Public pressure in the form of negative press or Twitter mobs can go a long way; I could name a dozen firings and deplatformings off the top of my head just in the past year. As far as banking and payments goes, there is evidence that the FDIC pressured banks to cut off businesses selling satanic death metal, providing payday loans, or distributing racist materials, formerly under the auspices of "Operation Choke Point" [1].
The larger phenomenon has also been dubbed "woke capital": the claim is that as a shield against public opinion and regulators, multi-billion dollar corporations promote various types of progressive activism that don't cut into their bottom line [2]. How public opinion and regulators got that way is another story and still a mystery to me.
First time i’ve heard of operation choke point. Thanks for both citations.
A company I work with is heavily engaged in corporate activism. They suggested political viewpoints during the midterms and tend to only hire candidates who share those same perspectives. There has been at least one employee who was let go over their support of a different political viewpoint.
It wasn’t always like this. It has intensified over the past two years. The majority of their revenue is from a single company and I suspect that has something to do with it.
The larger phenomenon has also been dubbed "woke capital": the claim is that as a shield against public opinion and regulators, multi-billion dollar corporations promote various types of progressive activism that don't cut into their bottom line [2]. How public opinion and regulators got that way is another story and still a mystery to me.
[1] https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1081248850252390400.html [2] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/28/opinion/corporate-america...