Billionaires playing defence — #82

Happy Sunday,

I just realised this newsletter is the perfect proof of Parkinson’s Law — the idea that work expands to fill the time you allow for its completion. Weeks when I start writing early, it takes forever, and weeks when I start late, it doesn’t.

Judging from your responses, you cannot tell the difference. (But it always makes my day when I get a message or email from a reader).

This week was a “takes forever”-week. But here it is, on time and everything.

Enjoy!

Anna

Democracy is still decreasing worldwide, but the negative trend might be changing

HUMAN RIGHTS

According to the yearly Freedom in the World report, global freedom declined for the 17th year in a row. Not only have we followed Russia’s war on Ukraine, but recent coups and other attempts to undermine representative government destabilised Burkina Faso, Tunisia, Peru, and Brazil. Coups from previous years’ and ongoing repression continued to decrease fundamental human rights in Guinea and constrain them in Turkey, Myanmar, and Thailand, among others.

But, we might also see a turning point in the lost fight for democracy. In 2022, the gap between the number of countries that reported overall improvements in political rights and civil liberties and those that reported overall declines was the narrowest it has ever been through the 17 years of global decline. Thirty-four countries improved, and the total of countries with declines, at 35, was the smallest recorded since the negative trend for democracy began. More competitive elections and a rollback of pandemic-related restrictions drove the tendency. Also, Colombia and Lesotho moved from Partly Free to Free in the democracy ranking.

2022 showed that autocrats are not unbeatable and that their errors open democratic forces. We could see clear limitations of authoritarian models offered by Beijing, Moscow, Caracas, and Tehran. And while democratisation is slow and has faced setbacks, ordinary citizens around the globe — including in Iran, China, and Cuba — continue to defend their rights against authoritarian regimes.

BBC is in double trouble for making decisions avoiding backlash from right-wing politicians

HUMAN RIGHTS / MEDIA

British public service broadcaster BBC is in trouble, struggling to find its role in a polarised United Kingdom. Two events this week show how BBC’s broadcasting decisions are impacted by a fear of being “political”, risking a backlash from Tory politicians and the right-wing press.

First, the BBC’s flagship football show Match of the Day, is facing a crisis. In a tweet earlier in the week, its host Gary Lineker compared the language used to launch the British government’s new migrant policy with 1930s Germany. Lineker was then told to “step back” from presenting duties by the BBC for breaching its social media guidelines. 

Sidenote: The proposed legislation blocking undocumented migrants from entering the United Kingdom on small boats is heavily criticised by the United Nations and human rights organisations and is not compliant with international law.

Match of the Day’s stars, pundits, and commentators now boycott the show in solidarity with Gary Lineker. “The BBC will only be able to bring limited sport programming this weekend, and our schedules will be updated to reflect that,” a BBC spokesperson said on Saturday. The Professional Footballers’ Association also announced that “players involved in today’s games will not be asked to participate in interviews with Match of the Day.”

Former BBC director general Greg Dyke thinks the BBC was mistaken in its decision. Saying that the broadcaster “undermined its own credibility” by suspending Lineker because it seemed to have “bowed to government pressure.” And that strict impartiality rules apply to news and current affairs presenters but cannot apply to everyone working for the corporation.

Second, the BBC have decided not to broadcast an episode of Sir David Attenborough’s flagship series on British Wildlife since it fears its themes of the destruction of nature would risk criticism. Instead, it will only be available on the BBC’s streaming services.

The BBC denies this and insists the episode was never intended for broadcast. However, the documentary series was part-funded by nature charities the WWF and RSPB and earlier this week, the Telegraph newspaper attacked the BBC for creating the series and for the funding from “two charities previously criticised for their political lobbying”.

Meta is exploring a new app for “sharing text updates”, aiming to replace Twitter

INTERNET

Winning on Social Media in 20223 might be as simple as giving users a stable platform to share written text. Now, Mark Zuckerberg wants to take advantage of the chaos after Elon Musk took over Twitter last year — confident in his own leadership game. Meta is therefore looking at launching a new app based on a similar framework that powers Mastodon, a Twitter-like platform launched in 2016.

"We're exploring a standalone decentralised social network for sharing text updates. We believe there's an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests," a Meta spokesperson said.

The plans come at a time when Meta's cash cow, Facebook, failed to attract a younger audience, and its vast investments in the metaverse show little signs of paying off in the near term. Instagram is also facing fierce competition from TikTok and YouTube.

"They're just trying everything... at least with a mini blogging site like Twitter, there's some expectation that it could start to make money out of a much quicker timeline than the metaverse investment," said Thomas Hayes, chairman and managing member at Great Hill Capital.

Double-check the headlines

Just making sure you didn’t miss any major world events this week.

• Russia launched the largest missile strike against Ukraine in months.

• Seven people were killed in an attack on Jehovah’s Witness hall in Hamburg.

• China’s foreign minister said The United States should change its “distorted” attitude towards China, or “conflict and confrontation” would follow.

• Intelligence reviewed by United States officials suggests that an independent pro-Ukrainian group carried out the Nord Stream pipeline attack.

• The Victoria’s Secret annual fashion show is coming back, the reincarnating lingerie brand announced during its 2022 earnings call.

• Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed to resume diplomatic relations and reopen their respective embassies following China-led negotiations in Beijing.

• United States government took control over Silicon Valley Bank, a top financial institution for technology and life sciences companies.

• French protesters yet again take to the streets to rally against Macron's pension plan.

One long

Inner Workings — Rae Katz

If you were rich, would you fold laundry?

And: what would it look like to give all life tasks the time they take?

Five short

1. Watch

The 95th Academy Awards takes place tonight. Watch the event itself or some of the nominated movies. At least read this charming New York Times profile of the 83-year-old Irish woman who became famous for knitting Colin Farrell’s sweaters for The Banshees of Inisherin.

2. Listen

I stumbled over RAYE’s debut album, My 21st Century Blues. It sounds like nothing I’ve ever heard, and that is quite nice for a change.

3. Remember

Life gets as fun as you make it. Play dress-up, go dancing, throw a party.

4. Change

I’ve started making a game out of getting rid of things. I give myself mental points whenever I finish a tube in the bathroom cabinet, a jar in the back of the kitchen, or send another bag of clothes (I’m on my 6th now) to Sellpy. Throwing things away does not count. You have to finish it or give it a second life. Then I trade my mental points for something I need, aiming for less stuff with higher quality.

Sure, there is a monetary cost connected to getting something in the first place, but there’s also a mental cost of storing or keeping things you NEVER use. So, let’s normalise giving things away. You don’t have to become a full-on minimalist, but owning stuff with a bit more intention feels good for a change.

5. Try

This week, I saw a job ad titled “AI Prompt Specialist”. Before applying, I’d recommend you complement your experience chatting with ChatGPT with writing art prompts for Lexica. It’s a lot of fun.

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