’s bodies deemed marginally racy.

Several businesses specializing in selling lingerie through livestreaming have had their sessions cut short after they featured a female model and their brush with internet censorship came to light in January.

Hence the use of men instead.

On one of the sales channels, a man is seen dressed in black lingerie, standing next to a mannequin showing a similar outfit, in what appears to be a screenshot of a livestream broadcast on Alibaba

(BABA)’s Taobao Live, a streaming platform for the e-commerce giant.

In another image, a different male model put on a pink slip dress and silky shawl, accessorized with cat ear headbands.

In one livestream clip, carried by multiple state media outlets, an owner of an online venture said he was simply trying to play it safe.

“This is not an attempt at sarcasm. Everyone is being very serious about complying with the rules,” the man, who identified himself as Mr Xu, said.

The emergence of male lingerie models has caused mixed views online in China, from merriment and annoyance to reluctant acceptance.

“So what should I do if I want to promote and showcase lingerie in the live broadcast session? It’s very simple, find a man to wear it,” read one comment on China’s microblogging site Weibo.

Livestreaming sales of products is a multibillion-dollar industry in mainland China, and was given a major boost during the three years of the country’s strict Covid lockdowns that battered many bricks and mortar businesses.

As of June last year, the number of livestreaming e-commerce users in mainland China is over 460 million, according to the Academy of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, a body affiliated with Beijing’s commerce ministry.

A 2021 report by iResearch, a Beijing-based firm specializing in measuring audience growth online, predicted the livestream sector would be worth as much as $720 billion this year.

Male models are not the only workaround.

On Douyin, the Chinese domestic version of TikTok, other female models have circumvented the censorship by showcasing the latest style of lingerie on themselves on top of a t-shirt they are already wearing.

Others displayed the items on mannequins.

In 2015, China led a crackdown on television shows exposing actresses’ cleavage, forcing some of the most popular costume dramas to zoom in on their faces to avoid getting into trouble with the broadcast authorities.

Having male influencers promoting female-oriented products is not new in China, either.

One of the industry’s most successful livestream shopping influencers is Austin Li Jiaqi, who made his name as the “Lipstick King” after selling 15,000 lipsticks in just five minutes in 2018.

As one of China’s biggest internet celebrities, Li also peddles cosmetics, skincare products and fashion apparel, often applying products he’s selling to his own face.

Even outside of China, platforms such as Facebook and Instagram have faced criticism for restricting the sharing of images involving partial nudity, especially of women.

Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, Meta, restricts the sharing of breasts, although it says it intends “to allow images that are shared for medical or health purposes.” But even Meta’s own Oversight Board has called on the company to make its policy less confusing and more gender inclusive.

YouTube says it prohibits “the depiction of clothed or unclothed genitals, breasts, or buttocks that are meant for sexual gratification,” but it may age-restrict other images or videos involving nudity.

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March 13, 2023
The new normal on Twitter: watching it break | CNN Business

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Late last year, Dan Sinker found himself in a “Groundhog Day” situation. When he would check his notifications tab on Twitter, Sinker, who has tens of thousands of followers, often saw the platform recommend the same weeks-old tweet from another user. As Sinker described the situation in one tweet in early December, “we’re back to November 7 in my mentions again.”

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March 12, 2023
BBC’s flagship soccer show boycotted over Gary Lineker impartiality row | CNN

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CNN
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The BBC’s weekend soccer coverage has been plunged into chaos following its announcement Gary Lineker would “step back” from presenting, after he became embroiled in an impartiality row when he criticized British government policy on Twitter.

The broadcaster now faces a boycott from pundits, presenters and even players of its flagship soccer show “Match of the Day,” while other soccer programs – Football Focus and Final Score – and some radio programming have been forced off-air as a result of the furore.

Lineker criticized the government’s controversial new asylum-seeker policy on Tuesday and was subsequently relieved of his presenting duties this week since the BBC said his tweets breached their guidelines, specifically its commitment to “due impartiality.”

The BBC’s decision has sparked controversy, leaving the organization under fire from opposition politicians, the Broadcasting Entertainment Communications and Theatre Union who represent BBC staff, and its former director general Greg Dyke.

