Speaker 1: From the heart of where innovation, money and power Collie
Speaker 1: in Silicon Valley and beyond. This is Bloomberg Technology with
Speaker 1: Emily Jay I'm Emily changing San Francisco and this is
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Technology. Coming up in the next hour. Twitter starts
Speaker 1: to ban people who impersonate others, musque saying to vote Republican,
Speaker 1: and some of the employees laid off last week, while
Speaker 1: some are being asked to come back to the office. Plus,
Speaker 1: China's COVID policies are undermining Apple's plans, are bloomberg scoop
Speaker 1: on the plan to cut iPhone production by millions of units?
Speaker 1: And SEC Commissioner Brendan Carr thinks the US government should
Speaker 1: ban TikTok? Why and how far will he go to
Speaker 1: make it happen. He'll join us to explain Twitter asking
Speaker 1: some laid off employees to come back and beginning to
Speaker 1: permanently banned users who impersonate real people. Meantime, as had said,
Speaker 1: Meta reportedly cutting thousands of jobs as soon as this week.
Speaker 1: Bloomberg's Kurt Wagner joins us to talk about this more.
Speaker 1: And Kurt, of course, you've been very busy covering both
Speaker 1: Meta and Twitter let's start with Meta and get that
Speaker 1: out of the way. Is Meta planning to lay off
Speaker 1: thousands of people this week? What do we know? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, the company is obviously not confirming anything, but
Speaker 1: you know, pointing people to what Mark Zuckerberg has said
Speaker 1: previously on earnience calls, which is that they are planning
Speaker 1: for cuts, right, and that this is something that he's
Speaker 1: also told employees that in all hands meeting just a
Speaker 1: few months ago, is that the company is going to
Speaker 1: look a lot smaller at the end of three than
Speaker 1: it is, you know right now in two right, So
Speaker 1: all of those things seem to suggest that that something
Speaker 1: like this is coming. Obviously, I think they could probably
Speaker 1: learn a thing or two from what happened at Twitter
Speaker 1: over the past week in terms of how not to
Speaker 1: handle a situation like this with employees and and and
Speaker 1: all the information um that has shared. I imagine Metal
Speaker 1: will probably be a little bit more structured in whatever
Speaker 1: they ultimately end up doing. But it does feel like
Speaker 1: something like this is probably uh coming very soon. So
Speaker 1: let's talk about what is actually happening. Then. At Twitter,
Speaker 1: you of course reported that more than thirty seven hundred
Speaker 1: people would be lay up laid off. Has that happened?
Speaker 1: Have all of those people been told? And is Elon
Speaker 1: Musk really trying to get some of those people back?
Speaker 1: And if so, how many? Yeah, So, the there were
Speaker 1: massive layoffs that started kind of Thursday night of last week.
Speaker 1: Employees started losing access to their internal systems like email
Speaker 1: and Slack and things like that. And on Friday, we
Speaker 1: you know, saw the bulk of the layoffs happen. Um,
Speaker 1: I believe the internal kind of employee. They tracked the
Speaker 1: number of employees at the company internally, and there's a
Speaker 1: it's around thirty seven hundred, thirty eight hundred employees right now, um,
Speaker 1: which was down from about seventy hundred at the beginning
Speaker 1: of the year. Right, So, so thousands of people have
Speaker 1: been cut in just the last couple of days. And
Speaker 1: as you mentioned, Emily, yes, you know, when you do
Speaker 1: something so drastic so quickly, Uh, there were mistakes that
Speaker 1: were made. There were some employees who were laid off
Speaker 1: who were done so accidentally. There were some who are
Speaker 1: laid off that the company then realized, oh boy, we
Speaker 1: actually need them, we need their expertise in the building.
Speaker 1: And so we're told that you know, dozens of employees
Speaker 1: were approached over the weekend and even heading into today
Speaker 1: about returning. I don't know of anyone who's actually accepted
Speaker 1: that offer. I think it's going to be a tough sell,
Speaker 1: um to convince someone who you know, was just fired
Speaker 1: to essentially go back to the company that just fired them,
Speaker 1: even if it was a mistake. Meantime, Musk has said
Speaker 1: there'll be an independent board focused on content moderation, but
Speaker 1: it looks like some users are already being banned um
Speaker 1: for impersonating real people. Party accounts, as you know, have
Speaker 1: been quite popular on Twitter for many many years. Talk
Speaker 1: to us about what's happening here. Yeah, not just impersonating
Speaker 1: real people, but impersonating Elon Musk, Right, That seems to
Speaker 1: be the line that a lot of people are crossing.
Speaker 1: But what's interesting here is, you know, Ellen, when he
Speaker 1: was talking about buying this company, he said he didn't
Speaker 1: believe in lifetime bands, right, that was sort of part
Speaker 1: of his thing. He was like, when I get in,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna remove these things. He's taken a
Speaker 1: softer stance stance since since then and said that he's
Speaker 1: going to review these with sort of an outside council.
Speaker 1: We don't know who's on that council. We don't know
Speaker 1: if they've actually had any conversations yet, but it is
Speaker 1: interesting that, you know, he's sort of kind of crossing
Speaker 1: this line here and saying, hey, if you're impersonating someone,
Speaker 1: we're gonna boot. You have to imagine, you know, this
Speaker 1: is coming from a lot of the pushpack he's getting
Speaker 1: on this blue check verification process we've been talking about Emily,
Speaker 1: which is where if you pay eight dollars a month,
Speaker 1: you're soon going to be able to have kind of
Speaker 1: that blue checkmark next to your name. Historically that's been
Speaker 1: to verify that you are the actual person who you
Speaker 1: claim to be on the account. But now it seems
Speaker 1: like you're just going to be able to buy that
Speaker 1: check for the eight dollars without any actual verification of
Speaker 1: your identity. So that's probably why he's now trying to
Speaker 1: get ahead of people who are in person, both himself
Speaker 1: but presumably other you know, famous or well known users.
