Twitter's 'Impersonators' and Apple's Production Hit

some are being asked to come back to the office. Plus, China's COVID policies are undermining Apple's plans, are bloomberg scoop on the plan to cut iPhone production by millions of units? And SEC Commissioner Brendan Carr thinks the US government should ban TikTok? Why and how far will he go to make it happen. He'll join us to explain Twitter asking some laid off employees to come back and beginning to

permanently banned users who impersonate real people. Meantime, as had said, Meta reportedly cutting thousands of jobs as soon as this week. Bloomberg's Kurt Wagner joins us to talk about this more. And Kurt, of course, you've been very busy covering both Meta and Twitter let's start with Meta and get that out of the way. Is Meta planning to lay off

thousands of people this week? What do we know? Yeah, I mean, the company is obviously not confirming anything, but you know, pointing people to what Mark Zuckerberg has said previously on earnience calls, which is that they are planning for cuts, right, and that this is something that he's also told employees that in all hands meeting just a few months ago, is that the company is going to look a lot smaller at the end of three than it is, you know right now in two right, So

all of those things seem to suggest that that something like this is coming. Obviously, I think they could probably learn a thing or two from what happened at Twitter over the past week in terms of how not to handle a situation like this with employees and and and all the information um that has shared. I imagine Metal will probably be a little bit more structured in whatever they ultimately end up doing. But it does feel like something like this is probably uh coming very soon. So

let's talk about what is actually happening. Then. At Twitter, you of course reported that more than thirty seven hundred people would be lay up laid off. Has that happened? Have all of those people been told? And is Elon Musk really trying to get some of those people back? And if so, how many? Yeah, So, the there were massive layoffs that started kind of Thursday night of last week. Employees started losing access to their internal systems like email

and Slack and things like that. And on Friday, we you know, saw the bulk of the layoffs happen. Um, I believe the internal kind of employee. They tracked the number of employees at the company internally, and there's a it's around thirty seven hundred, thirty eight hundred employees right now, um, which was down from about seventy hundred at the beginning of the year. Right, So, so thousands of people have

been cut in just the last couple of days. And as you mentioned, Emily, yes, you know, when you do something so drastic so quickly, Uh, there were mistakes that were made. There were some employees who were laid off who were done so accidentally. There were some who are laid off that the company then realized, oh boy, we actually need them, we need their expertise in the building. And so we're told that you know, dozens of employees were approached over the weekend and even heading into today

about returning. I don't know of anyone who's actually accepted that offer. I think it's going to be a tough sell, um to convince someone who you know, was just fired to essentially go back to the company that just fired them, even if it was a mistake. Meantime, Musk has said there'll be an independent board focused on content moderation, but it looks like some users are already being banned um for impersonating real people. Party accounts, as you know, have

been quite popular on Twitter for many many years. Talk to us about what's happening here. Yeah, not just impersonating real people, but impersonating Elon Musk, Right, That seems to be the line that a lot of people are crossing. But what's interesting here is, you know, Ellen, when he was talking about buying this company, he said he didn't believe in lifetime bands, right, that was sort of part of his thing. He was like, when I get in,

I'm gonna I'm gonna remove these things. He's taken a softer stance stance since since then and said that he's going to review these with sort of an outside council. We don't know who's on that council. We don't know if they've actually had any conversations yet, but it is interesting that, you know, he's sort of kind of crossing this line here and saying, hey, if you're impersonating someone,

we're gonna boot. You have to imagine, you know, this is coming from a lot of the pushpack he's getting on this blue check verification process we've been talking about Emily, which is where if you pay eight dollars a month, you're soon going to be able to have kind of that blue checkmark next to your name. Historically that's been to verify that you are the actual person who you

claim to be on the account. But now it seems like you're just going to be able to buy that check for the eight dollars without any actual verification of your identity. So that's probably why he's now trying to get ahead of people who are in person, both himself but presumably other you know, famous or well known users. Last quick question, because I just have to ask, he is now encouraging voters to vote Republican and also went to great lengths to say he is a registered independent.

He's voted entirely Democrat until now. Why why is he why is he going this far? Well, he he claims in his tweet that you know, the White House is you know, run by Democrat president, and so to counterbalance that power, we should have Republicans who are um, you know, running or controlling Congress. But this is something that's been sort of a a change for him over the last couple of months. He told employees and in all hands in June that he voted Republican for the first time.

