Speaker 1: From the heart of where innovation, money and power Collie
Speaker 1: in Silicon Vallet and beyond. This is Bloomberg Technology with
Speaker 1: Emily Jay i'm em only changing in San Francisco, and
Speaker 1: this is Bloomberg Technology coming up in the next hour.
Speaker 1: Russia calling Facebook and Instagram extremist and asking the court
Speaker 1: to ban them. How Meta is responding Plus up Work
Speaker 1: along with many other companies, halting their operations in Russia,
Speaker 1: but now facing backlash for the Russian gig workers getting
Speaker 1: caught in the crossfire. Ukraine's top diplomat, meantime, pushing back
Speaker 1: on the suggestion of quote positive movement in talks with
Speaker 1: Russia as they were described by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Speaker 1: Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dimitro Kuliba, speaking exclusively with our very
Speaker 1: own and Marie Hordern, there was zero progress in talks.
Speaker 1: So it's hard for me to understand what kind of
Speaker 1: progress President put In, his referring to the Russian army
Speaker 1: is still in Ukraine. They stay continued destroying our killing
Speaker 1: our children's civilians. And it speaks for one fact only
Speaker 1: that even if we continued talking with Russia, that does
Speaker 1: not have an impact on the behavior of Russian army
Speaker 1: on the ground cool, but also saying ongoing talks aren't
Speaker 1: impacting Russia's behavior on the ground, adding that a meeting
Speaker 1: between Putin and Ukraine's president would be helpful. Blueber Josh
Speaker 1: wind Grove joins US now from the White House. Josh
Speaker 1: President Biden earlier saying the U S would defend every
Speaker 1: inch of NATO territory, even if it meant world War three,
Speaker 1: but not a single age of Ukraine. Where does this
Speaker 1: leave Ukraine? That's right. He was speaking to democrats Emily
Speaker 1: at a gathering in philadelph And of course there's been calls, pressures,
Speaker 1: questions about whether the U S could do more, donate planes,
Speaker 1: even set up a no fly zone, and he said, look,
Speaker 1: we're going to defend every inch of native countries. Of
Speaker 1: course Ukraine not one of those. But we're not And
Speaker 1: even if that means world War three, as you said,
Speaker 1: we're not going to go to defend every interview Kraine
Speaker 1: because doing that, giving them offensive weapons, tanks, planes, that
Speaker 1: sort of thing, in Joe Biden's view, would trigger this
Speaker 1: sort of world War three scenario. So pretty start warning
Speaker 1: and a bit of pushback from him on these sort
Speaker 1: of long simmering calls we've seen for either planes to
Speaker 1: be given directly or the setting up of that no
Speaker 1: fly zone, and so where that leaves him. Of course,
Speaker 1: he was speaking after announcing a new tronch of of measures.
Speaker 1: The G seven and other countries are moving to revoke
Speaker 1: the most Favored Nation trading status of Russia. That's a
Speaker 1: big moves, sort of a broad brush move that would
Speaker 1: allow them to really hike tariffs across the board on
Speaker 1: stuff they're still importing. And he went a step farther
Speaker 1: by just saying they're not gonna import some stuff at all,
Speaker 1: including a Steve who the caviare diamonds, UH and other
Speaker 1: goods like Russian made vodkas. A bit of a symbolic
Speaker 1: strike there. So you continuing to sort of steadily ratchet
Speaker 1: up sanctions, and even just an hour ago, Emily, we
Speaker 1: got new new UH specific sanctions on people individuals, including
Speaker 1: the family of President Putin's spokesperson from the Treasury Department here,
Speaker 1: So you can see, tick by tick they're trying to
Speaker 1: increase the pressure, but it's still again using sort of
Speaker 1: economic sanctions, not not ratching anything up on the military side.
Speaker 1: So look what kind of pain, additional pain is this
Speaker 1: going to inflict on Russia? And is this really going
Speaker 1: to be what Ukraine needs when the war, the attacks
Speaker 1: of Embardment shows no sign of showing slowing down. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's a great question. And I don't think
Speaker 1: you're gonna find a lot of people predicting that the
Speaker 1: end is near. You know, the end, the end of
Speaker 1: this conflict is near. Of course, people hope for that.
Speaker 1: Markets seemed to react to President Putin's comments, as you
Speaker 1: heard from Ukraine's foreign minister, they didn't think there was
Speaker 1: any progress at all. But Biden has been bragging about
Speaker 1: the impact so far. He's saying the ruble is something
Speaker 1: like two rubles for one U s dollar. He predicted
Speaker 1: that if and when the Russian stock market ever does reopen,
Speaker 1: of course has been close for some time now, that
Speaker 1: it would simply crash collapse, is what President Biden predicted today.
Speaker 1: So they think they're having impact, they think they're making progress,
Speaker 1: But you know, there I think they would say that
Speaker 1: they don't have a ton of great options. And perhaps
Speaker 1: you can hear over the microphone. I'm here at the
Speaker 1: White House, of course, and there is a protest going
Speaker 1: on out here, uh, signifying the pressure Joe Biden is on,
Speaker 1: calling on him to do more to help the people
Speaker 1: of Ukraine. Meantime, the polls are showing that most Americans
Speaker 1: do support the ban on Russian oil. But here in California, Josh,
Speaker 1: I'm seeing five six, even seven dollars at the pump.
