⚡Truth
Happy Friday! Today wraps up our 5th week of writing daily. Crazy. When we started, many of our friends thought we were a little insane to write everyday; and it hasn’t always been the easiest, but it’s been very rewarding.
To all our consistent readers, again, thank you 🙏 for your readership, patience and frequent feedback on how to make this a better experience. Today’s a longer read, but we cover some extremely important stories, so we encourage you to tackle them. We want to hear from you. If you have a response to anything, please just reply to this email.
Here’s some highlights of this week’s newsletters:
Monday: covered recycling the iPhone and energy poverty
Tuesday: covered Bernie’s corporate democracy plan and the idea of pre-distribution
Wednesday: covered the Nobel Prize winners on Poverty and updates on the state of democracy
Thursday: covered more on Hong Kong and new startups tackling global hunger
Let’s get into it!
Free Speech vs. Fake News
Becoming increasingly more savvy in how he positions himself on the political chessboard, Mark Zuckerberg, days before he will appear on Capitol Hill to be questioned yet again, made a speech in defense of free expression. In a speech that will encourage much debate, Zuckerberg said he worries that:
“Increasingly today across the spectrum, it seems like there are more people who prioritize getting the political outcomes that they want over making sure that everyone can be heard.”
The political context. Facebook is under fire from both sides of the political spectrum. Progressive groups believe FB should remove political ads that contain fake information. Conservative groups believe FB is censoring their content. Plus, Zuckerberg has been playing the game — Zuckerberg has also been meeting privately with President Donald Trump, lawmakers in both parties, and conservative commentators such as Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
Social media is the fifth estate. Zuckerberg acknowledged the rise of social media’s influence and power and said:
“I actually believe the much bigger story is how much these platforms have decentralized power by putting it directly into people’s hands”
At Tomorrow, we believe social media is now an institution of society with FB as it’s king. We love that FB has decentralizing potential, but at the end, it is still largely controlled by a single person, Zuckerberg. Could there be a model where social media platforms of this magnitude are actually owned and controlled by its users?
Our overall take. FB is systemic. The idea that false information can be pushed constantly and reach billions as long as a group of people or individual has the funds to pay for the ads is quite terrifying. While FB is “people-powered,” it is also “people-powered” in the sense that we’re the battery that keeps the lights on and the energy that is fed to ads. This has created echo chambers and tribalism, and in many situations, false information has resulted in major problems around the world. Elections can be twisted and in some incidents, people can even be killed. They have been.
Free expression must be protected. False information with a political goal masked as free expression shouldn’t be. How to distinguish between them will be the challenge moving forward. It’s a difficult one, but we shouldn’t shrink away from the task. Championing free expression by protecting the systemic distribution of false information does not come from the same place as those who championed free expression in the past. They wanted individuality and truth to challenge the powers at be.
Business Roundtable Update: We’re Calling BS
A few months ago, the Business Roundtable (BRT) made headlines because they announced that they wanted to redefine the purpose of a corporation. Moving away from shareholder primacy, they claim to support the ideology that corporations needed to serve the full set of stakeholders and promote an economy that serves all Americas.
Some praised them for the shift. Others called BS. We mostly waited. We actually had written out a longer letter addressing Jamie Dimon, the Chairman of the BRT and JP Morgan’s CEO, but at the last minute decided not to send it out.
A few days ago, there was a JPM earnings call for their third quarter. It was the first call after this announcement.
Michael Mayo, a Senior Analyst of Wells Fargo Securities, asked:
“Over the weekend, people talked about… basically flattening the pyramid. And it seems like a lot of people point their fingers at the banks, including JPMorgan… [They’re] part of the cause, part of the cause of inequality in America. Banks should be doing more to help out the situation…
But how do you, as head of the Business Roundtable, help the industry and corporate America manage these concerns about income inequalities and these other topics that come up in the presidential debates.”
Jamie’s response:
"I think part of the statement was a lot of the world looked at shareholder value and it -- that you have rapacious profit seeking. Whereas most CEOs are thinking pretty long term, building people, taking care of their employees, their customers. And we can highlight all the great things we do for employees: huge training, health, wellness, retirement, sharing the wealth inside the company. And we do, do all that. And most of these companies do that… And I do think that we try… to do a tremendous amount to help the communities because there have been people left behind.”
TL;DR. Jamie basically said, “We already do enough, and we just have to be better at sharing what we do.”
Our take. It seems like it’s time for us to call BS. We were hoping that the BRT announcement would actually change the way these companies are thinking about shareholder vs. stakeholder primacy. Unfortunately, when the Chairman of the BRT believes that companies are already doing enough (which is just fundamentally untrue), how will other major companies actually change from the status quo? There needs to be a systemic shift that forces them to care more about other stakeholders. Who knows, maybe Bernie’s plan will do the trick?
Meet the Future Food Unicorns
Yesterday, we covered the World Food Program’s (WFP) ambition to identify unicorns that can achieve billion dollar valuations and end global hunger for nearly a billion people (get it? We chuckled). Meet some of the companies that the WFP’s Innovation Accelerator has invested in:
Sesi Technologies — Based in Kumasi, Ghana, they empower African farmers with affordable technologies to reduce poverty and hunger, such as a grain moisture meter.
Fenik — A company that designs coolers to keep fruits, vegetables, beverages, and dairy products cold without electricity through evaporative cooling, extending the shelf life of food by 3 to 5 times.
H2Grow — They’ve developed a hydroponic platform for growing food in “impossible places” like Algeria and Chad, requiring no soil and uses 75% less space and 90% less water than a traditional farming plot. For $100, it can produce enough barley to feed 10 goats per day.
Our take. These companies are absolutely incredible! We love that so much of our innovation is focused on such an important problem. These companies are truly sitting at the intersection of profit and purpose. Check out the WFP’s other investments here!
Short Takes
Venezuela won a seat on the UN Human Rights Council. Yes, you read that right—we were just as shocked as you are. This has been compared to "making a pyromaniac into the town fire chief.”
Climate change is not on the table at the G7 Summit. Surprised? Plus, something smells fishy about Trump’s choice to host it at one of his properties.
The tide might be slowly turning against right-wing populism in Central Europe. Last Sunday’s elections in Hungary and Poland saw the ruling right-wing parties suffering setbacks in the polls.
Tamil Nadu, one of India’ southernmost states with a population of ~68 million, has decided to rank its districts monthly on progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals, with the goal of driving localized progress.
The Turkish-led incursion against the Kurds in Northern Syria has driven hundreds of thousands of Kurdish refugees into neighboring countries. This article highlights stories from Bardarash Refugee Camp in Iraq and the outrage the Kurdish refugees are feeling.
TODAY: OCTOBER 18
Border South: Through a blend of visual anthropology and cinema verité, discover the story of the migrants along the 2,300-mile-long “train north” through Central America. Anthropologist Jason De León follows the trail to understand what happens to the migrants who attempt the journey. He collects decaying artifacts lost along the way, allowing him to piece together the difficult lives of his subjects, and offering glimpses of the violence of the culture of immigration along the southwestern U.S. border.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 28
Conversations on Plant-based Entrepreneurship: Vegpreneur is a global entrepreneurs community that is made up of innovators who are building a plant-based future and they’re hosting an evening panel on the state of plant-based entrepreneurship at General Assembly. Light snacks and refreshments will be served.
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