“The BBC will only be able to bring limited sport programming this weekend and our schedules will be updated to reflect that,” a BBC spokesperson said in a statement Saturday.

“We are sorry for these changes which we recognize will be disappointing for BBC sport fans.

“We are working hard to resolve the situation and hope to do so soon.”

In an interview with BBC News on Saturday, the broadcaster’s Director General Tim Davie was asked if he should resign over the crisis. He said he would not.

“I honestly do not believe, despite a lot of the commentary, that this is about left or right,” Davie said. The BBC is a “fierce champion of democratic debate, free speech, but with that comes the need to create an impartial organization,” he added.

When asked if he was sorry about the way he handled the situation, he said: “We made decisions, and I made decisions based on a real passion about what the BBC is and it is difficult – it’s this balance between free speech and impartiality.”

On Tuesday, Lineker tweeted “Good heavens, this is beyond awful” to a video posted on Twitter by the British Home Office announcing the new proposed policy – an attempt to stop migrant boats crossing the English Channel from France which has been criticized by the United Nations and other global bodies.

He added: “There is no huge influx. We take far fewer refugees than other major European countries. This is just an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s, and I’m out of order?”

As Britain’s public broadcaster, the BBC is bound by “due impartiality” – a much debated term which the organization defines as holding “power to account with consistency” while not “allowing ourselves to be used to campaign to change public policy.”

On Friday, the BBC announced Lineker would “step back from presenting Match of the Day until we’ve got an agreed and clear position on his use of social media,” adding it considered his recent social media activity to breach its guidelines.

In response, first pundits, then commentators, and then even Premier League teams announced their intention to boycott the show in support of Lineker.

BBC commentators Steve Wilson, Conor McNamara, Robyn Cowen and Steven Wyeth said in a joint statement issued late on Friday “in the circumstances, we do not feel it would be appropriate to take part in the programme.”

A shortened version of the program did eventually air on Saturday. It opened with a BBC continuity announcer issuing an apology, instead of the usual title sequence and theme tune.

It then showed highlights from Saturday’s English Premier League games with no commentary, only the background audio from the stadiums.

The show aired for 20 minutes, an hour less than the originally scheduled time.

Jermain Defoe, a former England striker, announced Saturday he would not appear as a pundit on the Sunday show.

“It’s always such a privilege to work with BBC MOTD. But tomorrow I have taken the decision to stand down from my punditry duties. @GaryLineker,” Defoe tweeted.

Defoe’s announcement appears to be the first sign the British broadcaster’s Sunday television programming will also be affected.

Meanwhile, the Professional Footballers’ Association announced on Saturday “players involved in today’s games will not be asked to participate in interviews with Match of the Day.”

“The PFA have been speaking to members who wanted to take a collective position and to be able to show their support for those who have chosen not to be part of tonight’s programme,” the statement added.

“During those conversations we made clear that, as their union, we would support all members who might face consequences for choosing not to complete their broadcast commitments. This is a common sense decision that ensures players won’t now be put in that position.”

Following his side’s 1-0 defeat against Bournemouth on Saturday, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was asked about the BBC issue.

“I cannot see any reason why they would ask anyone to step back for saying that. I’m not sure if that’s a language issue or not,” the German told reporters.

“If I understand it right, then this is about an opinion about human rights and that should be possible to say.

“What I don’t understand is why everybody goes on Twitter and says something. I don’t understand the social media part of it but that’s probably [because] I’m too old for that.”

The BBC’s former director general Greg Dyke said the broadcaster has “undermined its own credibility” by suspending Lineker because it seemed like it had “bowed to government pressure.”

Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labour Party, said the BBC had got “this one badly wrong and now they’re very, very exposed.”

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted: “As a strong supporter of public service broadcasting, I want to be able to defend the BBC. But the decision to take Gary Lineker off air is indefensible. It is undermining free speech in the face of political pressure – & it does always seem to be rightwing pressure it caves to.”

Opposition Labour Party deputy leader Angela Rayner also lambasted the BBC’s decision in a tweet on Saturday.

“The BBC’s cowardly decision to take Gary Lineker off air is an assault on free speech in the face of political pressure from Tory politicians. They should rethink,” she tweeted.