Speaker 1: President Biden's trying to get US oil producers to make more,
Speaker 1: but they are wary, of course, given the history here.
Speaker 1: Is he going to be able to do that? Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're not a lot of sign a bit. A lot
Speaker 1: of those producers have been scraping by for many years
Speaker 1: or or worse. You know, they're saying they're finally in
Speaker 1: a really profitable environment, and they make decisions several months
Speaker 1: out and they say they don't know what the profitability
Speaker 1: is gonna look like five six, seven, twelve months down
Speaker 1: the road. And our colleagues including Jennifer de Louie and
Speaker 1: Jordan Fabian have a great piece on the terminal today.
Speaker 1: But Biden sort of icy history with the oil sector.
Speaker 1: It's not a BFF situation to say the least. And
Speaker 1: now he's crawling over to them for help, to try
Speaker 1: to give them to lower prices and he's not getting
Speaker 1: a lot of it. So no, we're not looking like
Speaker 1: we're going to see a lot of relief soon. Part
Speaker 1: of that it's because US production remains pretty high. It's
Speaker 1: just a global production is struggling to meet the mark
Speaker 1: here with of course Russian oil being removed in part
Speaker 1: or potentially you know, in full in some countries from
Speaker 1: the from the supply chain. All right, Josh Wingrow for
Speaker 1: Bloomberg at the White House. Josh, thank you for all
Speaker 1: of those updates. Meantime, according to inter Facts, Russian prosecutors
Speaker 1: have asked a court to ban metas Facebook and Instagram
Speaker 1: as extremist. This is the latest move and a growing
Speaker 1: crackdown on social networks as a digital iron curtain falls
Speaker 1: across the country. Are Kurt Wagner, who covers Meta for US,
Speaker 1: joining us now with more. So let's back up a
Speaker 1: little here, because Meta was in some hot water yesterday
Speaker 1: for relaxing a policy on violence on the platform, just
Speaker 1: for Ukraine. Talk to us about that and how that unfolded. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so Facebook or Meta has rules around you know, threatening violence, right,
Speaker 1: wishing violence upon another person, But they said that they're
Speaker 1: going to relax those rules specifically for Ukraine, so that
Speaker 1: Ukrainians can you know, post freely about defending their country. Right,
Speaker 1: and if they say something about, hey, we want to
Speaker 1: you know, kill these Russian soldiers who are coming into
Speaker 1: our city, that would be the kind of thing that
Speaker 1: you know against Facebook's existing policies might get taken down,
Speaker 1: and so they want to be able to kind of
Speaker 1: leave that stuff up kind of in a self defense
Speaker 1: type of thing. Um. But of course you can imagine
Speaker 1: this kind of got very murky very quickly, right, and
Speaker 1: a lot of people were wondering, well, where do you
Speaker 1: drug line? Nick Clegg from Facebook came out and said,
Speaker 1: it's just in Ukraine. It's just a temporary thing, and
Speaker 1: it does not apply to threats against Russian citizens. It's
Speaker 1: only something that Ukrainians could say against, you know, for example,
Speaker 1: the Russian army and so um. That is one of
Speaker 1: the things that sparked Russian regulators to then say we
Speaker 1: want Facebook and Instagram to be blocked in the country.
Speaker 1: So again Russia calling on authorities in Russia to stop
Speaker 1: the quote unquote extremist activities of Meta take measures to
Speaker 1: bring the perpetrators, as they call it, to justice. They're
Speaker 1: pitting two nations against each other. That's what they're accusing
Speaker 1: Meta of here, and Nick Clegg saying, the fact is,
Speaker 1: if we applied our standard content policies without any adjustments,
Speaker 1: we would now be removing content from ordinary Ukrainians expressing
Speaker 1: their resistance and fury at the invading military forces, which
Speaker 1: would rightly be viewed as unacceptable. Kurt, what do you
Speaker 1: make of Meta's changing the rules here temporarily? They say
Speaker 1: it is quite unprecedented, isn't it? I mean, this whole
Speaker 1: situation is pretty unprecedented, right, And and the fact that
Speaker 1: they're kind of willing to review these in real time,
Speaker 1: to review these, uh for a temporary amount of time,
Speaker 1: I think it's actually probably a good thing, right. It's
Speaker 1: it's showing that the company is being responsive to the
Speaker 1: actual happenings on the ground. Now. Is it a perfect situation,
Speaker 1: Absolutely not. But I think it would be worse if
Speaker 1: they were just simply sitting back and not being willing
Speaker 1: to acknowledge that this is not just a regular week, right,
Speaker 1: This is a war happening in Europe and they're trying
Speaker 1: to adapt on the fly. So I view this actually
Speaker 1: is as progress for Meta now sitting aside. Whether you
Speaker 1: think they should be changing the policy or not. I
Speaker 1: just think the fact that they're trying to be adaptive
Speaker 1: is probably a good thing for future issues as well. Now,
Speaker 1: where does the Facebook stand in Russia now? Is it available?