It feels like he is sort of swinging that way. It's just very interesting, Emily that he would come out and say it so bluntly like this. Could you imagine, for example, if Mark Zuckerberg came out and took a very strong political stance like this, right, I feel like people would be absolute up in arms, losing their mind

over that. But you know, the fact that it's Elon Musk and the fact that he's saying vote Republican, and those are typically conservatives seem to be the ones who typically have the biggest issue with you know, these social networks and and the speech on them, I feel like maybe people are okay with that given the stance that he's taken here, right, It's it's wild indeed when you put it that way. Okay, Bloomberg's krt Wagner, thank you,

will continue to follow you're reporting. I do want to dig into another bloomberg scoop from this weekend, Apple expecting to make at least three million fewer iPhone fourteens that originally planned for the year. Are Mark German broke that story, joins me. Now, Mark, why is Apple making these production cuts?

So two things going on here, right, you have the iPhone fourteen and iPhone fourteen plus, which are the lower end phones, and then you have the iPhone fourteen Pro and the iPhone fourteen Pro mats, which are the higher

end phones. Now, in terms of the three million units for that production cut that we wrote about, going from ninety million through the year to eight seven million, that's because of softer demand that has plagued those two or an iPhone fourteens really from the beginning of their release, right,

the iPhone fourteen prone promax. That's a supply issue, and as you mentioned at the top of the show, Apple put out a warning discussing how their outlook for iPhone units sold is going to be lower than anticipated because of the output at their fox Con facility for those two, particularly particular models in China going mostly offline due to COVID protocols. So clearly there's both a supply and demand issue depending on which models of the iPhone fourteen you're

looking at. How this impact the company's outlook, you know, how does this fit into Apple's bigger picture? Right now, it seems pretty clear that revenue for the holiday quarter, which they'll announce at the end of January. This quarter runs through December thirty one, it's gonna come in a little bit lower than expected. Right when Apple held their earnings about a week ago, they didn't know this was the case. The COVID nineteen related lockdowns that was just

emerging in the days after that. That's why they had to put this statement out over the weekend to indicate that there is some sort of change here from what they spoke about previous sleep. Now, the good news for Apple from a financial regulation standpoint, they didn't give any formal guidance. They didn't say our revenue is going to

come in between x amount and X amount. They said that growth is going to come in slower than the eight percent we saw in the fourth quarter, right, and then Luca my Street, the Apple CFO, was asked, does that mean you're going to see an annual decline from the holiday quarter. He said, it's just going to be less than eight percent, So that could mean seven percent or that could mean negative two. All right, We're gonna continue to follow your reporting on this, Mark, Thank you

so much for all of those updates. Bloomberg's Mark German lots to digest. How to secure and protect online identity has only become more important as more businesses go all in on a digital world. This week, the cloud identity software provider Octa is holding an investor day to talk about the future of our digital and digital identities, along with its biggest customer event of the year. Joining me now oct to CEO and co founder Todd mckinn and Todd,

great to have you back here as always. So, look, everyone is talking about the outlook right now. It seems like every company is laying off. Folks were expecting potentially thousands of layoffs at Meta alone. What are we seeing in the sales environment in terms of the appetite to buy your software and enterprise software right now? Well, the first thing we're really excited about is the appetite for

folks to come to this conference. It's the first time we've had our Octane event in person in three years, and the whole thing is sold out. We're oversubscribed. That's both from our customer event our investor event. So people are incredibly interested in this topic and what do you know, they like to be together in in person, which is a powerful platform for us to start telling the story. And as you did, as you mentioned Emily, everyone this is a different world than we were in a year ago.

