June 1, 2022

Illustration: Christopher T. Fong/Protocol
Good morning! The Supreme Court finally weighed in on the Texas law that would hit social media companies, and Meta execs are probably breathing huge sighs of relief. Meanwhile, "buy now, pay later" might not just be another pandemic ecommerce trend if a big Stripe move is any indication. Happy hump day — let’s dive in.
The Supreme Court decided not to let Texas do whatever it wants when it comes to regulating social media companies. The court on Tuesday blocked HB 20, a state law that allows users of social media platforms to sue those companies if they feel they’re being censored.
Companies can continue to moderate their platforms as they see fit in Texas. HB 20 would force social media platforms to carry all viewpoints, which legal experts have said actually violates free speech protections for private actors.
But the Supreme Court ruling isn’t the end. Social media companies are still facing a similar law in Florida, which was blocked from taking effect by the 11th Circuit. The conflicting circuit rulings looked like they were poised to set up a Supreme Court showdown — and that’s still possible.
In other words: This ain’t over. Not by a long shot.
"Buy now, pay later" may have seemed like a passing fad that hit its peak last year, but if Affirm’s new partnership with Stripe is any indication BNPL could really be here to stay. Customers who use Stripe can now split the cost of purchases ranging from $50- to $30,000 across multiple payments with Affirm.
Stripe is a big get for Affirm. The payments company works with millions of high-profile merchants, which will put Affirm’s BNPL service in front of millions more customers.
Payments companies and BNPL services have been getting cozy for a while. Stripe started partnering with BNPL service Klarna last October. In November, payments giant Block (formerly Square) bought Afterpay for $29 billion, allowing Square merchants to integrate Afterpay’s service.
So is BNPL here to stay after all? Not necessarily. “If the economy slows down to a point where consumers feel the pinch … all of these players are going to be impacted,” Kim said. Buyers who need goods might turn to BNPL as a last resort in the event of a recession, but otherwise those services — along with plenty of other businesses — would feel the hurt.
— Nat Rubio-Licht (email | twitter)There are three things that companies need to know when it comes to setting climate goals. The first thing I would say is that if you're going to set a climate goal as a business, it needs to be a businesswide effort. It cannot live within just the corporate responsibility or the sustainability team as it often does.
Foxconn’s Young Liu said lockdowns in China didn’t hit the iPhone supplier that hard:
Dogecoin’s Jackson Palmer doesn’t have much faith in Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover:
Drew Pusateri is Cruise's new head of trust and safety and strategic comms. He last worked on policy comms for Meta.
Patrick Malone joined Amazon's PR team. He last worked for Rep. Jim Himes as deputy chief of staff and comms director.
Brian Hook is Mason’s new CTO. Hook’s held several leadership roles at Meta, most recently serving as its senior head of Engineering for Facebook app commerce and marketplace.
Brandon Wiebe is Transcend’s new legal chiefand head of privacy. Wiebe is Twilio’s former lead product counsel.Meta's changing its ticker to "META" beginning June 9.
Fidelity Investments slashed valuations of major tech companies. The firm marked down stakes in Reddit by more than a third, and Stripe by 13%, as well as cutting valuations for ByteDance and Instacart.
Apple's moving some iPad production from China to Vietnam for the first time ever. Tight COVID lockdowns in Shanghai got the best of Apple, Nikkei Asia reported.
Employees want Salesforce to cut ties with the NRA,but the company hasn’t yet responded.
Fidelity's also getting serious about crypto hiring. Its digital assets arm wants to hire over 100 new roles across client service, tech and operations.
BT and Ericsson will offer private 5G networks to businesses in Britain as part of a multimillion-pound partnership.
Microsoft’s Verified ID service is getting ready for launch. It’ll start rolling out in August and will reach the mainstream over the next few years.
Josh Wardle made the Times’ list of most influential people. Wordle for the win!
Your hour of fun for today: Bo Burnham released a new song about Jeff Bezos as part of a new video with outtakes from his Netflix special “Inside.”
You might be able to find potential hires on Twitter. It’s fairly easy to solicit applications on LinkedIn. But Slack is increasingly where hiring is happening, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Employers have found Slack to be a faster, more efficient tool for prospective employees and bosses to find one another. You just need to find a networking channel, join it and let the conversations go from there. What are you waiting for?
Once a company understands its sustainability baseline, it is important to identify areas that the company can feasibly make more sustainable, and then address those areas. Implementing technology that improves connectivity and provides greater insight into operations will prove to be the solution for many companies.
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