Businesses Choose Profit Over Politics

With Apple and Blizzard giving in to pressure from Beijing to disregard human rights in favor of censorship and conformity to regional political edicts, and with the NBA standing up for free speech the trade war with China took a strange turn.

With Western countries not only working with China but helping them implement their agenda, we have a serious case of business over politics, or perhaps political interference with business decisions.

When Apple buddies up with Beijing or Trump, it actually does exceedingly well on Wall Street and for its bottom line, but is it compromising its corporate social responsibility credibility in the process?

What this shows is the incredible influence powerful global firms can have even on current global events. When executives and corporate leaders decide to turn a blind eye to human rights, what happens to other companies caught in the cross-fire? They are more motivated to side with business, over politics.

The tech giant removed an app last night that allowed protesters in Hong Kong to track the police, after criticism from China’s state media.

Activision Blizzard kicked out a gamer for supporting HK on a video stream. If that's not politics influencing your customers and their community, I don't know what is. Unfortunately, this kind of behavior is censorship, and by American companies that feel they have no choice but to comply with Beijing edicts!

So the entire relationship of business and politics is being challenged by the Hong Kong protests and it's somewhat I think as professionals we need to talk about. Is giving in to government pressure a case of putting politics ahead of business or the other way around?

Apple profits from being in China and always is submissive to the will of the laws of that country. Just as Tim Cook has buddied up with Trump for corporate and business advantages. Is that just good business sense? Or is it compromising a moral position for a profits motivation?

I'm not pretending there are easy answers here.

Data Apartheid is Coming in the 2020s

Soon in China the unthinkable is coming, even basic internet access might be impacted by their social credit system. Chinese citizens will soon need to scan their face before they can access internet services or get a new phone number.

China's 854 million internet users will soon need to use facial identification in order to apply for new internet or mobile services. This new rule will apply by December 1st. The Chinese government announced last month that telecommunications companies will need to scan users' faces in order to verify their identities before they can access new services. 

By being a compliant company like Apple is, it is implicitly involved. By erasing the Taiwan flag for Hong Kong or Macau users of its services, by complying with all of these little things, it's hastening a kind of police state that some believe represents an unfair use of totalitarian regime information control on people.

That's not to say American firms like Facebook, Google and others are good actors for human rights online either with their advertising duopoly, anti-competition practices, and antitrust violating acquisitions, among other things.

It's to say that what China is pushing how foreign firms are bending to their will for economic gain while compromising their core values. Which side of history do you want to stand with?

It's not like the NBA needs China to survive as Apple does. Apple has become a conservative brand, if the NBA is more progressive and actually stood up for free speech recently.

Less than a day after Apple  was criticized by Chinese state media for allowing HKmap in the App Store, the crowdsourced map app said it had been delisted. Apple flip-flopped on this shows just how bizarre the times we live in are. It rejected, accepted and then rejected again the app. The most powerful American company siding with China on free-speech and access to information. China state media, of course, is saying the Hong Kong protests are like "terrorists".

Whatever you believe about the media, that's in my book a kind of misinformation and propaganda campaign. The right to protests and have free speech is considered universally (in most countries) a basic human right. Countries like Hong Kong and Taiwan are certainly pro-America in values because they are pro economy and freedom. Taiwan for economic reasons might be forced to re-merge with China since its birth rate has plummeted in recent years with migration to China increasing.

The trade war is showing a new stage of ideological warfare where powerful businesses are becoming involved in the battle. Google, Facebook, and Microsoft have all created censored products for China, in their attempt to gain influence there. It sounds as if Silicon Valley always puts business over politics if it can help it, simply because that's the default position of profitability and shareholder interest.

But in such a world, is capitalism compromising human-centric values for business advantages? Do firms have an ethical responsibility to stand up for minorities and human rights violations?

After Apple allowed HKmap into the App Store, an article in the China Daily, a newspaper owned by the Communist Party of China, criticized the company, claiming that it enabled “rioters in Hong Kong to go on violent acts,” and adding that “Business is business, and politics is politics…Apple has to think about the consequences of its unwise and reckless decision.”

These days American tech firms seem to fear and listen to Beijing more than Washington. That shows an incredible development in the trade war, the recognition of Beijing's authority in business matters even of the most powerful American companies.

If I worked at Apple, Google or Microsoft who compromise like this, I would feel embarrassed for fostering business over human values in my corporate style of decision making. If politics has no place in business, why would you follow the edicts of foreign states over the common good of actual people?

Further reading on internet access in China.

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