Speaker 1: Is it not available? Yeah, Facebook, the core social network
Speaker 1: has been blocked in Russia for about a week now,
Speaker 1: and what we've heard from Russian regulators today was that
Speaker 1: they're planning to block Instagram starting Monday as well, So
Speaker 1: that would be obviously two of the three services. What's
Speaker 1: App is also available in Russia as far as I know,
Speaker 1: will continue to be um. But we have seen now
Speaker 1: Facebook also take a stricter stance. They've said they're not
Speaker 1: going to accept add money from Russian advertisers or Russian businesses. Right,
Speaker 1: so this is becoming a very um dramatic split between
Speaker 1: Russia and Meta and it makes me wonder is this
Speaker 1: something that that they're going to be able to come
Speaker 1: back together at some point after this war is over,
Speaker 1: or is this kind of thing where, you know, maybe
Speaker 1: this is the the end of Russia and Facebook and
Speaker 1: Instagram operating in Russia. I don't know, but I think
Speaker 1: it's not out of the question. Interesting well, of course
Speaker 1: Facebook has been banned in China's two thousand and eight uh.
Speaker 1: Interesting implications here for what happens after the war, hopefully
Speaker 1: there is and after, and how how Facebook will continue
Speaker 1: to reevaluate its own rules. Kurt Wagner for US, thank
Speaker 1: you for that update. Coming up as more companies leave Russia,
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk to the CEO of Upward, Hayden Brown,
Speaker 1: about their decision to cut off gig workers in Russia
Speaker 1: and Belarus and how they're helping freelancers trapped still in Ukraine.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg. With the war in Ukraine raging, many
Speaker 1: tech companies have been taking a stand by shutting down
Speaker 1: their operations in Russia in a bid today instance, themselves
Speaker 1: from the invader and send a message to Vladimir Putin.
Speaker 1: One such company's up Work, which decided to suspend their
Speaker 1: business operations in Russa and Belarus. I want to bring
Speaker 1: in CEO Haiden Brown for a deep dive on this
Speaker 1: and Hayden, this was a rather controversial move because it
Speaker 1: means cutting off gig workers in these countries who may
Speaker 1: have nothing to do with this war, may not support
Speaker 1: this war. Why did you decide to do this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: first and foremost, our hearts go out to everyone in
Speaker 1: Ukraine and everyone in Russian Belarus who's impacted by this conflict.
Speaker 1: This was such a tough decision for us because it
Speaker 1: really cuts the heart of our business and our heritage
Speaker 1: in the region, which goes back to the founding days
Speaker 1: of our business. But for us, the decision was informed
Speaker 1: by both the geopolitical reality um as well as operational
Speaker 1: realities on the ground. You know, as we've seen the
Speaker 1: sanctions unfolding and payments partners of ours that we depend
Speaker 1: on to pay talent in the region pulling out of
Speaker 1: those markets. It has become operationally extremely challenging for us
Speaker 1: to continue to deliver on our mission and our brand
Speaker 1: promise to customers in the region. And so with those
Speaker 1: realities unfolding, it was clear to us what the right
Speaker 1: call was here, even though it has been incredibly painful
Speaker 1: for us, because our goal is to serve these customers
Speaker 1: in every way possible, and so this was a tough one,
Speaker 1: but we knew what the right decision was. Do you
Speaker 1: sympathize with the people in Russia and Belarus who may
Speaker 1: not want anything to do with this war, but who
Speaker 1: have a lot whose lives have been upended and livelihoods
Speaker 1: have been cut off as a result. Absolutely, Emily, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think they and we find ourselves in a position
Speaker 1: that none of us could have imagined even weeks ago.
Speaker 1: And I think Putin has set off this chain reaction
Speaker 1: of events that all of us are grappling with UH
Speaker 1: and it breaks our hearts. So what we've been focused
Speaker 1: on is, you know, number one, working around the clock
Speaker 1: to ensure our team members in the region are looked after,
Speaker 1: to ensure our customers know that things like their profiles,
Speaker 1: all of the work they've put into building their reputations
Speaker 1: online are safe and secure and will be there when
Speaker 1: and if we can resume operations in the region, and
Speaker 1: or if they end up relocating themselves and able to
Speaker 1: work in one of the other hundred eighty countries around
Speaker 1: the world where we are operational, that they can come
Speaker 1: online and continue working and not be impacted by this.
Speaker 1: So absolutely we have been thinking of no one else
Speaker 1: but our customers and how we can serve them through this.
Speaker 1: But we are impacted by this crisis as are they,
Speaker 1: and had to make this very difficult choice. What about
Speaker 1: your workers in Ukraine. I know you're working to support them.
Speaker 1: How are you handling that? What the biggest challenges you're
Speaker 1: facing there. Yeah, So we launched a feature recently which
Speaker 1: anyone in the world can use to send money to
Speaker 1: workers in Ukraine UM just as fee free, basically sending
Speaker 1: UM buying a project from them and waiving the requirement
Speaker 1: that they actually deliver on the project. It's kind of
Speaker 1: like the Airbnb booking a home feature, So we launched that.