Meanwhile Nadine Dorries, an MP with the governing Conservative party and former Culture Secretary, welcomed the BBC’s decision, tweeting: “News that Gary Lineker has been stood down for investigation is welcome and shows BBC are serious about impartiality.

“Gary is entitled to his views – free speech is paramount. Lots of non Public Service Broadcasters can accommodate him and his views and he would be better paid.”

For his part, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Saturday issued a statement saying he hopes the situation between the BBC and its star soccer host can be resolved but it is not a matter for the UK government.

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March 12, 2023
Chinese city proposes lockdowns for flu — and faces a backlash | CNN

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Hong Kong
CNN
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A Chinese city has sparked a backlash on social media after saying it would consider the use of lockdowns in the event of an influenza outbreak.

The city of Xi’an – a tourism hotspot in Shaanxi province that is home to the famous terracotta warriors – revealed an emergency response plan this week that would enable it to shut schools, businesses and “other crowded places” in the event of a severe flu epidemic.

That prompted a mixture of anxiety and anger on China’s social media websites among many users who said the plan sounded uncomfortably similar to some of the strict zero-Covid measures China had implemented throughout the pandemic and which have only recently been abandoned.

“Vaccinate the public rather than using such time to create a sense of panic,” one user wrote on Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter.

“How will people not panic given that Xi’an’s proposal to suspend work and business activities were issued without clear instruction on the national level to classify the disease?” asked another.

While cases of Covid in China are falling, there has been a spike in flu cases across the country and some pharmacies are struggling to meet demand for flu remedies.

However, Xi’an’s emergency response plan will not necessarily be used. Rather, it outlines how the city of almost 13 million people would respond to any future outbreak based on four levels of severity.

At the first and highest level, it says, “the city can lock down infected areas, carry out traffic quarantines and suspend production and business activities. Shopping malls, theaters, libraries, museums, tourist attractions and other crowded places will also be closed.”

“At this emergency level, schools and nurseries at all levels would be shut down and be made responsible for tracking students’ and infants’ health conditions.”

The backlash comes as the central government in Beijing has emphasized the need to open the country back up following the removal of all Covid restrictions in January.

Throughout the pandemic, China had enforced some of the world’s most severe Covid restrictions, including lockdowns that stretched into months in some cities. It was also one of the last countries in the world to end measures such as mass testing and strict border quarantine periods, even amid growing evidence of the damage being done to its economy.

Xi’an itself was subject to a draconian lockdown between December 2021 and January 2022, with 13 million residents confined to their homes for weeks on end – and many left short of food and other essential supplies. Access to medical services was also affected. In an incident that shocked and angered the nation, a heavily pregnant woman was turned away from a hospital on New Year’s Day because she didn’t have a valid Covid-19 test, and suffered a miscarriage after she was finally admitted two hours later.

Shortly before China removed its pandemic era restrictions the country had been rocked by a series of demonstrations against its zero-Covid policy.

Memories of being confined to their homes and of panic buying that in some areas led to food shortages remain fresh in people’s minds and the idea of a return to Covid-style measures appears to have hit a nerve.

However, some voices called for calm.

Epidemiologist Ben Cowling, from the University of Hong Kong’s School of Public Health, said he saw the rationale of the move.

“I think it’s quite rational to make contingency plans. I wouldn’t expect a lockdown to be needed for flu, but presumably there are different response levels,” he said.

One user on Weibo expressed a similar sentiment: “It is merely the revelation of a proposal, not putting it in place. It is quite normal to take precautions given this wave of flu is coming at us very strong.”

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March 10, 2023
Judge orders former Trump adviser Peter Navarro to turn over emails from his private account said to be White House records | CNN Politics

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CNN
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A federal judge has ordered former Donald Trump adviser Peter Navarro to turn over to the US government certain emails from his time at the White House, granting the Justice Department a victory in a civil lawsuit the department brought against the ex-trade adviser.

US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said that the emails in question – from a non-official email account Navarro used at the time – were covered under the Presidential Records Act.

