No one out-pizzas the Hut
And no one out-defends-the-freedom-to-innovate (okay, a bit of a mouthful) like TechFreedom! As usual, we've been fighting hard this week for constitutional principles and good governance.
We’ve been watching the conflict in Ukraine closely — and, apparently, so have a slew of American companies who have decided to suspend their operations in Russia. Daring to ask Russia the burning question of, “What would you do for a 10-piece fried chicken bucket?”, Yum Brands, the owner of Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut, has become one of the latest to pull out of the country.
Strangely enough, some Twitter users managed to jokingly predict their move in advance. One day before Yum Brands left, for example, an account tweeted, “If Pizza Hut closes in Russia that’ll be the funniest thing in the world.” Were they a marketer quietly promoting the company’s decision in advance, or simply clairvoyant? We’ll never know…
Whether or not companies’ departure en masse will actually make a difference in the conflict, the symbolism makes a clear statement. Back in 1997, Mikhail Gorbachev himself appeared in an infamous commercial where restaurant diners praise him for enabling the entrance of Pizza Hut in Moscow. Now, Pizza Hut can’t bear to stay. How things have changed.
Content Moderation. Utah state senator Michael McKell introduced a new bill to regulate social media content moderation after his last attempt was vetoed by Gov. Spencer Cox. Ari joined the Rod Arquette Show (beginning at 1:24:25) and explained why this bill is just as unconstitutional and federally preempted as the last one. Ari was also quoted in the Washington Examiner explaining why arguing that platforms’ moderation of Russian propaganda during the war in Ukraine presents a threat to conservative speech is unfounded at best, and disingenuous at worst. Turning back to federal legislation, TechFreedom signed on to a broad coalition letter opposing the SHOP SAFE Act and its overbroad, unintended consequence-laden attempt to curtail counterfeit product offerings online.
Late last week, Corbin tweeted about a howler of an opinion issued by the Ninth Circuit in Twitter v. Paxton. Shortly after Twitter banned Donald Trump for his Jan. 6 riot boosterism, Ken Paxton, the attorney general of Texas, launched a retaliatory investigation into Twitter’s content moderation policies. The Ninth Circuit ruled that Twitter’s legal challenge to the investigation is not ripe for review. The opinion is a doozy; check out Corbin’s thread for the breakdown. (Paxton, by the way, is a real character. Corbin wrote about him recently for The Bulwark. Article here.)
FTC. Andy wrote an op-ed in RealClearMarkets on the FTC’s new approach to mergers and acquisitions. Last August, the FTC published a blog post “adjusting” the agency’s procedure for reviewing mergers, warning companies to proceed with deals “at their own risk.” In the op-ed, Andy explains how the change undermines the entire point of the agency’s merger review process: weeding out anticompetitive deals while allowing procompetitive ones to move forward. By leaving probes open indefinitely, the FTC is now effectively refusing to do the hard work that Congress assigned it back in 1976.
Liberal Democracy. Last Friday, Corbin published his latest piece at The Bulwark: “Reality Comes Knocking: When Will We Stop Taking Liberal Democracy for Granted?” The tragedy unfolding in Ukraine should give us all some perspective about the state of the West’s flawed yet precious institutions. In stumbling upon liberalism, a political theory that stands for civil rights, pluralism, tolerance, accountable leadership, and human dignity, we found a pretty great system of governance, and we’d do well not to screw it up. So Corbin argues, at any rate! Come for the defense of liberal democracy (and the Internet); stay for the discussion of Jean Baudrillard, liquid modernity, and Applebee’s Grill + Bar.