Speaker 1: Last quick question, because I just have to ask, he
Speaker 1: is now encouraging voters to vote Republican and also went
Speaker 1: to great lengths to say he is a registered independent.
Speaker 1: He's voted entirely Democrat until now. Why why is he
Speaker 1: why is he going this far? Well, he he claims
Speaker 1: in his tweet that you know, the White House is
Speaker 1: you know, run by Democrat president, and so to counterbalance
Speaker 1: that power, we should have Republicans who are um, you know,
Speaker 1: running or controlling Congress. But this is something that's been
Speaker 1: sort of a a change for him over the last
Speaker 1: couple of months. He told employees and in all hands
Speaker 1: in June that he voted Republican for the first time.
Speaker 1: It feels like he is sort of swinging that way.
Speaker 1: It's just very interesting, Emily that he would come out
Speaker 1: and say it so bluntly like this. Could you imagine,
Speaker 1: for example, if Mark Zuckerberg came out and took a
Speaker 1: very strong political stance like this, right, I feel like
Speaker 1: people would be absolute up in arms, losing their mind
Speaker 1: over that. But you know, the fact that it's Elon
Speaker 1: Musk and the fact that he's saying vote Republican, and
Speaker 1: those are typically conservatives seem to be the ones who
Speaker 1: typically have the biggest issue with you know, these social
Speaker 1: networks and and the speech on them, I feel like
Speaker 1: maybe people are okay with that given the stance that
Speaker 1: he's taken here, right, It's it's wild indeed when you
Speaker 1: put it that way. Okay, Bloomberg's krt Wagner, thank you,
Speaker 1: will continue to follow you're reporting. I do want to
Speaker 1: dig into another bloomberg scoop from this weekend, Apple expecting
Speaker 1: to make at least three million fewer iPhone fourteens that
Speaker 1: originally planned for the year. Are Mark German broke that story,
Speaker 1: joins me. Now, Mark, why is Apple making these production cuts?
Speaker 1: So two things going on here, right, you have the
Speaker 1: iPhone fourteen and iPhone fourteen plus, which are the lower
Speaker 1: end phones, and then you have the iPhone fourteen Pro
Speaker 1: and the iPhone fourteen Pro mats, which are the higher
Speaker 1: end phones. Now, in terms of the three million units
Speaker 1: for that production cut that we wrote about, going from
Speaker 1: ninety million through the year to eight seven million, that's
Speaker 1: because of softer demand that has plagued those two or
Speaker 1: an iPhone fourteens really from the beginning of their release, right,
Speaker 1: the iPhone fourteen prone promax. That's a supply issue, and
Speaker 1: as you mentioned at the top of the show, Apple
Speaker 1: put out a warning discussing how their outlook for iPhone
Speaker 1: units sold is going to be lower than anticipated because
Speaker 1: of the output at their fox Con facility for those two,
Speaker 1: particularly particular models in China going mostly offline due to
Speaker 1: COVID protocols. So clearly there's both a supply and demand
Speaker 1: issue depending on which models of the iPhone fourteen you're
Speaker 1: looking at. How this impact the company's outlook, you know,
Speaker 1: how does this fit into Apple's bigger picture? Right now,
Speaker 1: it seems pretty clear that revenue for the holiday quarter,
Speaker 1: which they'll announce at the end of January. This quarter
Speaker 1: runs through December thirty one, it's gonna come in a
Speaker 1: little bit lower than expected. Right when Apple held their
Speaker 1: earnings about a week ago, they didn't know this was
Speaker 1: the case. The COVID nineteen related lockdowns that was just
Speaker 1: emerging in the days after that. That's why they had
Speaker 1: to put this statement out over the weekend to indicate
Speaker 1: that there is some sort of change here from what
Speaker 1: they spoke about previous sleep. Now, the good news for
Speaker 1: Apple from a financial regulation standpoint, they didn't give any
Speaker 1: formal guidance. They didn't say our revenue is going to
Speaker 1: come in between x amount and X amount. They said
Speaker 1: that growth is going to come in slower than the
Speaker 1: eight percent we saw in the fourth quarter, right, and
Speaker 1: then Luca my Street, the Apple CFO, was asked, does
Speaker 1: that mean you're going to see an annual decline from
Speaker 1: the holiday quarter. He said, it's just going to be
Speaker 1: less than eight percent, So that could mean seven percent
Speaker 1: or that could mean negative two. All right, We're gonna
Speaker 1: continue to follow your reporting on this, Mark, Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for all of those updates. Bloomberg's Mark German
Speaker 1: lots to digest. How to secure and protect online identity
Speaker 1: has only become more important as more businesses go all
Speaker 1: in on a digital world. This week, the cloud identity
Speaker 1: software provider Octa is holding an investor day to talk
Speaker 1: about the future of our digital and digital identities, along
Speaker 1: with its biggest customer event of the year. Joining me
Speaker 1: now oct to CEO and co founder Todd mckinn and Todd,
Speaker 1: great to have you back here as always. So, look,
Speaker 1: everyone is talking about the outlook right now. It seems
Speaker 1: like every company is laying off. Folks were expecting potentially
Speaker 1: thousands of layoffs at Meta alone. What are we seeing
Speaker 1: in the sales environment in terms of the appetite to
Speaker 1: buy your software and enterprise software right now? Well, the
Speaker 1: first thing we're really excited about is the appetite for
Speaker 1: folks to come to this conference. It's the first time
Speaker 1: we've had our Octane event in person in three years,
Speaker 1: and the whole thing is sold out. We're oversubscribed. That's
Speaker 1: both from our customer event our investor event. So people
Speaker 1: are incredibly interested in this topic and what do you know,
Speaker 1: they like to be together in in person, which is
Speaker 1: a powerful platform for us to start telling the story.