“It bears note that under the PRA Dr. Navarro’s obligation to copy from or forward from his personal account to the official account was ‘no later than’ twenty (20) days after the original creation or transmission,” she wrote. “Plainly, he did neither during his tenure in the White House, nor has he forwarded Presidential record emails in the years since.”

She rejected Navarro’s arguments that producing the emails would put at risk his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, as well other arguments Navarro made in the case.

Navarro was ordered by the judge to immediately produce 200 to 250 emails that his lawyers had found when they had done a search, using search terms provided by the the National Archives and Records Administration, of his emails last summer. The Archives had asked him to prioritize the emails that had come up with those search terms.

The judge also ordered that Navarro and the government meet within 30 days to come up with a plan for identifying and turning over the other emails that should be produced under the PRA. She is asking for a status report to be filed by seven days after the parties meet.

When it filed the lawsuit, the Justice Department said that the National Archives had become aware of the emails on Navarro’s private account because of a House investigation into the Trump administration’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

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March 9, 2023
Everyone hates switching the clocks for Daylight Saving Time. So why is it so hard to get rid of? | CNN Business

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Everyone hates switching the clocks for Daylight Saving Time. So why is it so hard to get rid of?

CNN’s Harry Enten tells “Nightcap’s” Jon Sarlin why Americans switch the clocks back and forth twice a year, even though the time change is pretty universally hated. Plus, Los Angeles Times columnist LZ Granderson on how legal sports betting has changed March Madness. And CNN’s Clare Duffy explains why the FTC’s investigation of Twitter could be a real problem for Elon Musk. To get the day’s business headlines sent directly to your inbox, sign up for the Nightcap newsletter.

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March 9, 2023
Michelle Obama opens up about her ‘uncontrollable sobbing’ on day of Trump’s inauguration | CNN Politics

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Washington
CNN
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Michelle Obama broke down shortly after leaving then-President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the former first lady candidly shared in a new podcast, as the emotions of leaving their family’s home after eight years and resentment over Trump taking office overwhelmed her.

“When those doors shut, I cried for 30 minutes straight, uncontrollable sobbing, because that’s how much we were holding it together for eight years,” Obama said, referring to her final trip aboard the presidential airplane.

The fresh revelation of Obama’s experience came in a clip of her “The Light Podcast,” which launched on Audible Tuesday. The podcast audio comes from the former first lady’s recent book tour for her third book, “The Light We Carry,” which reflects on how she’s dealt with relationships, self-doubt and anxiety during uncertain times. It captures conversations from her visits to six cities with all-star moderators, like Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry, David Letterman and Conan O’Brien to promote and discuss her best-selling book.

“After the inauguration – and we know whose inauguration we were at – that day was so emotional on so many different reasons. We were leaving the home we had been in for eight years, the only home our kids really knew,” Obama shared. “They remembered Chicago but they had spent more time in the White House than anywhere. So we were saying goodbye to the staff and all the people who helped to raise them.”

Obama confirmed she wasn’t in a “good mood” but she “had to hold it together.”

“There were tears, there was that emotion. But then to sit on that stage and watch the opposite of what we represented on display – there was no diversity, there was no color on that stage, there was no reflection of the broader sense of America,” Obama said.

She also took a jab at her husband’s successor over his inauguration crowd size, a long-running point of contention for the Trump White House which has falsely claimed the turnout was the largest ever.

“You take your last flight off, flying over the Capitol, where there weren’t that many people there. We saw it,” she said, which gained laughs from the audience.

Promoting the podcast on Twitter Monday, Obama said that she hopes it inspires others to “share your own light.”

In the years since leaving the White House, the former first lady has revealed other tidbits about her mood that day in January 2017, including that she “stopped even trying to smile” during Trump’s inauguration. Speaking to Jimmy Fallon in 2018, she said, “A lot was going on that day,” but as she bid farewell to the White House one thought was clear: “Bye, Felicia!”

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March 7, 2023
Elon Musk thinks he can fix Twitter’s advertising business after derailing it | CNN Business

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CNN
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Elon Musk on Tuesday offered an optimistic picture for how Twitter can improve the advertising business he helped derail and boost its bottom line while also admitting that keeping the social network running is proving to be a challenge after multiple rounds of layoffs.

