Trump, Free Speech and Where is Jack Ma?

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Was Silencing Donald Trump a violation of Free Speech?

I ran an interesting poll on Twitter over the weekend:

449 votes isn’t the largest sample size, but my poll did reveal that many people feel Trump became a national security threat and needed to be silenced. I’ve been thinking about the answer to the question above a lot the last 48 hrs now that Trump is banned on seemingly every social media platform:

It’s a tough position for America. As the world leader of “Freedom of Speech” I believe many countries around the world will use this against America in the future to remind them that even America censors content.

For example, the United States constantly criticizes China for it’s denial of “freedom of speech” to Chinese citizens, but how could America make this point now when even the President of the United States is at the mercy of social media networks?

This just shows us how big and powerful America’s social media companies have become. They are certainly more powerful than any major news network, and the point could be made they are even more powerful than the government itself. I know this sounds crazy but consider this quote from a former Facebook executive that was featured in the 2020 Netflix film, The Social Dilemma:

“If you want to control the population of the country, there is no better tool as effective as Facebook”

On the flip side, the argument can be made that Twitter is a private company and it is entirely their discretion to determine if a user violated their terms of service.

Linda 🇺🇸🇨🇳🇭🇰🇬🇧🇫🇷 @lindaloves2eat

@thecyrusjanssen Free speech is between citizens and the government. Twitter is a private company. It can establish rules and enforce them.

There is certainly some truth in this statement, however did Trump really violate the terms of service for all the social media companies that have now banned him? I have to believe many companies just followed Twitter’s lead without giving it much thought. Alexey Navalny, an opposition Russian politician who has been described as "the man Vladimir Putin fears most" by The Wall Street Journal shares his perspective:

Alexey Navalny @navalny

5. Don't tell me he was banned for violating Twitter rules. I get death threats here every day for many years, and Twitter doesn't ban anyone (not that I ask for it).

Alexey makes a good point here, and this is something that I have also experienced as a content creator that focuses on China. Personally speaking, I have received multiple threats on YouTube and even reported these threats, only to have YouTube reply, “This did not violate our terms of service”. Alexey goes on to share the same point that I fear will become a huge problem for the United States in the future:

Alexey Navalny @navalny

10. This precedent will be exploited by the enemies of freedom of speech around the world. In Russia as well. Every time when they need to silence someone, they will say: 'this is just common practice, even Trump got blocked on Twitter'.

No matter which side you stand on I feel this will be a difficult problem for America to deal with. These next 9 days will be very important for America. My hope is the January 20th inauguration will go forward without any further violence and America can start the process of rebuilding under President Biden.

Where is Jack Ma?

As Western media continues to turn out report after report claiming that Jack Ma is potentially missing and in deep trouble with the Communist Party of China, I would like to share my thoughts on the situation. To start let’s look at this quote from China analyst Richard Turin, regarding the future of both Alibaba and Ant Group:

“Whenever China introduces such harsh regulations against big private conglomerates, people think of iron fist policies that might crush the latter. But Ant and Alibaba shouldn’t be that kind of case. It isn’t in China’s interest to break up, or destroy such a profitable enterprise that is already helping small business or poverty alleviation."

I love Richard’s comments here and couldn’t agree more. Long term Alibaba and Ant Group will continue to be an important part of China’s growing domestic economy. However it’s important to note that in China no one is above the party, especially the richest man in China who is well known both inside and outside his native land.

The issue here is that Jack Ma made several comments that were just too extreme in China. For example he criticized China’s banking system by stating that traditional banks are operating with a 'pawn shop' mentality, and they would be they will be unable to support the financial needs of the future world.

Over the last 30 years, China has become much more progress and open to change, but comments like this were too extreme and did not please many high ranking officials in China. In China it’s always important to remain (低调 Dīdiào) or “low-key”.

Harald Buchman, a marketing executive at Bytedance (parent company of Tik Tok in Beijing) offers a fascinating insight into why Jack’s comments were not appreciated in China:

“Remember that people are only tolerated to get rich "first" under the socialist doctrine of Deng Xiaoping. They were allowed to do so IN ORDER TO take the rest of society with them. I've seen quite a bit talk recently accusing Jack Ma of capitalist thought and the term “capitalist” is still quite an insult in China even though many Chinese strive for the ideal of "economic freedom" which means to be able to live off one's wealth.

The main difference is that freedom doesn't mean you can tell society what to do. Ma tried to change laws and regulations in his own favor. When the rich control politics to foment their social position, that's full scale capitalism. Under Xi the doctrine of Deng is changing, with more focus on "take the others with them", on equality. Not the best prospect for the likes of Jack Ma.”

In November 2020, China President Xi Jin Ping announced the Chinese government had successfully eliminated absolute poverty (surviving on less than 2,300 yuan ($350) per year) in China. This was a major milestone for China and something that President Xi wanted to accomplish before 2021, as the country celebrates the 100 year anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. The point of achieving a system where no one is left behind is a key principle of the socialist Chinese government.

Given these insights the very simple explanation for why Jack Ma hasn’t been seen in public in over 2 months is that fact that he lost an incredible amount of “face” with the fallout of the Ant Group IPO. Ant Group was preparing for the largest IPO in history and now it has no chance to IPO at the same level. There must be many ANT group executives frustrated with Jack’s comments and the failed IPO that caused them all a tremendous amount of potential profits.

I like this quote from Tom Tam, Founder & Executive Consultant at T&M Advisors in Salt Lake City, Utah:

“You have to fully understand Chinese culture to understand why he is laying low. There is not much he can say after being chastened for thinking he is above the greater good. A little humbling is good for an inflated ego.”

In conclusion, Jack Ma is perfectly fine. He will not be arrested or sent to prison by the Chinese government. He made a mistake and given the tremendous amount of “face” he lost will take some time to repair his image before emerging in the press again. Long term I am very bullish on both Alibaba and Ant Group and reiterate my main point from earlier, both companies will play a large part of China’s growth story many years into the future.