Everyone is worried about the economic uncertainty. Everyone is really scrutinizing their investments to make sure that they spend their dollars on the things that are going to move their businesses forward. And the good thing for us as they make those decisions, identity is coming up as a very strategic initiative they should invest in. What is your outlook given the macro environment? Taught and how are you thinking about jobs and spending? Are you planning any layoffs? Are

you planning to cut back anywhere? We are not planning layoffs, but like every other company, we're really scrutinizing where we're investing, and we think our team is a great investment. They're the best in the industry and they're going to help our customers be successful. But across the board, everyone is trying to do more with less. Make sure that every dollar we spend is in the highest r o I area, And what you see from our customers is that they're

getting a huge return on their investments and identity. It's not just for security, and it's not just for I T productivity. It's also for customers. They can build better customer relationships, they can drive new revenue channels, and that's what you want to do. And there's a time of economic uncertainty. You want to make sure you cut costs and have good investment in terms of what you're spending your money on, but you also have to drive growth because a lot of times that's when you can get

ahead of your competitors when they're cutting back. You can invest in the right areas and move forward time. Digital authentication services are still a huge prize for hackers. Of course, we've talked about the the the hack that Octa had to deal with earlier this year. Twilio also dealing with one as well. How would you say, the threat level has changed, and what are you doing to stay on

top of it. Well, one thing that doesn't change is that whether there's economic uncertainty and how people are thinking about investments, the risk from security breaches and the regulatory overview that comes when there's a security breach, and the cost that puts on companies, that is consistent. That's always there. So companies have to invest in their cyber posture and they have to make sure they have a great foundation

foundation to keep everything secure. They of course have to make sure they're spending the right investments and getting the best innovation for that money. But cybersecurity is something that's it's it's recession resistant. I'm curious what you think of Elon Musk's approach to verification, this idea of knowing your customer proving identity when others are saying this is just a way to pay to play. Well, I think that

Twitter is a is a great technology company. It's changed the world, and even a company like Twitter has to do a better job connecting with their customers, whether that's figuring out who gets the blue check mark, whether that's figuring out what's about and what's not about these things in the in the takeover of Twitter and as as Ellen comes in to run the company, these things have

come up over and over again. So it just goes to show you if Twitter has these challenges and these opportunities by they could brief the benefits of getting another customers better. Think about every other company, every other organization in the world. If they can know their customers, if they can build great products and service for them that validate the right users, get them into the right capabilities, that's gonna be really a groundswell for every organization in

the world. And that's what everyone's trying to do. And that's why it all comes back to identity, because you have to know who that customer is. You have to have high confidence in it so you can deliver that customer a great personalized experience that changes their day, makes them perceive a ton of value from your product or service, moves your company forward. He's also telling users to vote republic Republican and I know federal government sales are important

to Octa. How do things change for you if you know Congress Republicans win Congress. Does that make a difference for Octa? Well, one thing I want to say is I did. I voted today so you can see my good for you very conference. We have this big conference, so I had to do it early absentee. But all I'll say on this is that everyone needs to vote. Democracy works when everyone has heard, So everyone should vote.

It's an important part of what we do. It's an important part of our country, it's important part of the world. So get out there and vote. All right. I can can only support that. Look, you've got a huge customer event coming up and invest your day. You've been talking about this passwordless future for a really long time. What are you telling them about how far away that really is? When are we all going to be done with passwords? This is one of the most exciting things that's happening

in the industry. We are on the cusps, especially at work of being able to get rid of passwords. ACTA has the technology today to remove the password from every employee in the world. And that's because two things. One is that we can utilize the strong authentication from their iPhone or their Android phone, or from their Mac or

their PC and integrate that. And this is an important point, has to be integrated to every application service you need to go in your entire work day, and that's what's challenging. It's not that we didn't have the right biometric sensors, is that it was hard to get these biometric sensors connected to everything in your environment. And that's the problem

we solve. And so this is an exciting development. I think we can make employees much more productive and more importantly, if it's a biometric sensor, it's much more secure, and that's why we're excited to tell our story to the world this week. All right, well, good luck at Octane This week, oct to CEO and co founder Todd McKinnon joining us for an exclusive interview. Todd, thanks so much for stopping by. All Right, coming up, we're gonna hear

from Microsoft President Brad Smith from top in Egypt. We're gonna talk about microsoft new climate initiatives and how the company is also navigating the downturn. That's next. This is Bloomberg. The Summit is underway in Egypt, with this year's event providing a chance to reinject momentum into the energy transition. Heads of states and governments all in attendance, as well as major companies like Microsoft, which plans to be carbon negative.