In remarks at a Morgan Stanley Conference, Musk laid out his vision to boost Twitter’s core advertising business by adopting the standard strategy of most of the company’s peers: improving the relevance of the ads it serves.

“The advertising relevance is the most gigantic thing,” Musk said. “And this is going to sound totally bizarre, but Twitter did not consider relevance in advertising until three months ago.”

With that change, and larger cost cuts across the organization, Musk said he believes Twitter has “got a shot at being cash flow positive next quarter.”

“Going forward, Twitter will have very relevant, useful advertising,” Musk said. “And because it is useful, because it is relevant, there will be a massive increase in revenue, because it is now useful. So I’m very optimistic about the future. It’s been a very difficult four months, but I’m optimistic about the future.”

Since taking over the platform in late October, Twitter has suffered a mass exodus of top brands as Musk relaxed some content moderation policies, restored incendiary accounts and made a number of erratic remarks concerning politics and world affairs. Musk, who has previously tweeted about his hatred for advertising, made a quick bet on bolstering a paid subscription offering instead, but it has reportedly struggled to gain traction.

He also took the time to thank advertisers that have stuck with Twitter throughout his rocky takeover, including Disney and Apple.

But even as Musk looks to grow Twitter’s ad business, which has long made up nearly all of the company’s revenue, there are sincere doubts about whether the platform can even stay online.

Twitter has been inundated with outages, including a significant service disruption on Monday, and other user headaches since Musk took over, likely linked to the multiple rounds of mass layoffs that occurred under his watch. On Tuesday, he blamed the “overly complex” underlying technology for some of the recent service disruptions.

“The code base is like a Rube Goldberg machine, and when you zoom in on one part of the Rube Goldberg machine, there’s another Rube Goldberg machine, and then there’s another one,” Musk said at the event on Tuesday. “So it’s quite difficult to keep this thing running, and then also difficult to advance the product because it is really overly complex, to say the least.”

“We’ll make a change, what appears to be a small change somewhere, that then causes a massive disruption,” he said. Musk said Monday’s outage was the result of “what was supposed to be a small change to 1% of the Twitter user base [that] ended up being a catastrophic change to 100% of the Twitter user base.”

At the same time, Musk continues to make controversial remarks that may give brands pause about returning to, or increasing their spending on, the platform. Musk was criticized by some this week after he publicly mocked a Twitter worker with a disability who asked the Twitter owner whether he had been laid off.

At Tuesday’s event, Musk went on a series of unrelated tangents, including repeatedly taking aim at legacy media organizations. “What I’d say to advertisers and brands is, you know, use Twitter yourself and believe what you see on Twitter, not what you read in the newspapers,” Musk said. “Because what you see on Twitter is the real thing, and what you read in newspapers is not.”

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March 7, 2023
Facebook tests bringing back in-app messaging features as it competes with TikTok | CNN Business

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New York
CNN
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Nearly a decade after Facebook angered some users by splitting off messaging features from its flagship social networking application and forcing people to download a separate app to chat with friends, the company is now testing out reversing the move.

In an interview with CNN, Facebook head Tom Alison said the platform is testing bringing messaging capabilities back to the Facebook app so users can more easily share content without having to use the Messenger app. The test comes as Facebook looks to beat back competition from TikTok by bolstering its position both as a platform to discover new content and discuss it.

“We believe that content feeds into not just you consuming it but being conversation starters and starting that message thread with your friends or being something that you can share into a group of people who share your same interests,” Alison said. “I think the thing that will differentiate Facebook and Instagram from TikTok and others is just the depth of being able to start a conversation with your friends from this content and have that kind of social dimension.”

The move, which Alison also announced in a blog post Tuesday, comes after Facebook revised its strategy last year amid concerns about a stagnant and aging user base. No longer would the platform simply be about connecting friends and family. Instead, founder Mark Zuckerberg wanted Facebook to become a “discovery engine.”

Facebook redesigned its home feed to surface more entertaining posts from across the platform, with AI-powered content recommendations, rather than just showing posts from those specifically in a user’s network. (A new, separate tab fulfilled the desire for the latter.) The goal was clear: to keep users engaged longer and help the platform better compete with TikTok and its steady stream of recommended content.