Speaker 1: And as you did, as you mentioned Emily, everyone this
Speaker 1: is a different world than we were in a year ago.
Speaker 1: Everyone is worried about the economic uncertainty. Everyone is really
Speaker 1: scrutinizing their investments to make sure that they spend their
Speaker 1: dollars on the things that are going to move their
Speaker 1: businesses forward. And the good thing for us as they
Speaker 1: make those decisions, identity is coming up as a very
Speaker 1: strategic initiative they should invest in. What is your outlook
Speaker 1: given the macro environment? Taught and how are you thinking
Speaker 1: about jobs and spending? Are you planning any layoffs? Are
Speaker 1: you planning to cut back anywhere? We are not planning layoffs,
Speaker 1: but like every other company, we're really scrutinizing where we're investing,
Speaker 1: and we think our team is a great investment. They're
Speaker 1: the best in the industry and they're going to help
Speaker 1: our customers be successful. But across the board, everyone is
Speaker 1: trying to do more with less. Make sure that every
Speaker 1: dollar we spend is in the highest r o I area,
Speaker 1: And what you see from our customers is that they're
Speaker 1: getting a huge return on their investments and identity. It's
Speaker 1: not just for security, and it's not just for I
Speaker 1: T productivity. It's also for customers. They can build better
Speaker 1: customer relationships, they can drive new revenue channels, and that's
Speaker 1: what you want to do. And there's a time of
Speaker 1: economic uncertainty. You want to make sure you cut costs
Speaker 1: and have good investment in terms of what you're spending
Speaker 1: your money on, but you also have to drive growth
Speaker 1: because a lot of times that's when you can get
Speaker 1: ahead of your competitors when they're cutting back. You can
Speaker 1: invest in the right areas and move forward time. Digital
Speaker 1: authentication services are still a huge prize for hackers. Of course,
Speaker 1: we've talked about the the the hack that Octa had
Speaker 1: to deal with earlier this year. Twilio also dealing with
Speaker 1: one as well. How would you say, the threat level
Speaker 1: has changed, and what are you doing to stay on
Speaker 1: top of it. Well, one thing that doesn't change is
Speaker 1: that whether there's economic uncertainty and how people are thinking
Speaker 1: about investments, the risk from security breaches and the regulatory
Speaker 1: overview that comes when there's a security breach, and the
Speaker 1: cost that puts on companies, that is consistent. That's always there.
Speaker 1: So companies have to invest in their cyber posture and
Speaker 1: they have to make sure they have a great foundation
Speaker 1: foundation to keep everything secure. They of course have to
Speaker 1: make sure they're spending the right investments and getting the
Speaker 1: best innovation for that money. But cybersecurity is something that's
Speaker 1: it's it's recession resistant. I'm curious what you think of
Speaker 1: Elon Musk's approach to verification, this idea of knowing your
Speaker 1: customer proving identity when others are saying this is just
Speaker 1: a way to pay to play. Well, I think that
Speaker 1: Twitter is a is a great technology company. It's changed
Speaker 1: the world, and even a company like Twitter has to
Speaker 1: do a better job connecting with their customers, whether that's
Speaker 1: figuring out who gets the blue check mark, whether that's
Speaker 1: figuring out what's about and what's not about these things
Speaker 1: in the in the takeover of Twitter and as as
Speaker 1: Ellen comes in to run the company, these things have
Speaker 1: come up over and over again. So it just goes
Speaker 1: to show you if Twitter has these challenges and these
Speaker 1: opportunities by they could brief the benefits of getting another
Speaker 1: customers better. Think about every other company, every other organization
Speaker 1: in the world. If they can know their customers, if
Speaker 1: they can build great products and service for them that
Speaker 1: validate the right users, get them into the right capabilities,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be really a groundswell for every organization in
Speaker 1: the world. And that's what everyone's trying to do. And
Speaker 1: that's why it all comes back to identity, because you
Speaker 1: have to know who that customer is. You have to
Speaker 1: have high confidence in it so you can deliver that
Speaker 1: customer a great personalized experience that changes their day, makes
Speaker 1: them perceive a ton of value from your product or service,
Speaker 1: moves your company forward. He's also telling users to vote
Speaker 1: republic Republican and I know federal government sales are important
Speaker 1: to Octa. How do things change for you if you
Speaker 1: know Congress Republicans win Congress. Does that make a difference
Speaker 1: for Octa? Well, one thing I want to say is
Speaker 1: I did. I voted today so you can see my
Speaker 1: good for you very conference. We have this big conference,
Speaker 1: so I had to do it early absentee. But all
Speaker 1: I'll say on this is that everyone needs to vote.
Speaker 1: Democracy works when everyone has heard, So everyone should vote.
Speaker 1: It's an important part of what we do. It's an
Speaker 1: important part of our country, it's important part of the world.