I caught up with Microsoft President Brad Smith. Take a listen. I think it's really important to think a little bit about the problem that we and others are trying to help solve. So much of the work that is needed, especially to adapt the climate change, really involves better use of a more data, better predictive modeling. You look at predicting wildfires, whether you're in the United States or India

or in Africa. If you look at things like responding to floods, you need to be able to predict these things and then give people early warning systems. Yet, if you look at Africa today, for every four team data scientists that there are in developed countries, there's only one in Africa. So we've opened up. We're announcing today two

new data labs, one in Egypt, one in Kenya. We're parkering with Planet Planet Labs in San Francisco, which is doing I just think this extraordinary work with new satellites to bring satellite based imagery and data, including for Africa. You put our AI capabilities are data scientists, planets imagery together, now we can be a bit of an equalizer. We can help climate scientists on a continent like Africa. Now meantime, bread the economy continues to go south. We're seeing layoffs

in the tech industry across the board. We're expecting thousands of people to get laid off at Meta just this week. I know Microsoft has done some layoffs but hasn't had a major round of cuts yet. Are you planning to do more layoffs and how are you thinking about spending, etcetera. I think the most important thing for a company like Microsoft is first to recognize the role that we play.

We're not in the advertising business to the degree that some of the other companies are, or more focused on really providing the digital infrastructure that companies, businesses, nonprofits, governments need. So in a world with increasing economic headwinds and there are many, you know, the kind of technology that we create is one of the better tail winds on which

people can rely and we're seeing that. So to answer your question, Emily, we will continue, I think, to manage through this recession the same way we have managed through every recession since Microsoft was founded. In We identify the technologies that will not only be important to the quarter in the year, but fundamentally the decade ahead, and we'll make sure that we invest and we may even invest more in the technologies of the future, say things like

artificial intelligence. Now, we may have to trim some other cost areas because it is a recession. But I think what you'll do is see us trim if we need to, and then use that to free up resources to invest in what we regard as the long term creation of value, not only for ourselves but for our customers. Welcome back to bloom Er Technology, em Emily Chang in San Francisco. Twitter may now be a private company, but Elon Musk's purchase of the social media platform is still being felt

by the public markets. Bloomberg's ad Ludlow here with a look at Tesla and obviously you know I can't ignore this if you're a Tesla investor at yeah, you can. I mean, the stalk is down on this on a twelve month basis, It's at the seventeenth month and new fifty two week low, down five percent during Monday's session, worst performer on a points basis on the NASA one.

And clearly there's a Twitter overhang, right. I think one of the numbers that jumps out at me is that Tesla shares are down more than twelve percent since October twenty seven, when must close the deal to buy Twitter. In that time, the SMP five, the main gage of US equities is basically flat, and there's a lot of discussion in the market about what is going on here. A big part of it, if you come to me, it's my Bloombow terminal m. It seems to be key

man risk that as we know from Twitter. For anyone that's paid any attention to the platform in the last twenty four hours or the last few months. Elon Musk is tweeting very regularly. He's kind of very focused based on the reporting that Kurt Wagoner and I have done on this platform and its future. And there's concern out there from Tesla shareholders who have voiced this concern on

the platform that he's distracted being away from Tesla. There's less of a conversation now about the concern of him selling down more of his own tests the shares in order to finance the Twitter deal because of what we know what he did both on the debt and on the equity co investors side. But clearly there's an overhang here and it's just strange to see such poor performance in Tesla stock both in the short, medium, and long terms. And this is sort of a perennial question, but I

wonder if the answer to it is changing. Is Tesla a tech stock or is it a car stock? And how our investors thinking about it? And I will take a perennial question from you any day of the week. I mean, it is the question. You know. The cell side analysts that cover Tesla do so from a sort of classic automotive perspective. Many treat it as a higher multiple tech or software play, right, because much of its valuation in recent years has been based on the future

promise of full self driving. Ultimately, I look at the fundamentals, right, this is a stock that trades at forty seven times forward earnings. If you compare with General Motives for example, that's a stock that aids below seven times forward earnings. At forty seven times forward earnings, that is a stretched multiple stock in anyone's book. You know, we've talked all about in video for example, trading at thirty times forward earnings. There's nowhere near what test is at right now. So

that's not a definitive answer the question. I'm sorry to sort of bat you away, but it depends how you look at it, if you look at the fundamentals, test that does not trade like a legacy automotive name. All right, Bloomberg's I'd love low. Thank you, as always, more perennial questions to come. The US midterm elections are coming up. Man, The crypto industry has its eyes on Congress. Question after the vote, will we finally get progress on crypto regulation?

