Weekend Box: Ukraine, Reddit gamble & more.
Welcome to The Weekend Box, Audley’s weekly round-up of interesting or obscure political, business, and cultural news from around the world.
UKRAINE-TRUSS-IA CRISIS
British diplomacy received a frosty reception in Moscow this week, as Liz Truss took Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to task over troops at the Ukraine border. Between her glossy Thatcher-esque photoshoots in the Red Square, the Foreign Secretary put on a robust performance against the Putin hardman, but the gulf between the UK and Russia has never been more apparent.
This was the first visit to Russia by a UK foreign secretary in more than four years, and Lavrov used it as an opportunity to play games, rather than pursue a grown-up conversation and the peaceful resolution the region desperately needs. The Russian minister hurled personal insults and crafty questions at Truss, including a geographical question she stumbled over, which was subsequently leaked to Russian journalists.
This and a Senior Russian diplomat’s prior comments that British diplomacy was “absolutely worthless” set the icy tone of the exchange. Nevertheless, Truss stood firm, delivering the resolute warning that severe sanctions for Russia would follow if aggression was not de-escalated. Rightly, she also asserted that if progress is to be made, the “Cold War rhetoric” must be dialled back and left in the 1950s where it belongs. Today, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace is in Moscow for the first bilateral between the UK and Russian defence ministers since 2013 and is expected to reiterate her message that invading Ukraine would be a ‘lose-lose’ situation for Russia.
As a recent FT profile observed, the “rise of Liz Truss has been defined by images, not words,” and this visit was not without the former as she donned an Ushanka. However, she has proved she is not to be underestimated as she navigates what Boris Johnson has described as the most dangerous moment in the Ukraine crisis.
REDDIT'S WALL STREET GAMBLE
A year on from the war between Reddit's army of amateur traders and Wall Street, the popular online community is preparing to make a legitimate stock market debut.
Reddit was founded in 2005 and acquired by Condé Nast Publications the following year. Hosting thousands of forums started by users who congregate around specific interests and subcultures, everything from video games to stock and option trading, Reddit has become one of the top 20 most visited sites on the internet. Its promotion of open discussion and self-generated content has proven highly attractive to online users
CEO and co-founder of the site Steve Huffman has begun to approach top advertising agencies, including the behemoth WPP, in the hope of leveraging new market deals that could create a profitable advertising business around the social media platform. While WPP have declined to comment on the specifics of their discussion, Chief Executive Mark Read described Reddit as a “unique property” that was alluring to his agency’s clients in tech, gaming, and the automotive industries. He noted that while several years ago his clients were spending “close to zero” on the platform, they are now pouring “double-digit millions of dollars” into the site.
However, for all this promise, Reddit has a hard road to walk when pitching its ideas to advertisers. The other side of the coin to Reddit’s popularity is its user base, which is overwhelmingly “anti-establishment” in its outlook. Last January, this side of the website made headlines in the aforementioned conflict between Wall Street and the users of the forum r/WallStreetBets. In what was framed as a David and Goliath-style contest, users forced a meteoric rise in the share prices of the faltering video game retailer Gamestop after hedge funds bet against its value rising. While this gained many users a life-changing amount of money, their antics disrupted financial markets and caused hedge funds to suffer extraordinary losses, leading to a congressional hearing on online trading platforms.
Huffman and his team will have to walk a thin line to keep WPP pleased and see his ambitions bear fruit, while also not incurring the wrath of the users who have made Reddit what it is today.
MYANMAR:ACTIVISTS' DATA-DRIVEN FEARS
Last week, Myanmar marked one year since the deposition of former State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi by the country’s military. Since Min Aung Hlaing’s junta took power, activists have not wavered in their fight to restore the country’s democracy. This week, however, the fight took on a new form, as activists fear that metadata that could be used to identify them is at risk of falling into the military’s hands.
In July, Norwegian state-owned telecommunications company Telenor announced the sale of its Burmese subsidiary to Lebanon’s M1 Group for $105m. Pro-democracy activists had felt they benefited from Telenor’s owners being based outside Myanmar, as they believed metadata from their calls could not be accessed by the junta and used to identify them. In M1’s hands, they fear their data would be vulnerable to exploitation by the military. In a complaint submitted on behalf of 474 Burmese civil society organisations to Norway’s body for resolving disputes around OECD guidelines, it was argued that M1 owners the Mikati family are long-time collaborators with authoritarian regimes.
Now, an unnamed activist has joined forces with the law firm SANDS to file a legal complaint to Norway’s data protection authority Datatilsynet. The complaint urges the authority to ensure that GDPR is not being violated by the Telenor Myanmar sale and the resultant transfer of ownership of customers’ metadata. While M1 were previously to have taken full ownership of the company, it was reported in January that the Group would become co-owners with the Burmese conglomerate Shwe Byain Phyu, which is said to have ties with the military, after the junta intervened in the sale.