Speaker 1: So get out there and vote. All right. I can
Speaker 1: can only support that. Look, you've got a huge customer
Speaker 1: event coming up and invest your day. You've been talking
Speaker 1: about this passwordless future for a really long time. What
Speaker 1: are you telling them about how far away that really is?
Speaker 1: When are we all going to be done with passwords?
Speaker 1: This is one of the most exciting things that's happening
Speaker 1: in the industry. We are on the cusps, especially at
Speaker 1: work of being able to get rid of passwords. ACTA
Speaker 1: has the technology today to remove the password from every
Speaker 1: employee in the world. And that's because two things. One
Speaker 1: is that we can utilize the strong authentication from their
Speaker 1: iPhone or their Android phone, or from their Mac or
Speaker 1: their PC and integrate that. And this is an important point,
Speaker 1: has to be integrated to every application service you need
Speaker 1: to go in your entire work day, and that's what's challenging.
Speaker 1: It's not that we didn't have the right biometric sensors,
Speaker 1: is that it was hard to get these biometric sensors
Speaker 1: connected to everything in your environment. And that's the problem
Speaker 1: we solve. And so this is an exciting development. I
Speaker 1: think we can make employees much more productive and more importantly,
Speaker 1: if it's a biometric sensor, it's much more secure, and
Speaker 1: that's why we're excited to tell our story to the
Speaker 1: world this week. All right, well, good luck at Octane
Speaker 1: This week, oct to CEO and co founder Todd McKinnon
Speaker 1: joining us for an exclusive interview. Todd, thanks so much
Speaker 1: for stopping by. All Right, coming up, we're gonna hear
Speaker 1: from Microsoft President Brad Smith from top in Egypt. We're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about microsoft new climate initiatives and how the
Speaker 1: company is also navigating the downturn. That's next. This is Bloomberg.
Speaker 1: The Summit is underway in Egypt, with this year's event
Speaker 1: providing a chance to reinject momentum into the energy transition.
Speaker 1: Heads of states and governments all in attendance, as well
Speaker 1: as major companies like Microsoft, which plans to be carbon negative.
Speaker 1: I caught up with Microsoft President Brad Smith. Take a listen.
Speaker 1: I think it's really important to think a little bit
Speaker 1: about the problem that we and others are trying to
Speaker 1: help solve. So much of the work that is needed,
Speaker 1: especially to adapt the climate change, really involves better use
Speaker 1: of a more data, better predictive modeling. You look at
Speaker 1: predicting wildfires, whether you're in the United States or India
Speaker 1: or in Africa. If you look at things like responding
Speaker 1: to floods, you need to be able to predict these
Speaker 1: things and then give people early warning systems. Yet, if
Speaker 1: you look at Africa today, for every four team data
Speaker 1: scientists that there are in developed countries, there's only one
Speaker 1: in Africa. So we've opened up. We're announcing today two
Speaker 1: new data labs, one in Egypt, one in Kenya. We're
Speaker 1: parkering with Planet Planet Labs in San Francisco, which is
Speaker 1: doing I just think this extraordinary work with new satellites
Speaker 1: to bring satellite based imagery and data, including for Africa.
Speaker 1: You put our AI capabilities are data scientists, planets imagery together,
Speaker 1: now we can be a bit of an equalizer. We
Speaker 1: can help climate scientists on a continent like Africa. Now meantime,
Speaker 1: bread the economy continues to go south. We're seeing layoffs
Speaker 1: in the tech industry across the board. We're expecting thousands
Speaker 1: of people to get laid off at Meta just this week.
Speaker 1: I know Microsoft has done some layoffs but hasn't had
Speaker 1: a major round of cuts yet. Are you planning to
Speaker 1: do more layoffs and how are you thinking about spending, etcetera.
Speaker 1: I think the most important thing for a company like
Speaker 1: Microsoft is first to recognize the role that we play.
Speaker 1: We're not in the advertising business to the degree that
Speaker 1: some of the other companies are, or more focused on
Speaker 1: really providing the digital infrastructure that companies, businesses, nonprofits, governments need.
Speaker 1: So in a world with increasing economic headwinds and there
Speaker 1: are many, you know, the kind of technology that we
Speaker 1: create is one of the better tail winds on which
Speaker 1: people can rely and we're seeing that. So to answer
Speaker 1: your question, Emily, we will continue, I think, to manage
Speaker 1: through this recession the same way we have managed through
Speaker 1: every recession since Microsoft was founded. In We identify the
Speaker 1: technologies that will not only be important to the quarter
Speaker 1: in the year, but fundamentally the decade ahead, and we'll
Speaker 1: make sure that we invest and we may even invest
Speaker 1: more in the technologies of the future, say things like
Speaker 1: artificial intelligence. Now, we may have to trim some other
Speaker 1: cost areas because it is a recession. But I think
Speaker 1: what you'll do is see us trim if we need to,
Speaker 1: and then use that to free up resources to invest
Speaker 1: in what we regard as the long term creation of value,
Speaker 1: not only for ourselves but for our customers. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to bloom Er Technology, em Emily Chang in San Francisco.
Speaker 1: Twitter may now be a private company, but Elon Musk's
Speaker 1: purchase of the social media platform is still being felt
Speaker 1: by the public markets. Bloomberg's ad Ludlow here with a
Speaker 1: look at Tesla and obviously you know I can't ignore
Speaker 1: this if you're a Tesla investor at yeah, you can.