Bloomberg's Kayley lines, reports are regulators, and frankly, our Congress is an hour late and a dollar short, and we need to catch with where these cryptocurrencies are going. Congress has been calling for greater regulation of crypto for years, but it's been a lot of talk and to this point, not a lot of walk. We have the intention, we're

just not quite getting it over the line. The crypto industry has been asking Congress to help create the rules of the road, but optimism on progress has faded as the mid terms draw closer. There was some hope from many an industry that this was actually going to happen this year, that a bunch of bills that had been proposed, we're promising that we could actually see some movement here

on Capitol Hill. But just like pretty much everything in Washington heading towards the end of it all seems kind of stuck right now. The bills that have gained the most traction include legislation to regulate stable points and to give the CFTC more power to oversee digital assents, but success on those initiatives will have to wait until after the mid terms. I think both Kirsten and I believe that the bill in one piece, as a total bill

is more likely to be deferred until next year. It's a big topic, it's comprehensive, and it's still new to many U S. Senators. It's a lot for them to digest with the few remaining weeks we have in this came under a year. Big names in crypto like Sam bankman Fried, the billionaire founder of FTX, are also trying to make change, with their dollars emerging as influential political donors.

While he says he's motivated primarily by pandemic prevention and wants to support candidates who will prioritize that, he also has been pushing the regulatory agenda. I've a duty as a member of the industry to try and get us regulated, to try and move the industry in a more responsible direction, and I think that requires engagement. I think to be irresponsible to me not to engage UM, you know, with Tackle Hill, with regulators and the things that I've been

arguing for, our more regulation for the industry. I think that's what's right for the country. Bankman Freed is the fourth largest individual donor this midterm cycle and has made about forty million dollars in political contributions this year. He has said he could give even more in I think that you're going to see more people pushing into politics because now, uh, the interaction with DC is going to be one of the main drivers of whether enterprises are

able to grow and operate UM successfully. Yeah, clearly lines with that report. Republican lawmakers have been working to revive former President Trump's bid to band TikTok in recent months, so for fears the u S data is ending up in the hands of the Chinese government. Just last week, FEC Commissioner Brendan Car told Axios that TikTok should be outright ban. He joins me now for more on this UM Commissioner Car, thank you as always for taking the time.

You said specifically, you don't believe there's a path forward for anything other than a ban, which is a step up from what you said in the past. Why take it that far. Yeah, Look, it seems almost every week there's a new leaked material coming out of TikTok that just really advisceerates the trust. And at the end of the day, the nation security agencies haven't working on what's known as Project Texas, which is to move a lot of TikTok's operations to oracle servers here in the US,

and that's the response to national security concerns. The problem with that is there's a new report about ten days ago from Forbes that a TikTok official out of l A having an unusual outside business hour meeting where they're asking another TikTok employee detailed questions about the location and

other details of those oracle servers. We also have leaked materials from a DC TikTok official that said once that Project Texas is put in place, it remains to be seen if Beijing can still get access to US user data because the end of the day, these are their tools that they build in China. So if TikTok is ensure that these new protections will safeguard US user data. Then I don't think we should be so sure either. You don't have the authority to ban TikTok, So what

are you hoping to accomplish with this assertion? Yes? Right, this isn't like Huawei or ZC or China Mobile, where we at the SEC had um federal funding at issue or sc licensed at issue. But what I gained from all this case was some insight into dealing with companies that have ties back into communist China and sort of malign data flows. And so I'm happy to sort of bring that expertise to bear and talk about it. But

the reality is this is broad and bipartisan. You've got Senator Mark Warner, Democrats, chairman of sent An Intel, who looks at a lot of really interesting security briefrints every day, and he says that it is TikTok that scares the dickens atum you have. Just last week, Democrat Chairwoman Shikowski in the House, she wrote a letter with Republican Bill Iraqis to Apple and Google saying we're concerned about your continued inclusion of TikTok in the app store. So this

isn't just about me. This is about broad, deep bipartisan concern that's being expressed, and you're right this. Ultimately, I think in the lead is gonna be tread Tree, which has the Cippius process, and I think that should be the focus of federal action at the Treasury Scipious Process, not the SEC, but it could potentionally the f PC or the Commerce Department as well. So what do you hope to come out of that national security agreement with