Telenor spokesman David Fidjeland claims that customer metadata is not handled in Norway and therefore is not subject to GDPR, delegitimising the anonymous activist’s complaint. According to CEO Sigve Brekke, the sale of the company was the “best possible solution” to the security, regulatory, and compliance issues the company had faced in Myanmar since the coup. In May, Telenor wrote off its $782m investment in Myanmar, with Brekke citing issues serving customers during post-coup internet shutdowns but claiming at the time that the company would not exit. However, Telenor is reported to have been seeking to leave after being pressured to install surveillance technology in its networks.
Since Suu Kyi was deposed last year, Myanmar has seen frequent protests and a reported 1,500 civilian deaths. On the anniversary of the coup, a nationwide ‘silent strike’ took place, with civilians emptying public spaces by staying indoors and closing their businesses.
TAYLOR WIMPEY'S EXECUTIVE DECISION
Twenty-five years ago Dame Marjorie Scardino was appointed CEO of Pearson, making her the first ever female CEO of a FTSE company. This week, another step forward was made for female representation in the UK’s leading companies, as FTSE 100 housebuilding company Taylor Wimpey announced that their Group Operations Director Jennie Daly will replace Peter Redfern as CEO.
In a landmark moment for the male-dominated industry, Daly has become the first woman to lead one of the UK’s largest blue chip housebuilders. Her appointment will place Taylor Wimpey as the third FTSE 100 company with a female chief and chair, bringing the total number of female CSEOs in the Index to nine. Severn Trent was the first company to appoint women to two of its top posts, followed by the insurer company and owner of confused.com Admiral.
However, whilst there is reason to celebrate Taylor Wimpey’s decision, one of its top five shareholders may not feel so enthusiastic. Elliot Advisors urged the company to appoint an external CEO in a letter to the board published in December, blaming its “deep share price underperformance” in recent years on its management. In spite of this, Taylor Wimpey’s decision to appoint Daly over three external candidates is a clear “statement of faith” in its own strategy. Chairwoman Irene Dorner said Daly’s “strong focus on execution, combined with her customer and people-focused skills, set her apart from the other candidates we were considering.”
In 2022 the number of women in Director roles at the UK’s largest 100 plcs increased by 40%, although female CEOs still remain in the stark minority. If the 25x25 initiative to increase the number of female CEOs in UK business is to reach its target of 25 female Chief Executives by 2025, more companies will have to follow in Taylor Wimpey’s footsteps.
GÖTEBORG'S MOVIE MAGIC
It has been a busy week for the film world. On Tuesday, the nominations for the 2022 Oscars were announced, ramping up anticipation amongst film fans for the awards show in March. However, with this bit of news breaking, you may have missed the strange story of the biggest night in the Scandinavian film world: the Swedish film festival that hypnotised its audience.
The 2022 Göteborg Film Festival, which closed on Sunday, is known as much for the films it screens as it is for the elaborate stunts it performs where attendees are invited to participate. For those who want something more from the cinema-going experience, it’s one to mark down in your calendar. Their unconventional approach is perhaps best encapsulated by last year’s festival. Covid-19 pushed the event into the digital realm, but not content with only hosting online screenings, the organisers chose to play on the isolating circumstances of the pandemic by accepting applications for its ‘Isolated Cinema’: a lighthouse on a small archipelago on Sweden’s west coast where one lucky film enthusiast would be selected to stay and watch the year’s 70 premiers, alone.
This year, with in-person audiences returning and to perhaps top the ‘Isolated Cinema’ for strangeness, Göteborg Film Festival invited attendees to take part in its ‘Hypnotic Cinema’. In what the website for the festival describes as a “unique experiment,” three special screenings were hosted for the films Land of Dreams, Memoria, and Speak No Evil where before each film was shown, a hypnotist performed a “mass hypnosis” on the audience to “transform the audience’s state of mind in accordance with the mood and theme of the specific film.”
The screenings were advertised as tests in viewing art with an altered state of consciousness. While the concept has received bemused reactions in the press, currently there are no reports from festivalgoers as to what the experience of watching a film under mass hypnosis was like. Given that one of the films in the selection, Speak No Evil, is described on the festival’s website as becoming “more and more unpleasant” over its runtime, there is perhaps good reason for the silence. At this moment, we are doubtful it will catch on.
And that’s it for this week. I hope you found something of interest that you might want to delve into further. If so, please get in touch at cwilkins@audley.uk.com.