Nine months later, that shift has begun to pay off, Alison told CNN. The platform last month reported that it hit 2 billion daily active users in the December quarter.

“A lot of the narrative leading up to this has been that Facebook is in decline or Facebook’s best days are behind it,” Alison said, “and part of what we’re trying to do with this milestone is say, ‘hey, look, that’s actually not true.”

There have been no shortage of rumors of Facebook’s demise over the years, from its admission of having a “teen problem” a decade ago to the more recent series of PR debacles for the social network and its parent company, Meta. TikTok’s rapid rise and even the success of Facebook’s sister service, Instagram, have also taken some of the shine off the aging social network Zuckerberg launched in a dorm room nearly 20 years ago. But its audience has resumed growing, for now.

Alison, who has been in charge of the Facebook app since July 2021, said the introduction of the “discovery engine” strategy is just the beginning of a larger shift for the platform, as Facebook works to forge a path to continued growth and relevance over the next two decades.

“For the last almost 20 years … we’ve been really known for friends and family, but over the next 20 years, what we’re really working toward is being known for social discovery,” he said. “It’s going to be about helping you connect with the people that you know, the people that you want to know and the people that you should know.”

While Facebook and Instagram have struggled in their attempts to keep pace with TikTok, including through copycat features like Reels, Alison argues Facebook has a leg up on TikTok thanks to its roots in helping people connect with their networks.

For some creators, for example, Facebook has become a place to create groups of fans and hold conversations beyond the content they share to Instagram and TikTok, Alison said. “I think it’s helping them get closer to their fans on Facebook in a way they can’t do on other platforms.”

As Facebook plots its evolution, it will have to contend with what Zuckerberg has called the company’s “year of efficiency,” an effort to cut costs after a broader reckoning in the tech industry and investor skepticism around its pricey plan to center its business model around the future version of the internet it calls the metaverse.

“One of the things that we are embracing with the year of efficiency is prioritization and, frankly, just focusing more effort on some of our bigger bets,” Alison said. The platform has over the past year shuttered some smaller efforts, such as its Bulletin newsletter subscription service, in favor of investing in key areas like AI. “That’s a lot of the culture that we’re kind of instituting across Meta is just like, how do we do fewer things better? And how do we do them, sometimes, more quickly? Efficiency is not just about cost savings.”

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March 7, 2023
Twitter hit with one of the biggest outages since Elon Musk took over | CNN Business

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New York
CNN
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Twitter’s website was inaccessible for many users on Monday while others reported issues seeing photos and clicking through links in the app, marking one of the most wide-ranging service disruptions to date under new owner Elon Musk.

Some users who attempted to load Twitter.com or TweetDeck, a service that allows users to organize their Twitter feed into lists, were met with an error message: “your current API plan does not include access to this endpoint.” Other users were able to access the site (although it appeared to load slowly), but they were met with the same error message when clicking on links.

Outage tracker site DownDetector showed more than 8,000 Twitter outage reports around noon on Monday. For users who were able to access the platform, “Twitter API” was trending as people tweeted about the issues.

“Some parts of Twitter may not be working as expected right now,” the company said in a tweet. “We made an internal change that had some unintended consequences. We’re working on this now and will share an update when it’s fixed.”

In a separate tweet on Monday, Musk said: “This platform is so brittle (sigh). Will be fixed shortly.”

Within about an hour, the issues appeared to have largely resolved. “Things should now be working as normal,” the company tweeted around 1 pm ET.

Monday’s outage marked the second Twitter glitch in less than a week and the third in under a month. Last Wednesday, some Twitter users who opened up their “for you” timeline were greeted with a blank screen and a message saying, “welcome to your timeline,” encouraging them to follow other users to get tweets to show up even if they already followed various accounts. Other users were met with a “Welcome to Twitter!” message as if they had just joined the platform.

Three weeks ago, Twitter users encountered various issues with the platform, including the inability to tweet, send direct messages or follow new accounts.