TikTok that we have at this moment? You know, I didn't open, at least theoretically for a while that there is some agreement that's put in place that addresses national security concerns. But there is a New York Times piece a couple of weeks ago that said there's a tentative deal that's been put in place or a draft deal with TikTok, But then it had multiple high level um sources in the Justice Department saying that the number two in the d o J is concerned that tenantive deal

isn't tough enough. And so I think we have to be very careful here going forward that we're not allowing data flows back into China, because it's not just about espionage and foreign influence, but we're also feeding China's AI, and AI can use for good or can be use for bad, and the p l A and the CCP has had a goal of dominating AI. So I'm very concerned about US sending data back and the way it's gonna crew and make that AI effective for nefarious purposes.

So the question is how far do you take this? Should companies like Meta Alphabet, Apple have employees in China in your view at all? Well, Look, I do think this is an opportunity here where we need to revisit UM these deep corporate ties into China, particularly as UM the saber rattles on Taiwan UH coming out of the Communist Party confab of last week. I was just in Taiwan for two days last week myself, and I think it is time to start thinking about diversifying outside of China.

Up to now, my concern has been focused on individual companies and what I call plus factors, meaning it's not just that you have tied back into communist China, So there's something else there that's concerning. That was the case with Halwei with DT, and that's the case with TikTok So I'm not ready to make a broader pronouncement more

generally about companies that are doing business there. Now, we've got a mid term election happening in a matter of hours, and I'm curious what your hope is for, you know, and a new Congress, you know, along with FDC chair Lena Kahan, to take action or not on big tech

over the next couple of years. Well, actually election, you know, obviously, I sort of leave it to the American people to make their decisions there, particular by the Hatch act Um not in a position to make sort of partisan comments there. But what I'll say is generally, I do think it's important we find some alignment Republicans and Democrats alike on addressing you know, outsized abuse of corporate power. And I do think we're starting to see more and more bipartisan

interest in that topic. And I would always look forward to find partners on you know, slides of the both sides of the political aisle to drive towards that result. But again, when it comes to TikTok in particular, in my sense is that the tide is is moving out on TikTok. And again you see almost every week new letters from new bipartisan members of Congress that are focused on this issue. What's the latest on the plan to ban all Huawei and z t E telecom equipment from

the US market. Is the SEC going to be voting on that soon? You're making really good progress. A couple of years ago, we voted to withdraw all future funding for wahweyans et equipment and or right now funding the

ripping and replacing axios. I believe I'll report a couple of weeks ago that said that we're about to vote at the FEC on denying equipment authorization for those devices, which would close what I've described as a wahweih loophole, which means up to now, you can't use federal dollars or purchase this year, but you can use private dollars by the same gear put in the same point in your network. And I have long call for us to

close that loophole. So the ect that activists reporting is right that the SEC is moving forward with that boat and I don't want to get into the details of it um, but suffice to say I'd be very happy with that outcome at the FCC and quickly at the FTC. What are your thoughts on the actions that Lena con has taken so far. You know, look, I think our guiding prints will have to be to protect individual liberty.

We we can have threats to individual liberty from the overreach of government, who can also threat to indi votual liberty UH from the abuse of corporate power. And we've got to find a way here to have it that as our guiding star. And I know it's been a partisan time at the FTC and they've had a hard time agreeing. At the FCC, we've been working to the middle, compromising and finding common ground, and I hope that we continue to do that at the FCC at least all right,

FEC Commissioner Brendan Carr, thanks so much for stopping. I appreciate it. Meantime, millions of mothers have left their jobs as a result of the COVID nineteen pandemic. The cause

inadequate childcare. That is why Girls Who co found her Rest My show Johnny decided to come up with the Martial Plan for Moms, and nonprofit that has helped pass landmark childcare legislation in New York and is working with big companies on employer sponsored childcare, she joins me now for more and obviously Rush might have to ask you about the mid terms, which we are now hours away from. Which races are you paying the closest attention to and

why all of them? I mean, this election is the most important election that women have seen, you know, following the Dollas decision, women have essentially become class citizens in America. And you know, we have a lot of extremists on the ballot, a lot of candidates you know, on the right who want to restrict our rights even more. And so what happens in Tuesday is going to fundamentally change the lives of American women. How concerned are you about misinformation?