Speaker 1: I mean, the stalk is down on this on a
Speaker 1: twelve month basis, It's at the seventeenth month and new
Speaker 1: fifty two week low, down five percent during Monday's session,
Speaker 1: worst performer on a points basis on the NASA one.
Speaker 1: And clearly there's a Twitter overhang, right. I think one
Speaker 1: of the numbers that jumps out at me is that
Speaker 1: Tesla shares are down more than twelve percent since October
Speaker 1: twenty seven, when must close the deal to buy Twitter.
Speaker 1: In that time, the SMP five, the main gage of
Speaker 1: US equities is basically flat, and there's a lot of
Speaker 1: discussion in the market about what is going on here.
Speaker 1: A big part of it, if you come to me,
Speaker 1: it's my Bloombow terminal m. It seems to be key
Speaker 1: man risk that as we know from Twitter. For anyone
Speaker 1: that's paid any attention to the platform in the last
Speaker 1: twenty four hours or the last few months. Elon Musk
Speaker 1: is tweeting very regularly. He's kind of very focused based
Speaker 1: on the reporting that Kurt Wagoner and I have done
Speaker 1: on this platform and its future. And there's concern out
Speaker 1: there from Tesla shareholders who have voiced this concern on
Speaker 1: the platform that he's distracted being away from Tesla. There's
Speaker 1: less of a conversation now about the concern of him
Speaker 1: selling down more of his own tests the shares in
Speaker 1: order to finance the Twitter deal because of what we
Speaker 1: know what he did both on the debt and on
Speaker 1: the equity co investors side. But clearly there's an overhang
Speaker 1: here and it's just strange to see such poor performance
Speaker 1: in Tesla stock both in the short, medium, and long terms.
Speaker 1: And this is sort of a perennial question, but I
Speaker 1: wonder if the answer to it is changing. Is Tesla
Speaker 1: a tech stock or is it a car stock? And
Speaker 1: how our investors thinking about it? And I will take
Speaker 1: a perennial question from you any day of the week.
Speaker 1: I mean, it is the question. You know. The cell
Speaker 1: side analysts that cover Tesla do so from a sort
Speaker 1: of classic automotive perspective. Many treat it as a higher
Speaker 1: multiple tech or software play, right, because much of its
Speaker 1: valuation in recent years has been based on the future
Speaker 1: promise of full self driving. Ultimately, I look at the fundamentals, right,
Speaker 1: this is a stock that trades at forty seven times
Speaker 1: forward earnings. If you compare with General Motives for example,
Speaker 1: that's a stock that aids below seven times forward earnings.
Speaker 1: At forty seven times forward earnings, that is a stretched
Speaker 1: multiple stock in anyone's book. You know, we've talked all
Speaker 1: about in video for example, trading at thirty times forward earnings.
Speaker 1: There's nowhere near what test is at right now. So
Speaker 1: that's not a definitive answer the question. I'm sorry to
Speaker 1: sort of bat you away, but it depends how you
Speaker 1: look at it, if you look at the fundamentals, test
Speaker 1: that does not trade like a legacy automotive name. All right,
Speaker 1: Bloomberg's I'd love low. Thank you, as always, more perennial
Speaker 1: questions to come. The US midterm elections are coming up. Man,
Speaker 1: The crypto industry has its eyes on Congress. Question after
Speaker 1: the vote, will we finally get progress on crypto regulation?
Speaker 1: Bloomberg's Kayley lines, reports are regulators, and frankly, our Congress
Speaker 1: is an hour late and a dollar short, and we
Speaker 1: need to catch with where these cryptocurrencies are going. Congress
Speaker 1: has been calling for greater regulation of crypto for years,
Speaker 1: but it's been a lot of talk and to this point,
Speaker 1: not a lot of walk. We have the intention, we're
Speaker 1: just not quite getting it over the line. The crypto
Speaker 1: industry has been asking Congress to help create the rules
Speaker 1: of the road, but optimism on progress has faded as
Speaker 1: the mid terms draw closer. There was some hope from
Speaker 1: many an industry that this was actually going to happen
Speaker 1: this year, that a bunch of bills that had been proposed,
Speaker 1: we're promising that we could actually see some movement here
Speaker 1: on Capitol Hill. But just like pretty much everything in
Speaker 1: Washington heading towards the end of it all seems kind
Speaker 1: of stuck right now. The bills that have gained the
Speaker 1: most traction include legislation to regulate stable points and to
Speaker 1: give the CFTC more power to oversee digital assents, but
Speaker 1: success on those initiatives will have to wait until after
Speaker 1: the mid terms. I think both Kirsten and I believe
Speaker 1: that the bill in one piece, as a total bill
Speaker 1: is more likely to be deferred until next year. It's
Speaker 1: a big topic, it's comprehensive, and it's still new to
Speaker 1: many U S. Senators. It's a lot for them to
Speaker 1: digest with the few remaining weeks we have in this
Speaker 1: came under a year. Big names in crypto like Sam
Speaker 1: bankman Fried, the billionaire founder of FTX, are also trying
Speaker 1: to make change, with their dollars emerging as influential political donors.