Twitter has experienced a range of technical glitches since Musk took over the company and laid off more than half its staff late last year. Users have previously reported issues with the app’s two-factor authentication tool, seeing replies listed above a tweet rather than below it and seeing old tweets show up repeatedly in their feed or mentions.

Some former employees raised concerns that the mass layoffs under Musk could cause the platform to break in big or small ways, after workers with knowledge of Twitter’s key systems were ousted. But Musk has continued to cut staff in an effort to boost Twitter’s bottom line.

The latest service disruptions come after Twitter reportedly laid off another 10% of its staff late last month, including some engineers responsible for site reliability, according to a report from the New York Times.

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March 6, 2023
Sen. Mike Lee says his personal Twitter account was suspended | CNN Business

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CNN
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A personal Twitter account belonging to Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee was suspended without warning or explanation, according to the senator.

Tweeting from his official Senate account, Lee said he has reached out to Twitter “seeking answers.”

“My personal Twitter account – @BasedMikeLee – has been suspended,” Lee tweeted. “Twitter did not alert me ahead of time, nor have they yet offered an explanation for the suspension.”

CNN confirmed the suspension Wednesday afternoon by visiting the affected profile, which displayed a suspension message from Twitter. As of 2:30 pm ET, an hour after his tweet, the account appeared to be restored.

Twitter, which has cut much of its public relations team, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNN. In a tweet, Twitter owner Elon Musk said the account was “incorrectly flagged as impersonation.”

The suspension marks the second time in a month that Twitter has briefly suspended a sitting US senator. In February, Twitter temporarily suspended Montana Republican Sen. Steve Daines’ account over a profile photo that Twitter said violated its policies. Musk later personally reached out to Daines by phone and restored his account.

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March 6, 2023
Chris Rock makes Netflix history (live!) | CNN

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CNN
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It’s the night Chris Rock makes streaming history.

“Chris Rock is in Samurai mode,” comedian Leslie Jones said in an intro.

And he is.

“I’m going to try to do a show tonight without offending nobody. I’m going to try my best, because you never know who might get triggered,” Rock said as he opened his set from Baltimore. “People always say words hurt … anybody who says words hurt has never been punched in the face.”

He went on: “I have no problem with the wokeness. I have no problem with it at all. I’m all for social justice. I’m all for marginalized people getting their rights. The thing I have a problem with is the selective outrage,” Rock said. “You know what i’m talking about. One person does something, they get canceled. Somebody else does the exact same thing, nothing. You know what I’m talking about … the kind of people who play Michael Jackson songs but won’t play R. Kelly. Same crime, one of them just has better songs.”

Rock, wearing all white and a Prince symbol medallion necklace, stood in front of a background that resembled cracked mirrors. (Suggesting, perhaps, a theme of people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.)

Rock hit on several topical issues, including addiction, abortion, racism in America, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and the Kardashian family.

Tackling the country’s division, Rocked said, “America is in horrible shape right now.”

“We got it worse than Ukraine. Yeah, I said it. You know why? Because Ukraine is united and America is clearly divided,” Rock joked. “If the Russians came here right now, half the country would say, “Let’s hear them out.’ We’re in a bad place right now.”

Rock delved into his romantic life, saying when he realized his pillow cases were dirty, he realized how much women do for men.

“I’m trying to date women my age, which is 10 to 15 years younger than me,” he said. “Don’t hate the player, hate the game. I didn’t get rich and stay in shape to talk about Anita Baker. I’m trying to f— Doja Cat.”

“Chris Rock: Selective Outrage,” the first ever live global streaming event for Netflix.

The performance marks Rock’s sixth standup special and his second for Netflix after 2018’s “Tamborine,” directed by Bo Burnham.

A pre-show kicked off with Ronny Chieng live from Los Angeles, where he told the crowd, “We could have pretaped this whole thing and nobody would have cared, but we are doing this for a noble cause: To finally try to kill off traditional TV and put it out of it’s misery. In fact, if you listen hard you can hear Baby Boomers canceling the last cable subscription packages.”

Before that, U2’s Bono sang an opening about Rock.

Arsenio Hall followed Chieng with a joke about how Will Smith is going to get so mad tonight he’ll slap the TV off the wall.

This story is developing and will be updated….

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March 4, 2023