Given I know that you have pointed out the voices of women especially have not been heard. I mean, I'm very concerned about misinformation, um, and I think it's something that it's critical that a lot of my students, for example,

are are working on. And I think the comment that was just made, you know, by the Commissioner and seeing what happens you know with Twitter and with Elon must taking over Twitter, to make sure that we continue to root out disinformation and that everybody has access to fair and just and reliable information is critical. That was my next question is I'm curious what your take is on the direction that Elon Musk has taken Twitter thus far and how uh free speech can be balanced with safety

and security and healthy dialogue. I'm watching it, Emily. You know, we know that social media Twitter has been a toxic place for women and girls and for people of color, and that there's got to be a way to kind of moderate content without making people feel like every day that they're going to face some amount of abuse or we called the name or be you know, showed content that's going to be really, you know, toxic for them.

So I think that again, this is an opportunity to do something right and to do something that you know, again uplifts people of color and women will see if that actually happens. Now. Given your work with the Martial Plan for Moms, I'm curious what you're hearing from moms and parents right now about their concerns as they had into the election. What matters to them right now and why. Look, I mean, I think Republicans have made it seem that the biggest concern you should have is the cost of

gas or the cost of cereal. But if you talk to a mom, she'll tell you my biggest concern is the cost of childcare. Parents have gone into debt because of the cost of childcare the child The cost of childcare is outpacing the cost of inflation. It is literally the most expensive line item for families and the only party that's tried to do something about it is Democrats, you know, through the Bill Back Better Bill. So you know,

mom's got to be paying attention. Mom's got to be voting on Tuesday, and you know, we've got to be making sure that we're pushing an agenda that is going to put families first. And if we want to say that women in the workforce are not just a nice to have but a must have, then we have to make sure that we're providing affordable childcare. And that's what we're doing at the Marsha Lamber Moms with our National Business Colorship for Childcare. We can't wait for government to

do the right thing. We can push them to, but in the meantime we have to advocate for subsidizing childcare in the workforce. You recently went toe to toe with the Parents Rights group that banned girls who code books and I'm curious if you can share some context on that and what do you think it tells us about the state of America. I think it tells us that that they were coming for our bodies and now they're

coming for our minds. I mean, Emily, I woke up to a headline that girls who code books have been banned in Pennsylvania. And it wasn't just girls who code books, it was books about Grace Hopper, you know, books that we're gonna get girls an opportunity, girls of color, an opportunity to be everything in anything. You know, what is happening in schools right and now what is happening in terms of the school board fights, of the culture wars is critical and we have to start paying attention again.

I cannot stress this enough. You know, we've entered this period of force birth where our reproductive rights have been taken away, and I am shocked to see what they are trying to take away from our girls. And every single parent who cares about their girls having a chance to be an engineer, to be a doctor, to be a president needs to be informed about what's happening in the schools because it is shocking. It's frightening and it's scary how much progress is last quick question, is actually

happening in the schools? You know, you founded this company to get more girls to learn how to code. How optimistic are you about that? You know, truly happening across the board? You listen, Emily Covid was devastating, you know,

for kids, especially for kids from underserved communities. I saw so many of my students who are on their way to learn in computer science had to drop out of college or not go to college because their moms were essential workers and they had to take care of their siblings. That is why it's so critical that we fix the broken structure of care. You know. The second thing is is that we're you know, we have got to continue

to invest in public school education. I'm sure you saw the New York Times article about how you know the the again, you know, the the math and science. You know, rates of what our kids are learning in schools have diminished and decreased. I know that's happening. You know, we had ten thousand girls who code clubs at the start of the pandemic, and we are now inching back to

where we were before. And so when teachers are exhausted and tired when they're not getting paid adequately, they're not volunteering to teach a coding club, and and and again, who can blame them? And so we got to have to continue to public school education and make sure that our kids have access to opportunity in the jobs of the future, which include coding. Rest Michel Johnny, thank you for your advocacy for girls, girls who co founder appreciate

you stopping by. And that doesn't For this edition of Bloomberg Technology coming up on election Day here in the United States, We've got an all star lineup including LIFT president John Zimmer will be talking about Prop thirty and the future of the gig economy and so many other important guests. And don't forget it to check out our podcast wherever you get your podcasts. This is Bloomberg