Speaker 1: While he says he's motivated primarily by pandemic prevention and
Speaker 1: wants to support candidates who will prioritize that, he also
Speaker 1: has been pushing the regulatory agenda. I've a duty as
Speaker 1: a member of the industry to try and get us regulated,
Speaker 1: to try and move the industry in a more responsible direction,
Speaker 1: and I think that requires engagement. I think to be
Speaker 1: irresponsible to me not to engage UM, you know, with
Speaker 1: Tackle Hill, with regulators and the things that I've been
Speaker 1: arguing for, our more regulation for the industry. I think
Speaker 1: that's what's right for the country. Bankman Freed is the
Speaker 1: fourth largest individual donor this midterm cycle and has made
Speaker 1: about forty million dollars in political contributions this year. He
Speaker 1: has said he could give even more in I think
Speaker 1: that you're going to see more people pushing into politics
Speaker 1: because now, uh, the interaction with DC is going to
Speaker 1: be one of the main drivers of whether enterprises are
Speaker 1: able to grow and operate UM successfully. Yeah, clearly lines
Speaker 1: with that report. Republican lawmakers have been working to revive
Speaker 1: former President Trump's bid to band TikTok in recent months,
Speaker 1: so for fears the u S data is ending up
Speaker 1: in the hands of the Chinese government. Just last week,
Speaker 1: FEC Commissioner Brendan Car told Axios that TikTok should be
Speaker 1: outright ban. He joins me now for more on this
Speaker 1: UM Commissioner Car, thank you as always for taking the time.
Speaker 1: You said specifically, you don't believe there's a path forward
Speaker 1: for anything other than a ban, which is a step
Speaker 1: up from what you said in the past. Why take
Speaker 1: it that far. Yeah, Look, it seems almost every week
Speaker 1: there's a new leaked material coming out of TikTok that
Speaker 1: just really advisceerates the trust. And at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, the nation security agencies haven't working on what's
Speaker 1: known as Project Texas, which is to move a lot
Speaker 1: of TikTok's operations to oracle servers here in the US,
Speaker 1: and that's the response to national security concerns. The problem
Speaker 1: with that is there's a new report about ten days
Speaker 1: ago from Forbes that a TikTok official out of l
Speaker 1: A having an unusual outside business hour meeting where they're
Speaker 1: asking another TikTok employee detailed questions about the location and
Speaker 1: other details of those oracle servers. We also have leaked
Speaker 1: materials from a DC TikTok official that said once that
Speaker 1: Project Texas is put in place, it remains to be
Speaker 1: seen if Beijing can still get access to US user
Speaker 1: data because the end of the day, these are their
Speaker 1: tools that they build in China. So if TikTok is
Speaker 1: ensure that these new protections will safeguard US user data.
Speaker 1: Then I don't think we should be so sure either.
Speaker 1: You don't have the authority to ban TikTok, So what
Speaker 1: are you hoping to accomplish with this assertion? Yes? Right,
Speaker 1: this isn't like Huawei or ZC or China Mobile, where
Speaker 1: we at the SEC had um federal funding at issue
Speaker 1: or sc licensed at issue. But what I gained from
Speaker 1: all this case was some insight into dealing with companies
Speaker 1: that have ties back into communist China and sort of
Speaker 1: malign data flows. And so I'm happy to sort of
Speaker 1: bring that expertise to bear and talk about it. But
Speaker 1: the reality is this is broad and bipartisan. You've got
Speaker 1: Senator Mark Warner, Democrats, chairman of sent An Intel, who
Speaker 1: looks at a lot of really interesting security briefrints every day,
Speaker 1: and he says that it is TikTok that scares the
Speaker 1: dickens atum you have. Just last week, Democrat Chairwoman Shikowski
Speaker 1: in the House, she wrote a letter with Republican Bill
Speaker 1: Iraqis to Apple and Google saying we're concerned about your
Speaker 1: continued inclusion of TikTok in the app store. So this
Speaker 1: isn't just about me. This is about broad, deep bipartisan
Speaker 1: concern that's being expressed, and you're right this. Ultimately, I
Speaker 1: think in the lead is gonna be tread Tree, which
Speaker 1: has the Cippius process, and I think that should be
Speaker 1: the focus of federal action at the Treasury Scipious Process,
Speaker 1: not the SEC, but it could potentionally the f PC
Speaker 1: or the Commerce Department as well. So what do you
Speaker 1: hope to come out of that national security agreement with
Speaker 1: TikTok that we have at this moment? You know, I
Speaker 1: didn't open, at least theoretically for a while that there
Speaker 1: is some agreement that's put in place that addresses national
Speaker 1: security concerns. But there is a New York Times piece
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago that said there's a tentative
Speaker 1: deal that's been put in place or a draft deal
Speaker 1: with TikTok, But then it had multiple high level um
Speaker 1: sources in the Justice Department saying that the number two
Speaker 1: in the d o J is concerned that tenantive deal
Speaker 1: isn't tough enough. And so I think we have to
Speaker 1: be very careful here going forward that we're not allowing
Speaker 1: data flows back into China, because it's not just about
Speaker 1: espionage and foreign influence, but we're also feeding China's AI,
Speaker 1: and AI can use for good or can be use
Speaker 1: for bad, and the p l A and the CCP
Speaker 1: has had a goal of dominating AI. So I'm very
Speaker 1: concerned about US sending data back and the way it's
Speaker 1: gonna crew and make that AI effective for nefarious purposes.
Speaker 1: So the question is how far do you take this?
Speaker 1: Should companies like Meta Alphabet, Apple have employees in China
Speaker 1: in your view at all? Well, Look, I do think
Speaker 1: this is an opportunity here where we need to revisit
Speaker 1: UM these deep corporate ties into China, particularly as UM
Speaker 1: the saber rattles on Taiwan UH coming out of the
Speaker 1: Communist Party confab of last week. I was just in
Speaker 1: Taiwan for two days last week myself, and I think
Speaker 1: it is time to start thinking about diversifying outside of China.