Speaker 1: We've been messaging to our talent in the region that
Speaker 1: their reputation scores and their profiles are safe and looked after,
Speaker 1: so they won't be negatively impacted by disruptions that they
Speaker 1: may be experiencing in their abilities to work. Uh, and
Speaker 1: we're working on a number of other things that are
Speaker 1: specifically targeting their safety well being, you know, check ins
Speaker 1: that they can be doing with their clients outside of
Speaker 1: the region, as well as ourselves donating a million dollars
Speaker 1: this week to Direct Relief International for humanitarian support. So
Speaker 1: we've been doing a number of things to make sure
Speaker 1: that they feel supported and safe as much as we
Speaker 1: can in terms of their ability to continue working online
Speaker 1: when and if they can continue to do. So you've
Speaker 1: got a really interesting view on how global work patterns
Speaker 1: are shifting in real time. And I know every hour
Speaker 1: of this war is different. What are you seeing, what
Speaker 1: trends are you seeing, what's changing. It's a very dynamic situation.
Speaker 1: We're certainly seeing and hearing a lot of customers and
Speaker 1: businesses that we work with who have teams in the region,
Speaker 1: either on upwork or just their own employees on the ground,
Speaker 1: are making very swift decisions to move and relocate that
Speaker 1: talent if the talent is willing to relocate UH. And
Speaker 1: in many cases, the things that we're doing are trying
Speaker 1: to help them with payrolling and onboarding that talent onto
Speaker 1: our platform to help them be able to pay those
Speaker 1: people with continuity. UH. In many cases they're looking to
Speaker 1: spin up alternative talent in parallel to you know, they're
Speaker 1: continuing to pay their people in the region because everyone
Speaker 1: is trying to support but also have business continuity with
Speaker 1: UM talent in other regions that can kind of keep
Speaker 1: working even as there's uncertainty in terms of how this
Speaker 1: is going to unfold. So those are some of the
Speaker 1: efforts that we're helping UM. You know, our customers with
Speaker 1: on the ground as they're trying to navigate through this
Speaker 1: very tough time. All Right, Hayden Brown, CEO of up Work,
Speaker 1: will be continuing to monitor how you're handling the situation
Speaker 1: out there. Thank you for giving us some context on
Speaker 1: your decision. Bloomberg has learned that public health experts at
Speaker 1: the World Health Organization have begun discussing how and when
Speaker 1: to call an end to the pandemic. Bloomber's Drew Armstrong
Speaker 1: joining us now for more on this story. Is this
Speaker 1: actually happening, Drew? And is the pandemic really near an end?
Speaker 1: You know, it's one of these things where for the
Speaker 1: pandemic to be at an end that's really going to
Speaker 1: be determined by human behavior and the virus. But one
Speaker 1: of the things that happened very early on, and I
Speaker 1: remember it well, January and the WHO declared COVID nineteen
Speaker 1: um to be a public health emergency of International concern.
Speaker 1: And you know, that was a real symbolic moment because
Speaker 1: it's set off all of these actions, precautions. You know,
Speaker 1: they race to kind of fight the virus on an
Speaker 1: international level that has since then really become the North
Speaker 1: I mean, we have a global vaccine distribution program um
Speaker 1: countries have really figured out how they want to approach
Speaker 1: public health restrictions and something that's been an emergency now
Speaker 1: for two plus years has really kind of been the
Speaker 1: way of being. And so now they're starting to talk about, Okay,
Speaker 1: what are the steps and what are the progress that
Speaker 1: we need to see to resend an emergency declaration to
Speaker 1: say They're not there yet. They're still figuring out what
Speaker 1: that off ramp looks like, but it is a meaningful
Speaker 1: sign that they're beginning to have this conversation. Well. And
Speaker 1: while cases have fallen in many places, we're seeing right
Speaker 1: now deaths spiking in Hong Kong. China just reported more
Speaker 1: than a thousand new daily cases for the first time
Speaker 1: in two years. Are we at a point where this
Speaker 1: is starting to get worse again? You know? I think
Speaker 1: one of the truisms of this pandemic has been that,
Speaker 1: you know this, it did not start everywhere all at
Speaker 1: once in the same way, and it's not going to
Speaker 1: end all at once, everywhere in the same way. We
Speaker 1: do see places like China and Hong Kong which have
Speaker 1: used different vaccines which may have different levels of efficacy.
Speaker 1: Hong Kong in particular, they've had issues vaccinating some of
Speaker 1: their most elderly vulnerable populations. And so just because the
Speaker 1: pandemic feels like it's over, you know, here in some
Speaker 1: part of the United States, doesn't mean it's over everywhere else. Uh,
Speaker 1: this thing will stutter along for quite a while. I
Speaker 1: would expect we will not be done with this. We
Speaker 1: won't be done with COVID. Code won't go away. They
Speaker 1: will just receed a little bit more into the background
Speaker 1: sometimes and come back to the foreground at other times. Quickly,
Speaker 1: What would this emergency declaration actually mean in practice? You know,
Speaker 1: more than anything, these emergency declarations are kind of symbolic
Speaker 1: measures saying, hey, we need to do something about this,
Speaker 1: and trying to step up international coordination. I think it
Speaker 1: would be an acknowledgement that a lot of the structures
Speaker 1: are in place. Things are working in some cases as
Speaker 1: they should be. In that the w h O, you know,
Speaker 1: it does have other things that it needs to focus on.
Speaker 1: Drew Armstrong for Bloomberg News. Thanks Drew for that update.
