Amazon Must Not Interfere With US Union Effort, Say Investors
We are delighted to see investors such as Folksam, Ohman Fonder and several other influential investors weigh in on this matter. While Amazon has the indubitable right to present the other side of the unionisation argument to its employees, it does have asymmetric power as the employer, and therefore ought to be careful it does not verge into intimidation and pressure.
India’s Government ‘Disappointed’ in Twitter’s Handling of Protests
One has to feel sympathy for Twitter’s board, as they are increasingly squeezed between a rock (the Indian government’s demands) and a hard place (Twitter’s stated democratic values). This issue with the Indian government – which is emblematic of similar pressures by other governments – demonstrates the difficulty of multiple daily decisions, that sit along a spectrum of shades of grey. For us, it underscores the the question of whether the business model of social media firms – additionally as content moderators – works in its current form.
How Tech Went Big on Green Energy
“The IT sector directly accounts for 1.8 per cent to 2.8 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions (this includes data centres, telecom networks, and user devices)….That is roughly the same as emissions from the aviation sector.” We commend the tech industry for its role in driving the speed of clean power adoption. It’s also heartening to see that much of it was initiated by listening to employee and investor sentiment.
One note to highlight is a topic we’ve been actively tracking: lobbying activity. In this instance, employees – as opposed to investors – have been paying attention to their companies’ lobbying activities and communicating their dissatisfaction when such activities are not aligned with their collective, or the companies’ stated, values.
UK Launches New Body to Oversee Booming Cybersecurity Sector
The UK’s new Cyber Security Council will be “funded by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, [and] will also work with training providers to accredit courses and qualifications.” This is encouraging news on the reskilling front and could provide a public-private partnership model for the new, fragmented, education megatrend we featured in an earlier article. These types of accreditations could become pillars of a reskilling revolution and lifelong learning.
Google and Facebook Using Lobbyists With Close Ties to Morrison Government to Fight Media Code
Following on our theme around corporate lobbying activity, this article highlights the two kinds of lobbying that companies employ (internal and external), as well as the soft power exerted through lobbying. An ESG issue of concern would be where lobbying allows large, muscular companies to bend regulation in order to maintain themselves as perennial incumbents.
While in the short term that rewards their investors, in the longer term it stifles competition – as some tech behemoths are being currently sued for – and leads to a prevalence of companies that should be allowed to wither.