Speaker 1: Up to now, my concern has been focused on individual
Speaker 1: companies and what I call plus factors, meaning it's not
Speaker 1: just that you have tied back into communist China, So
Speaker 1: there's something else there that's concerning. That was the case
Speaker 1: with Halwei with DT, and that's the case with TikTok
Speaker 1: So I'm not ready to make a broader pronouncement more
Speaker 1: generally about companies that are doing business there. Now, we've
Speaker 1: got a mid term election happening in a matter of hours,
Speaker 1: and I'm curious what your hope is for, you know,
Speaker 1: and a new Congress, you know, along with FDC chair
Speaker 1: Lena Kahan, to take action or not on big tech
Speaker 1: over the next couple of years. Well, actually election, you know, obviously,
Speaker 1: I sort of leave it to the American people to
Speaker 1: make their decisions there, particular by the Hatch act Um
Speaker 1: not in a position to make sort of partisan comments there.
Speaker 1: But what I'll say is generally, I do think it's
Speaker 1: important we find some alignment Republicans and Democrats alike on
Speaker 1: addressing you know, outsized abuse of corporate power. And I
Speaker 1: do think we're starting to see more and more bipartisan
Speaker 1: interest in that topic. And I would always look forward
Speaker 1: to find partners on you know, slides of the both
Speaker 1: sides of the political aisle to drive towards that result.
Speaker 1: But again, when it comes to TikTok in particular, in
Speaker 1: my sense is that the tide is is moving out
Speaker 1: on TikTok. And again you see almost every week new
Speaker 1: letters from new bipartisan members of Congress that are focused
Speaker 1: on this issue. What's the latest on the plan to
Speaker 1: ban all Huawei and z t E telecom equipment from
Speaker 1: the US market. Is the SEC going to be voting
Speaker 1: on that soon? You're making really good progress. A couple
Speaker 1: of years ago, we voted to withdraw all future funding
Speaker 1: for wahweyans et equipment and or right now funding the
Speaker 1: ripping and replacing axios. I believe I'll report a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks ago that said that we're about to vote
Speaker 1: at the FEC on denying equipment authorization for those devices,
Speaker 1: which would close what I've described as a wahweih loophole,
Speaker 1: which means up to now, you can't use federal dollars
Speaker 1: or purchase this year, but you can use private dollars
Speaker 1: by the same gear put in the same point in
Speaker 1: your network. And I have long call for us to
Speaker 1: close that loophole. So the ect that activists reporting is
Speaker 1: right that the SEC is moving forward with that boat
Speaker 1: and I don't want to get into the details of
Speaker 1: it um, but suffice to say I'd be very happy
Speaker 1: with that outcome at the FCC and quickly at the FTC.
Speaker 1: What are your thoughts on the actions that Lena con
Speaker 1: has taken so far. You know, look, I think our
Speaker 1: guiding prints will have to be to protect individual liberty.
Speaker 1: We we can have threats to individual liberty from the
Speaker 1: overreach of government, who can also threat to indi votual
Speaker 1: liberty UH from the abuse of corporate power. And we've
Speaker 1: got to find a way here to have it that
Speaker 1: as our guiding star. And I know it's been a
Speaker 1: partisan time at the FTC and they've had a hard
Speaker 1: time agreeing. At the FCC, we've been working to the middle,
Speaker 1: compromising and finding common ground, and I hope that we
Speaker 1: continue to do that at the FCC at least all right,
Speaker 1: FEC Commissioner Brendan Carr, thanks so much for stopping. I
Speaker 1: appreciate it. Meantime, millions of mothers have left their jobs
Speaker 1: as a result of the COVID nineteen pandemic. The cause
Speaker 1: inadequate childcare. That is why Girls Who co found her
Speaker 1: Rest My show Johnny decided to come up with the
Speaker 1: Martial Plan for Moms, and nonprofit that has helped pass
Speaker 1: landmark childcare legislation in New York and is working with
Speaker 1: big companies on employer sponsored childcare, she joins me now
Speaker 1: for more and obviously Rush might have to ask you
Speaker 1: about the mid terms, which we are now hours away from.
Speaker 1: Which races are you paying the closest attention to and
Speaker 1: why all of them? I mean, this election is the
Speaker 1: most important election that women have seen, you know, following
Speaker 1: the Dollas decision, women have essentially become class citizens in America.
Speaker 1: And you know, we have a lot of extremists on
Speaker 1: the ballot, a lot of candidates you know, on the
Speaker 1: right who want to restrict our rights even more. And
Speaker 1: so what happens in Tuesday is going to fundamentally change
Speaker 1: the lives of American women. How concerned are you about misinformation?
Speaker 1: Given I know that you have pointed out the voices
Speaker 1: of women especially have not been heard. I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: very concerned about misinformation, um, and I think it's something
Speaker 1: that it's critical that a lot of my students, for example,
Speaker 1: are are working on. And I think the comment that
Speaker 1: was just made, you know, by the Commissioner and seeing
Speaker 1: what happens you know with Twitter and with Elon must
Speaker 1: taking over Twitter, to make sure that we continue to
Speaker 1: root out disinformation and that everybody has access to fair
Speaker 1: and just and reliable information is critical. That was my
Speaker 1: next question is I'm curious what your take is on
Speaker 1: the direction that Elon Musk has taken Twitter thus far
Speaker 1: and how uh free speech can be balanced with safety
Speaker 1: and security and healthy dialogue. I'm watching it, Emily. You know,
Speaker 1: we know that social media Twitter has been a toxic
Speaker 1: place for women and girls and for people of color,
Speaker 1: and that there's got to be a way to kind
Speaker 1: of moderate content without making people feel like every day
Speaker 1: that they're going to face some amount of abuse or
Speaker 1: we called the name or be you know, showed content
Speaker 1: that's going to be really, you know, toxic for them.