Speaker 1: Coming TikTok and the War in Ukraine, Ukrainian users taking
Speaker 1: to the platform to tell tales of their lives and
Speaker 1: homes being destroyed, but also propaganda thriving what to do
Speaker 1: about it? That's next. This is Bloomberg, all right. I
Speaker 1: want to move on now to TikTok, the social media
Speaker 1: app known for silly videos, dance moves and tutorials. It's now,
Speaker 1: of course, also being used to create war means on
Speaker 1: the ground, updates and testimonials from within Ukraine, but also
Speaker 1: Russian propaganda and fake testimonials, all in a bid to
Speaker 1: influence global perspectives on the invasion, leaving the social platforms
Speaker 1: struggling with how to cope with its new role in geopolitics.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about all of this and more
Speaker 1: with Megan Lloyst, investor at Laro Hippo and founder of
Speaker 1: gen Z vcs Beck and great to have you with us.
Speaker 1: What do you make of how TikTok is being used
Speaker 1: here for better and for worse? For sure? And I
Speaker 1: think when you think about TikTok, this is how billions
Speaker 1: of people all over the world are receiving news for
Speaker 1: the first time about the war, especially gen Z on
Speaker 1: the On the positive side, right, it can be used
Speaker 1: for good. Even just yesterday, the White House brought thirty
Speaker 1: top Tiktoker's together to just arm them with the right
Speaker 1: information about what is happening, how the US is thinking
Speaker 1: about politics and what they should be talking about on
Speaker 1: their platforms. And on the flip side, you know, there's
Speaker 1: obviously misinformation being spread on the platform, and I think
Speaker 1: TikTok is doing the best they can to to to
Speaker 1: mitigate that in many ways, such as you know, I
Speaker 1: think users in Russia, for example, today, they can't live stream,
Speaker 1: they can't post on TikTok, so there's no one right
Speaker 1: way to do it. But I do think making sure
Speaker 1: that you're arming TikTok creators with the right information is
Speaker 1: a is a great start. So look, the concern is
Speaker 1: that TikTok serves a younger generation, and is you know,
Speaker 1: a younger generation of users around the world going to
Speaker 1: have the wrong idea of what's really going on in
Speaker 1: this war. I think it's it's hopeful, actually, I think
Speaker 1: to see it from the perspective of younger users, like
Speaker 1: there are gen z citizens on the ground speaking to
Speaker 1: what's happening in the war. So even if you're reading
Speaker 1: news for the first time on an articles and such,
Speaker 1: you can actually see the experiences from young people that
Speaker 1: are documenting it in their own way. It can be
Speaker 1: gen z dark humor, it can be actually the perspective
Speaker 1: of soldiers. That is something that's hard to fully discount
Speaker 1: when you're seeing it through the perspective of people who
Speaker 1: your own age, and so I think from from that perspective,
Speaker 1: it's it's actually kind of helpful to see kind of
Speaker 1: and and feel it in real time from for people
Speaker 1: who are experiencing it on the ground that you know,
Speaker 1: they they look like you. Maybe just a week ago
Speaker 1: they were in school and now they're hiding in bomb
Speaker 1: shelters and cooking, you know, cooking meals for the first time.
Speaker 1: It's it's a it makes it feel much more real,
Speaker 1: I think to see it from the van to the
Speaker 1: point of your peers, those testimonials from Ukraine on TikTok
Speaker 1: have been incredibly powerful. You know, what are you telling
Speaker 1: your portfolio companies right now about the environment? All of
Speaker 1: this global economic uncertainty, no one knowing how this or
Speaker 1: if this war will end. And I think, you know,
Speaker 1: early stage companies are largely uh, you know, they're protected
Speaker 1: from this in many ways. Giving lair Hippo or an
Speaker 1: early stage venture firm, and so many of our companies
Speaker 1: are seed series A stage, and so it's not as
Speaker 1: as as pressing I would say for early stage companies especially,
Speaker 1: But of course events like this are always impacting the
Speaker 1: public markets. But given we're long term oriented investors, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I think with any early stage company, focus
Speaker 1: is very important and keeping focused on so of what
Speaker 1: you're you know, your core objectives are as a founder,
Speaker 1: and so we we try to guide them towards that
Speaker 1: as much as possible. As you look into the future,
Speaker 1: I mean, you're looking to back the next big thing.
Speaker 1: Do you see an opportunity for the next TikTok, for
Speaker 1: a platform that is perhaps more equitable and better at
Speaker 1: manage some of these complex issues. I mean, I think
Speaker 1: I'm a big believer in the democrazation of tools in general. Right,
Speaker 1: Like we're talking a lot about backing you know, companies
Speaker 1: that are building tools for creators, people who are uh,
Speaker 1: you know, making conversation in many ways and building brands
Speaker 1: and building influence. Right Like, the next generation of brands,
Speaker 1: they're they're all content creators and many of them are
Speaker 1: gen z and so I think, you know, next gen
Speaker 1: social platforms companies that are building in Web three, for example,
Speaker 1: and thinking about empowered ownership and incentivization for for for
Speaker 1: users is really important. So um, I think on that front,
Speaker 1: certainly looking at next gend social platforms, but especially I
Speaker 1: would say in the context of Web three and how
Speaker 1: you know, how gen zers in particular can be owning
Speaker 1: and monetizing their content versus farming it out to Web
Speaker 1: two platforms or like like TikTok, like Facebook, like like Instagram.
