Over the past few weeks, we’ve glimpsed how American companies have knelt before China. Google removed a game from its Play Store that allowed users to play as Hong Kong protesters. Apple pulled HKmap.live, an app that helped the protesters track police. And, as we reported, Apple, as far back as 2018, told its TV+ creators to avoid angering China.

The intrusion of Chinese values into US culture has caught the attention of legislators in Washington DC, who have directed much of their ire toward Apple. When politicians criticize the company for bowing to a Communist government, their condemnations mean something. Apple has built a principled brand, which sustained criticism puts at stake. Here, for instance, is what Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida sent me, via his aides, following our story about Apple TV+:

No American company should be complicit in the Chinese Communist Party’s Orwellian efforts to censor information and infringe on basic human rights. As we have seen multiple times this week, when companies debase basic freedoms in exchange for financial gain it strengthens the hand of authoritarians everywhere. It’s a shame that an iconic American company such as Apple, which has benefited so much from our liberty and freedom, values market access to authoritarian China over supporting freedom of speech and autonomy.

Yikes.

Rubio also signed onto a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook with six other elected representatives — from AOC to Ted Cruz — condemning Apple’s actions. “Late last year, you were widely quoted as saying, ‘At Apple, we are not afraid to say that our values drive our curation decisions,’” the letter read. “So you can imagine our disappointment to read that Apple had removed HKMap.”

Condemning big tech may be the only thing elected officials in Washington can agree on. And Apple, by consistently talking up its values, has exposed itself to criticism. This incident has started to dull the shine of Apple’s masterful branding.

Benioff: Let’s abolish a law my company is using to defend itself

Last week while promoting his new book, Trailblazer, Salesforce co-CEO Marc Benioff called for the end of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a law that allows internet companies to moderate their sites without being held liable for what’s on them. In going after 230, Benioff was targeting Facebook. But if Section 230 were repealed, Salesforce would take a hit too. On the same day Benioff called for the act to be killed, his lawyers used it to defend Salesforce in a lawsuit against accusations of facilitating sex trafficking. So what’s Benioff after?

Books from active CEOs typically serve two purposes: they raise the CEO’s profile (check). And they serve as guidance to the company’s employees about what the company stands for, and why they should work there.

Salesforce is boring. It makes tools for salespeople and marketers to track their prospects and customers as they go through the “buyer’s journey.” If you’re the leader of Salesforce, how do you keep your people engaged to make sure they don’t leave for more exciting companies? You paint yourself as the good guy (while bringing MC Hammer to your conferences), and the latter as the bad guys. Does Benioff really want to abolish Section 230? Does he, a CEO who makes 187 times his average employee, really want a new capitalism? Whatever. He’s accomplished his mission. His employees have a north star — for now.

Amazon’s customer obsession

Over the weekend, I read a story about an Amazon fulfillment center worker who died of a heart attack suffered on the job. The man laid on the floor for 20 minutes before receiving help. “A couple of days before, he put the wrong product in the wrong bin and within two minutes management saw it on camera and came down to talk to him about it,” his brother told the Guardian.

To get its customers the products they order quickly, Amazon pushes its fulfillment center employees hard. That may be too hard for some of its customers.

When I tweeted the Guardian’s story Sunday, many replied saying that they had stopped ordering products from Amazon because of the way the company treats its workers. Customers, Amazon should note, don’t only care about how fast a product gets to them. They want to be sure that no humans are harmed in the process too.

ProgrammIng Note

Regular readers of this newsletter probably noticed were were on hiatus for a while. I’ll have more (very exciting things) to say about why soon. In the meantime, thanks for subscribing and we’re now back to our regular cadence.

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