
US workers may have to change social media use as firms adapt to China's rules - subversionist
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/08/social-media-use-could-change-for-americans-after-chinas-nba-shutdown.html
======
hprotagonist
In two words: bite me.

there aren't too many things that i'm a raving aboslutist about, but the
freedom of political speech is one of them.

If my employer attempts to step on my neck for saying things about china that
china doesn't like, on my time, and my personal accounts, their next contact
from me will be from an ACLU lawyer.

~~~
thereare5lights
AFAIK, political speech is not protected against employer discrimination.

~~~
LocalH
That's honestly part of the problem.

Increasingly, every single right that we have that was enumerated in the
Constitution and the Bill of Rights has been encroached upon by the government
via workarounds and loopholes (see: Commerce Clause).

~~~
claudeganon
Government encroachment of these rights has always been a problem, but the
real issue is that America tries to nurture two systems within itself: a
liberal, democratic government with correspondingly enshrined rights and an
economy arranged around authoritarian hierarchies with no such protections.

While it’s all well and good to prevent the government from quashing speech
and other rights, when your boss can fire you for saying something they
disagree with or if you refuse things like workplace surveillance (potentially
costing you your housing and healthcare in the process), these protections
seem pretty threadbare. I think we need to do more to check the
authoritarianism of our economy if we have any real aspiration to adhere to
them.

------
ourlordcaffeine
Name and shame companies who bow to Chinese censors

[https://github.com/caffeine-
overload/bandinchina](https://github.com/caffeine-overload/bandinchina)

(Repo named after south park episode)

~~~
kovek
I think you might be the owner of the repo so I'd suggest here instead of
there.

I think this could be a wikipedia page, and sources could be added.

~~~
TurkishPoptart
This would be an excellent Wikipedia page. Fantastic idea!

------
mfer
Before we were voicing everything on the Internet there was both a separation
between professional lives and private lives and far more localized
communities that had lower interaction with each other.

With the way many are using the Internet is blurs or removes the lines between
private and public along with removing regional group barriers.

So, I used to be able to run my mouth locally on some topic and have no work
or global repercussions. Now, you do that on the Internet, it could be seen be
people thousands of miles away, and it could impact ones career.

It's not just technology but how we choose to use it and guide others to do so
as well.

~~~
ghaff
In practice, most people can still enjoy a degree of separation unless they're
in a relatively public role and/or haven't tried to separate their personal
and professional personas on, e.g., Twitter.

That said, the walls between personal and professional can break down in a big
hurry if some ill-considered (or just unconventional) remark/action/etc. goes
viral. Companies will cut their connections with most individuals very quickly
if that's the easiest and least embarrassing response to an online mob.

~~~
bilbo0s
We need to be a bit more accurate though so that we can concentrate minds on
solving the real problem. From what I can see, companies are not
"embarrassed", they are "afraid".

They don't care about online mobs, they care about the drop in revenue that
will come from lost business. Reputations that take years to recover impact
revenues for each of those years. That's the issue.

If we could think of a way to insulate companies from lost revenue, the
problem could be solved. To date, there have only been clumsy, amateurish
attempts to do this. Actions like, telling everyone, "Hey, go spend your money
with this company!" Which for a lot of reasons rarely, if ever, works. We have
to come up with something that would provide decision makers at these firms
more certainty.

~~~
ghaff
I'm not sure how you even go about "insulating companies from lost revenue"
though. The online mob may not be responding rationally (or in a way you agree
with) but groups of people certainly have the right to publicly denounce and
call for boycotts of a company.

Which, as you say can be damaging to their brand and ultimately their revenue,
ability to hire people, etc. The fact is that the path of least resistance to
mitigate and close out the damaging outcry as quickly as possible is often to
apologize, fire someone, make some harmless concession, etc.

------
eaandkw
The only thing that is going to stop this is when these companies start losing
money. They would sell their first born if they thought it would increase
their stock prices.

I would boycott these companies but to be honest I don't have any accounts
with them in the first place and I am actively closing accounts and reducing
my presents on the internet.

~~~
theandrewbailey
> reducing my presents on the internet.

Presence?

Though I also agree that you shouldn't have presents on the internet, either.

