SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook Hits the Snooze Button on Trump

The company is giving Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts plenty of time to catch up on beauty sleep: two more years.

Facebook said yesterday that the former president won’t be allowed back onto its social platforms until at least January 2023 (notably after the 2022 midterm elections), when it will decide whether he still presents “a serious risk to public safety.” 

• ICYMI: Following the storming of the Capitol on January 6, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Twitch all indefinitely banned Trump from their platforms.

In addition to extending Trump’s ban, Facebook also took a side on an argument that’s been ruining family dinners for months: “Should politicians get special treatment on social media?” 

To make a long story short, Facebook said “no.” To make a long story longer...

Facebook had kept a special list of politicians who were allowed to bend its content moderation rules because their opinions were considered “newsworthy content that should, as a general rule, be seen and heard,” Facebook VP of Global Affairs Nick Clegg said in 2019.

In a U-turn, Facebook now says that any user—Trump, the Dalai Lama, your third cousin who thinks Zuck is a lizard person—could be booted for violations like bullying.

Why not go somewhere else then?

Well, Trump built it and they didn’t come. The independent blog Trump launched last month failed to reach even a fraction of the combined 57 million followers he still has on Instagram and Facebook—it averaged just 4,000 interactions per day, according to BuzzSumo data. Earlier this week, the blog was taken down.

Zoom out: Trump’s blog’s failure is a reminder that social platforms like Facebook don’t just offer a place to share snarky opinions, but also an algorithm-amplified megaphone. 

But who should control that megaphone? It depends on where you live. The Nigerian government, for instance, temporarily suspended Twitter Wednesday after the platform froze President Muhammadu Buhari’s account for 12 hours, saying a tweet of his violated its "abusive behavior" policy.

ECONOMY

May Jobs Report Earns Participation Trophy

The May jobs report released yesterday was a lot like DiGiorno pizza: perfectly OK to digest cold on a Friday morning, but you could do better. The US added 559,000 new jobs last month, compared to economists’ expectations of 670,000.

What it means: Compared to April’s dismal report, May's numbers showed that the road to the labor market’s recovery is looking more “There's a light at the end of the tunnel” than “Is this a tunnel or did I fall into a black hole?” 

The big wins: The unemployment rate dropped to 5.8%, falling more than expected and hitting a new pandemic low. The number of workers who claimed unemployment because their employer lost business or closed due to the pandemic dropped by 1.5 million.

• The biggest job gains were in the leisure and hospitality sector, which added 292,000 new jobs, more than the 278,000 jobs the economy added in total in April. 

Bottom line: While some sectors of the economy have rebounded and catapulted past their pre-pandemic levels, the job market is taking longer to recover. There are still 7.6 million fewer people employed in the US than before the pandemic.

M&A

Please, Mister Spacman

As if SPACs weren’t confusing enough, investor Bill Ackman confirmed that he’s discussing a complex transaction not worth trying to understand if you haven’t had three coffees already. But it’s a big deal, literally: If signed, it’ll be the biggest deal involving a SPAC ever.

Assuming you’ve got a cold brew close by, here’s what’s going on: 

• Last year Ackman created a SPAC, aka a “blank-check company,” called Pershing Square Tontine Holdings, which raised about $4 billion. 
• Now, Pershing Square Tontine Holdings is in talks to acquire 10% of Universal Music Group (UMG), the label home to artists like Taylor Swift.  

If you’re thinking, “That’s not what SPACs are meant to do,” you’re right. Ackman is ripping up the traditional playbook of using a blank-check company to acquire a private company then take it public. Instead, through this investment, Ackman’s locking in a price for his investors when UMG lists its shares publicly, which it plans to do later this year. 

There’s even more 4D financial chess going on behind the scenes, but the bottom line is that shares in Ackman’s SPAC plummeted yesterday following the announcement, meaning investors doubt Ackman can pull off these business theatrics. 

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GRAB BAG

Key Performance Indicators

Stat: Every single corporate board in the S&P 500 now has at least one woman on it after Monolithic Power Systems added a female director last month, according to Bloomberg. The share of female directors at S&P companies is currently 29.7%.

Quote: “We need some divine intervention.”

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox asked residents of all faiths to pray for rain over the weekend amid a brutal drought striking the West. “We need more rain, and we need it now." 

Watch: It’s that time of year...rewatch David Foster Wallace’s commencement speech at Kenyon College in 2005. (YouTube)

SPORTS

Brands Have Changed, They’re Different Now, They Swear

Sweetgreen, Nike, Calm, and other brands moved quickly this week to back tennis star Naomi Osaka after she dropped out of this year’s French Open. Their moves are a reminder that on some social issues in 2021, companies no longer want to stay neutral.

The backstory: Last Sunday, Osaka dropped out of the tournament to focus on her mental health after initially declaring she’d skip mandatory press conferences.

• Osaka sponsors Sweetgreen, Nike, BareMinerals, and watchmaker Tag Heuer all issued public statements in support of her decision.
• Calm, an app that produces guided meditations, offered to pay the $15,000 fine for any player opting out of 2021 Grand Slam media appearances for mental health reasons.

At 23, Osaka has earned $55 million in the last 12 months from endorsements, putting her in a tie with Tiger Woods as the twelfth highest-paid athlete in the world. And her outspokenness stands in contrast to many athletes with high-dollar endorsement deals who have stayed quiet in the past. 

Bottom line: Brands want to be seen as taking mental health concerns seriously, and Osaka gives them an opportunity to rally around the cause.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Square CEO Jack Dorsey said that the company is looking into building a hardware wallet for bitcoin, which would give users greater control over their crypto investments.
• European regulators opened antitrust probes into Facebook and Google.
• Target and Walmart are closing stores on Thanksgiving Day for the second straight year.
• A parking spot in Hong Kong sold for $1.3 million, per the Japan Times.

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BREW'S BETS

Important: How to keep your plants alive while on vacation.

Weekend Conversation Starters: 

• Who is the character that had roughly 15 minutes or less in a film but had a huge impact on it?
• What are you reading this summer?
• What are you ordering from the ice cream truck?

FROM THE CREW

Brewnited States of America

Morning Brew is a lot more than just this newsletter. Here are some of our favorite pieces of content from around the Brewniverse this week…

Founder’s Journal: In this podcast episode, our cofounder Alex Lieberman explains why he bought bitcoin.

What is Amazon’s palm payments system actually like? Retail Brew’s Halie LeSavage tried it out.

Facial recognition ban: Emerging Tech Brew’s Hayden Field talked to a US Senator who said he’ll introduce legislation to ban facial recognition tech until better regulations are put in place.

Twitter’s been busy: Our video guy Dan Toomey imagined what Jack Dorsey’s reaction would be if he returned from a 12-year meditation retreat to encounter his company’s new features. 

GAMES

Brew Crossword: Don*t Give Up!

Usually we keep the theme of our crosswords secret, but yesterday was National Donut Day and our puzzle master Mary Tobler couldn’t resist.

Solve it here.