Speaker 1: For example, you started this global community, megan of gen z, investors, founders, angels, students.
Speaker 1: What are your priorities here, What are gens ease priorities here?
Speaker 1: In terms of what needs to be built what should
Speaker 1: be built? Totally? I think, well, I think the first
Speaker 1: part is knowledge, right, like making sure that everyone has
Speaker 1: equal access to opportunity to be able to start businesses
Speaker 1: as founders and also to be able to to invest
Speaker 1: and have a say in what are the companies that
Speaker 1: are going to be impacting our generation. So even just
Speaker 1: last week we launched a marketplace to democratize the startup
Speaker 1: stock right and in you know, a week or so alone,
Speaker 1: we've saved founders five million dollars in getting started on
Speaker 1: day one that is real and tangible impact where it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter if you know, if your your parents worked
Speaker 1: in finance, if you have a college education, none of
Speaker 1: that should matter at the end of the day. And
Speaker 1: so when I think about sort of what I'm doing
Speaker 1: with gen zbc S and our mission, it's really to
Speaker 1: help democratize access in every way and that is through knowledge,
Speaker 1: it's through opportunities and jobs and UH and through the
Speaker 1: initiatives that we that we run through gen Z vcs
Speaker 1: UH and you know, I think having gen Z be
Speaker 1: a part of the conversation both in starting businesses and
Speaker 1: investing in those businesses, it's going to play a large
Speaker 1: role into like what companies get funded, what businesses are started,
Speaker 1: and how you're incorporating that gen Z and diverse feedback
Speaker 1: around the table at every step of the way. So
Speaker 1: I do think it's it's very important that gen Z
Speaker 1: is playing a role, but that we're also making it
Speaker 1: more accessible to everyone. Megan Loyst, investor at Lara Hippo
Speaker 1: and founder of gen Z FACS. Megan, always great to
Speaker 1: have you with us. Thanks. Coming up more on President
Speaker 1: Bion's executive order on crypto, We're gonna be joined by
Speaker 1: former State Department veteran and Kurt Crypto VC Tom Tilman
Speaker 1: or his take gone crypto's war role in the war
Speaker 1: in Ukraine. This is Bloomberg. Bitcoin is known for its
Speaker 1: perpetual edge and flows, but even after an eventful past
Speaker 1: few days, the digital asset is finishing the week practically
Speaker 1: in the same place it started. Time now for our
Speaker 1: crypto report with our crypto contributor Sanale Bostic Sheanale, Why
Speaker 1: why back to the beginning? Yeah, really back to the beginning,
Speaker 1: actually lower than when we were just a week ago.
Speaker 1: And if you look just earlier this week, we had
Speaker 1: a moment where bitcoins are passed forty dollars. Again, that
Speaker 1: was a little over three days ago, and heading into
Speaker 1: the beginning, while we're still seeing a little bit of
Speaker 1: a lift, we do see bitcoin lower on the twenty
Speaker 1: four hour period and over the last three days. So
Speaker 1: what are we looking at here? We we had all
Speaker 1: of this excitement, where did it all go? And by
Speaker 1: the way, when you're talking about bitcoin and you look
Speaker 1: at the theoryum as well, you see that when the
Speaker 1: Bitcoin excitement wanes, the other coins have even more of
Speaker 1: an outflow, So you do see it an even big
Speaker 1: or drop off in the theory of itself. The one
Speaker 1: thing you see stable is the stable coins. I wanted
Speaker 1: to draw attention to it, not only because it's been
Speaker 1: stable throughout much of this crisis. Emily, there's also news
Speaker 1: out on stable coin today, a major hedge fund on
Speaker 1: Wall Street that is trying to short it and found
Speaker 1: an artificial way to short it as it faces a
Speaker 1: regulatory scrutiny. You and I have talked about this before
Speaker 1: with Marty Chavez earlier this week, that stable coin regulation
Speaker 1: will be just as important as we think about crypto
Speaker 1: regulation overall. So a lot of un answered questions for
Speaker 1: the industry here and as you say, back to where
Speaker 1: we started, all right, Shanali, thank you stay with us. Uh,
Speaker 1: We're gonna come back to President Biden's recent executive order. Now,
Speaker 1: our next guest to Michael Tilman. He was the head
Speaker 1: of global policy at Entrees and Horowitz is and is
Speaker 1: now part of Katie Hans new yet to be named
Speaker 1: cryptocurrency firm. He's also worked closely with the biggest in politics,
Speaker 1: Hillary Clinton, President Biden, John Kerry, former President Obama, and
Speaker 1: worked in collaboration with the World Bank. M I. T.
Speaker 1: And governments around the world. So to Mica, you certainly
Speaker 1: have quite the resume. Really curious for your thoughts on
Speaker 1: crypto now and how it is being used in geopolitics,
Speaker 1: the spotlight on cryptocurrency given the war in Ukraine and
Speaker 1: the concerns about it being used, you know, for illicit
Speaker 1: activities as well. What does this tell you? Well, this
Speaker 1: is certainly a heartbreaking moment and our thoughts and prayers
Speaker 1: are with the people of Ukraine. I think that for
Speaker 1: us and for many in the community, are primary concern
Speaker 1: is how we can help support the Ukrainian people and
Speaker 1: nation in this moment of need. What we have seen
Speaker 1: over the last few weeks is a really extraordinary ground
Speaker 1: swallow of support. We've been in close touch with Minister
Speaker 1: Alex Boornyayev, who is Ukraine's Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation.