Speaker 1: So I think that again, this is an opportunity to
Speaker 1: do something right and to do something that you know,
Speaker 1: again uplifts people of color and women will see if
Speaker 1: that actually happens. Now. Given your work with the Martial
Speaker 1: Plan for Moms, I'm curious what you're hearing from moms
Speaker 1: and parents right now about their concerns as they had
Speaker 1: into the election. What matters to them right now and why. Look,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think Republicans have made it seem that
Speaker 1: the biggest concern you should have is the cost of
Speaker 1: gas or the cost of cereal. But if you talk
Speaker 1: to a mom, she'll tell you my biggest concern is
Speaker 1: the cost of childcare. Parents have gone into debt because
Speaker 1: of the cost of childcare the child The cost of
Speaker 1: childcare is outpacing the cost of inflation. It is literally
Speaker 1: the most expensive line item for families and the only
Speaker 1: party that's tried to do something about it is Democrats,
Speaker 1: you know, through the Bill Back Better Bill. So you know,
Speaker 1: mom's got to be paying attention. Mom's got to be
Speaker 1: voting on Tuesday, and you know, we've got to be
Speaker 1: making sure that we're pushing an agenda that is going
Speaker 1: to put families first. And if we want to say
Speaker 1: that women in the workforce are not just a nice
Speaker 1: to have but a must have, then we have to
Speaker 1: make sure that we're providing affordable childcare. And that's what
Speaker 1: we're doing at the Marsha Lamber Moms with our National
Speaker 1: Business Colorship for Childcare. We can't wait for government to
Speaker 1: do the right thing. We can push them to, but
Speaker 1: in the meantime we have to advocate for subsidizing childcare
Speaker 1: in the workforce. You recently went toe to toe with
Speaker 1: the Parents Rights group that banned girls who code books
Speaker 1: and I'm curious if you can share some context on
Speaker 1: that and what do you think it tells us about
Speaker 1: the state of America. I think it tells us that
Speaker 1: that they were coming for our bodies and now they're
Speaker 1: coming for our minds. I mean, Emily, I woke up
Speaker 1: to a headline that girls who code books have been
Speaker 1: banned in Pennsylvania. And it wasn't just girls who code books,
Speaker 1: it was books about Grace Hopper, you know, books that
Speaker 1: we're gonna get girls an opportunity, girls of color, an
Speaker 1: opportunity to be everything in anything. You know, what is
Speaker 1: happening in schools right and now what is happening in
Speaker 1: terms of the school board fights, of the culture wars
Speaker 1: is critical and we have to start paying attention again.
Speaker 1: I cannot stress this enough. You know, we've entered this
Speaker 1: period of force birth where our reproductive rights have been
Speaker 1: taken away, and I am shocked to see what they
Speaker 1: are trying to take away from our girls. And every
Speaker 1: single parent who cares about their girls having a chance
Speaker 1: to be an engineer, to be a doctor, to be
Speaker 1: a president needs to be informed about what's happening in
Speaker 1: the schools because it is shocking. It's frightening and it's
Speaker 1: scary how much progress is last quick question, is actually
Speaker 1: happening in the schools? You know, you founded this company
Speaker 1: to get more girls to learn how to code. How
Speaker 1: optimistic are you about that? You know, truly happening across
Speaker 1: the board? You listen, Emily Covid was devastating, you know,
Speaker 1: for kids, especially for kids from underserved communities. I saw
Speaker 1: so many of my students who are on their way
Speaker 1: to learn in computer science had to drop out of
Speaker 1: college or not go to college because their moms were
Speaker 1: essential workers and they had to take care of their siblings.
Speaker 1: That is why it's so critical that we fix the
Speaker 1: broken structure of care. You know. The second thing is
Speaker 1: is that we're you know, we have got to continue
Speaker 1: to invest in public school education. I'm sure you saw
Speaker 1: the New York Times article about how you know the
Speaker 1: the again, you know, the the math and science. You know,
Speaker 1: rates of what our kids are learning in schools have
Speaker 1: diminished and decreased. I know that's happening. You know, we
Speaker 1: had ten thousand girls who code clubs at the start
Speaker 1: of the pandemic, and we are now inching back to
Speaker 1: where we were before. And so when teachers are exhausted
Speaker 1: and tired when they're not getting paid adequately, they're not
Speaker 1: volunteering to teach a coding club, and and and again,
Speaker 1: who can blame them? And so we got to have
Speaker 1: to continue to public school education and make sure that
Speaker 1: our kids have access to opportunity in the jobs of
Speaker 1: the future, which include coding. Rest Michel Johnny, thank you
Speaker 1: for your advocacy for girls, girls who co founder appreciate
Speaker 1: you stopping by. And that doesn't For this edition of
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Technology coming up on election Day here in the
Speaker 1: United States, We've got an all star lineup including LIFT
Speaker 1: president John Zimmer will be talking about Prop thirty and
Speaker 1: the future of the gig economy and so many other
Speaker 1: important guests. And don't forget it to check out our
Speaker 1: podcast wherever you get your podcasts. This is Bloomberg