~~~
eaandkw
Yep, that's the one. I think that is one of those words that I always use
wrong until someone points it out.

------
kick
How long is it going to be before someone sets up a betting service on which
companies will bend the knee fastest?

------
whateveracct
Protections from government influence on free speech is a fundamental American
cultural value. Just because it's a foreign government doesn't mean we
shouldn't continue to abide by that value.

------
gnode
While companies should be held to account for caving to economic pressure, and
boycotting them is justified, I think it's important to recognise that this
pressure exists, and for all companies, not only those yet to have an infamous
PR incident.

It is the responsibility of government to counteract such pressure and protect
business from becoming proxy to foreign interference in domestic political
discourse, not to mention protecting such discourse in itself.

------
imgabe
I remember when news used to tell you about things that _did_ happen instead
of things that might happen.

Until a company actually does this, this is just clickbait speculation.

~~~
r00fus
Does Blizzard's muzzling/suspension of a Hearthstone tournament player count?
Sure, the player isn't an employee, but essentially earns money by playing.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21190265](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21190265)

~~~
imgabe
Not really. Blizzard cites a specific rule that all the tournament players
agree to that allows them to do that. Most employees don't have any such
agreement with their employer.

Even so, with at-will employment, employees have _always_ been subject to
being fired for saying something controversial on social media, so this is
nothing new.

~~~
unionpivo
I mean there will always be legal excuse.

Corporations hr departments have firing down to a fine art.

------
Grimm1
They can bite me as well. This a foreign nation exerting its will over our
politics via economic control. The govt should make strides to curb this imo.

~~~
drak0n1c
Hopefully tariffs and sanctions convince them to back off. This kind of
commercial censorship is arguably a trade infringement that can be responded
against in kind.

------
Porthos9K
Neither Beijing nor my employer get a say in what I post online, whether it
concerns the resemblance between Xi Jinping and Winnie the Pooh or the true
paternity of Jesus H. Christ (my money is on Zeus).

------
thesquib
If Apple has "removed" the Taiwanese flag now, soon maybe they'll
automatically translate what people say into NewSpeak which is acceptable for
the China market. Just saying...

------
davidhyde
The title of this article is designed to trigger the target audience before
they even open the link.

~~~
samfriedman
Agreed. There's really no new information here, just that a reporter got
someone from an institute to speculate on corporate social media policy.

~~~
eznoonze
"speculate"

------
cryptonector
At some point there will have to be a confrontation with China over its
tyranny.

~~~
pessimizer
This is not Chinese tyranny, this is the American tyranny called at-will
employment.

------
iamasoftwaredev
Or maybe we should start standing up to an authoritarian regime.

oh wait, capitalism. Nevermind. Let's pander to them instead.

------
inthenewsaklj
> _Cathay Pacific CEO Rupert Hogg stepped down after one of the airline’s
> pilots was found to have taken part in the protests._

Wow, that is crazy.

~~~
favorited
They asked him for a list of employees who participated, and he sent them a
list with 1 name: his own. Resigned immediately after. It was a badass move.

~~~
yellowapple
Badass move from a badass man with a badass name.

I can't seem to find any indication that it actually happened, though. You
happen to have a source? I'd love to read more about the badass that is The
Hogg.

~~~
favorited
[https://www.newsweek.com/cathay-ceo-refused-name-hong-
kong-p...](https://www.newsweek.com/cathay-ceo-refused-name-hong-kong-
protesters-chinese-government-named-himself-instead-resigned-1455371)

[https://www.ibtimes.com/cathay-pacific-ceo-praised-not-
givin...](https://www.ibtimes.com/cathay-pacific-ceo-praised-not-giving-names-
staff-joining-hong-kong-protest-2815487)

~~~
consciouskernel
You provided two links which both reference the same news source, which cites
their source as

> One of the first netizens to share this news, David Ng, a student at the
> Education University of Hong Kong, told Taiwan News that this information
> came from a trusted source who works as a manager for Cathay Pacific Airways

~~~
favorited
Not sure what you want from me, I don't have internal company memos or
anything. I'm just sharing what I read in news articles.