Speaker 1: He and others in the Ukrainian government a few weeks
Speaker 1: back issued a plea to those around the world with
Speaker 1: digital assets to support them. They posted digital addresses for
Speaker 1: digital while let's and they have received now a hundred
Speaker 1: million dollars in support from individuals all around the planet
Speaker 1: who for the first time in history can give help
Speaker 1: directly to assist a government that is in crisis. In
Speaker 1: the context of this conflict, what we're seeing is that
Speaker 1: the Ukrainian government is using those resources to purchase non
Speaker 1: lethal equipment like body armor, rations night vision goggles that
Speaker 1: are helping to keep their people safe. And it's also
Speaker 1: proving to be an incredibly important instrument in preserving data.
Speaker 1: Distributed data networks like our weave are providing a safe
Speaker 1: haven for resources and for information that would otherwise come
Speaker 1: under threat as a result of the Russian invasion, and
Speaker 1: they're also being used to preserve evidence of war crimes
Speaker 1: for future prosecution. So certainly the first major conflict in
Speaker 1: which we've seen Web three tools play a significant role,
Speaker 1: and fortunately they seem to be proving very useful to
Speaker 1: the Cranian people in this moment of crisis. To that point,
Speaker 1: there's concern crypto could be useful to the Russian people,
Speaker 1: that wealthy Russians could use cryptocurrency to circumvent sanctions. This
Speaker 1: at the same time that President Biden, with this executive order,
Speaker 1: is telling the US government to do more research here
Speaker 1: to figure out, you know, how the US government should
Speaker 1: approach it. You seem pretty optimistic about this executive order. Why, Well,
Speaker 1: the most important thing to listen to, the most important
Speaker 1: people listen to, is it relates to sanctions of Asian.
Speaker 1: Are fins send, the agency of the US government that
Speaker 1: is responsible for tracking illicit financial flows. They came out
Speaker 1: a few days ago and said that they are quite
Speaker 1: confident that crypto assets and digital assets are not going
Speaker 1: to be used and are not being used for large
Speaker 1: scale sanctions of Asian I've had many long discussions with
Speaker 1: national security and law enforcement agencies this week. They are
Speaker 1: extremely comfortable with their ability to track illicit flows and
Speaker 1: field that these instruments are not going to play a
Speaker 1: significant role in Russia's ability to circumvent the sanctions. More broadly,
Speaker 1: the executive order presents a real watershed moment for the community.
Speaker 1: This is the first time that we have seen a
Speaker 1: serious whole of government effort on the part of the
Speaker 1: United States to launch a comprehensive conversation about what we
Speaker 1: want the future of the Internet to entail. And we
Speaker 1: think this is excellent news. What we are finding in
Speaker 1: our discussions with the leaders in the administration and in
Speaker 1: Congress is that those who take the time to really
Speaker 1: dig in and study the potential of these technologies. Come
Speaker 1: away very encouraged by the array of problems that we have,
Speaker 1: the potential assault certainly, Please, I'm really curious about something
Speaker 1: that you started to mention a little earlier, you know,
Speaker 1: the ability to get help and purchase non lethal weapons here.
Speaker 1: You know, obviously this fundraising at such a massive scale
Speaker 1: has really drawn the attention of many communities here. But
Speaker 1: I'm wondering here about what the dark side could be too,
Speaker 1: and what would happen if some of this power to
Speaker 1: fundraise had gotten into the wrong hands. Well, it certainly
Speaker 1: is a risk that we need to be very mindful of.
Speaker 1: Within the Web three community. What we're seeing right now
Speaker 1: is that law enforcement and national security leaders are confident
Speaker 1: in their ability to manage and track illicit transactions that
Speaker 1: utilize digital assets, and those who are engaging on behalf
Speaker 1: of open societies are finding an incredibly valuable and potent
Speaker 1: new set of tools that can help in responding to
Speaker 1: this crisis. I remember in two thousand eight I went
Speaker 1: in alone with Joe Biden to Tubilisi, the capital of Georgia,
Speaker 1: during the Russian invasion of that country, and as that
Speaker 1: city was ringed with Russian armor. The then Chairman Biden
Speaker 1: and I started putting together plans for a one billion
Speaker 1: dollar relief package that would assist the Georgian people. And
Speaker 1: what we recognized very quickly on our way home is
Speaker 1: that it is going to be very tough to get
Speaker 1: the assets there quickly, in a traceable manner and have
Speaker 1: confidence that they were going to be used correctly. All
Speaker 1: of you will You'll remember that during Iraq we use
Speaker 1: palettes of hundred dollar bills. This is a quantum leap
Speaker 1: forward in terms of our ability to transparently move assets
Speaker 1: into complex emergencies really quickly. Here you know you mentioned,
Speaker 1: are we even the ability to trace war crimes? Potentially?
Speaker 1: Is there any evidence that the international uh the i
Speaker 1: SEC is able to to actually use it? I mean,
Speaker 1: is there any evidence that the international community is actually
Speaker 1: tracing war crimes via bockchain technologies. Already, in advance of
Speaker 1: the conflict, you saw the Ukrainian government and leaders in
Speaker 1: Ukraine stockpiling thousands and thousands of sensitive documents on the
Speaker 1: r weave platform in order to facilitate future post conflict
Speaker 1: rebuilding in the event that the hard copies of those
Speaker 1: doc units would be destroyed and as we speak, there
Speaker 1: is documentation of atrocities and war crimes going on utilizing
Speaker 1: that platform. It's a distributed architecture, which means that it
Speaker 1: would be virtually impossible for the Russians or other bad
Speaker 1: actors to eliminate this evidence. And it addresses what has
Speaker 1: historically been one of the greatest challenges in war crimes prosecution,
Speaker 1: which is how do you maintain a strong chain of
Speaker 1: evidence from the time that an atrocity is committed to
Speaker 1: the time that you're able to bring charges in the Hague.
Speaker 1: Right to Mica Tillman, We're going to have to continue
Speaker 1: this conversation at another time. Really really fascinating things points
Speaker 1: are raising here to make a Tillman. With Katie Hunt's
Speaker 1: new cryptocurrency VC firm, we're gonna be following your next
Speaker 1: moves along with our crypto contributor Shinali Bassi. Coming up,
Speaker 1: the trial for Sunny Balwani, former Theonis president, an ex
Speaker 1: boyfriend Elizabeth Holmes. That trial starts now next week. We'll
Speaker 1: dig into what it means for Holmes as she awaits sentencing.
Speaker 1: That's next. This is Bloomberg as Saranos founder Elizabeth Holmes
Speaker 1: awaits sentencing her ex boyfriend and former president of Paranos,
Speaker 1: Sonny Baulwani, begins his trial Wednesday. She has accused him
Speaker 1: of abuse, and the outcome of his trial could give
Speaker 1: us an indication of the potential sentence time for Holmes herself.
Speaker 1: I'm want to get the details from our Bloomberg legal
Speaker 1: reporter Joe rosen Black, who was at the courthouse every
Speaker 1: day during Holmes's trial. So, Joel, how could Sonny's case
Speaker 1: impact what happens with Holmes's sentence here, given that the
Speaker 1: verdict has already come down. Yeah, well, the vergine has
Speaker 1: come down, but the judge has delayed her sentencing for
Speaker 1: a very important reason, and that is that wants to
Speaker 1: see what role Sonny Balwani played in all of it.
Speaker 1: So his trial begins on Tuesday. Opening arguments begin on Tuesday.
Speaker 1: Jury selection is underway as we speak. Uh, what role
Speaker 1: he played factors into the judges sentencing of Elizabeth Holmes.
Speaker 1: So depending on what he finds, what he learns about
Speaker 1: whether she was more involved than actually her trial representat
Speaker 1: or showed or was less involved, or whether Sonny was
Speaker 1: really actually kind of more behind behind the scenes doing
Speaker 1: more to control her as she alleged whether or not
Speaker 1: he actually believes some of those allegations that she leveled
Speaker 1: at him. That all factors into his sentence of Elizabeth Holmes.
Speaker 1: Interesting now, as a reminder to our viewers, there were
Speaker 1: multiple charges that she was found guilty of, multiple charges
Speaker 1: she was found not guilty of, and multiple charges that
Speaker 1: the jury couldn't come to a conclusion on. They were
Speaker 1: at an impass. What happens with some of those other charges.
Speaker 1: How will the judge and this trial handle those potentially differently? Well, right,
Speaker 1: that's that's very interesting. So they are they were indicted,
Speaker 1: Sunny Bowani and Elizabeth Holmes were indicted as co conspirators.
Speaker 1: They were boyfriend girlfriend, they were president and CEO. Many
Speaker 1: people assume at this point that they were as thick
Speaker 1: as thieves, and that that the Sunny Balwanni just faces
Speaker 1: basically the same trial. I don't think that's quite the case. Uh.
Speaker 1: And the charges that that Elizabeth Holmes was vindicated of,
Speaker 1: I think will inform this trial. So for example, uh,
Speaker 1: the jury and Elizabeth Holmes trial found that she wasn't
Speaker 1: guilty at all of defrauding patients. Well, Sunny boult Wanni
Speaker 1: was much more in charge of the laboratories, and so
Speaker 1: he was much more closer. He was closer to the
Speaker 1: to the results that many employees said, we're fake, We're
Speaker 1: just weren't true at all, weren't accurate at all. And
Speaker 1: so whether or not those charges of patient fraud are
Speaker 1: how how the government presents those cases and what how
Speaker 1: Sony defends against them will be different, I think in
Speaker 1: this trial. I think that's gonna be a much more
Speaker 1: important part of the trial. Interesting well, Joel, we will
Speaker 1: of course be watching for your coverage. Uh starting up
Speaker 1: Middilla next week are Joel Rosen Black Black. Thank you
Speaker 1: as always for your context there. And that does it
Speaker 1: for this edition of Bloomberg Technology. I'm Emily changin San Francisco.
Speaker 1: I'm heading to Austin this weekend for south By Southwest.
Speaker 1: Will bring you some of my interviews from south By
Speaker 1: Southwest next week on the show. Have a wonderful weekend everyone.
Speaker 1: This is