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The NBA’s China Debacle: How Corporations Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Chinese Market
By Max Hubscher, Associate Editor On October 4, 2019, one tweet, and its subsequent fallout showed the influence that a foreign government can have over an American company. On that day, Daryl Morey, the General Manager of the Houston Rockets NBA team tweeted a picture that read “fight for freedom stand with Hong Kong”. The since deleted tweet was posted in support of the ongoing protests in Hong Kong against increased Chinese governmental control over Hong Kong. The tweet had almost instant ramifications for the Rockets. The day after the tweet was posted Tencent, an official broadcasting partner of the NBA in China and China Central Television (CCTV) announced that…
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FIFA Lays Down the Law for Iran, Inspired by #BlueGirl
By Jake Gellerstein, Associate Editor In early September, 2019, the hashtag “#BlueGirl” began trending on Twitter. This moniker referred to Sahar Khodayari, an Iranian citizen who passed away as a result of lighting herself on fire in protest. Khodayari was potentially facing up to six months in prison for the crime of entering an Iranian football stadium. Women have been banned from entering Iran football stadiums since the Islamic revolution in 1979. Khodayari’s story received national attention from NGO’s such as the Human Right’s Watch and the Open Stadiums Movement, a coalition started by Iranian Woman seeking to ensure more freedoms for women and end the constant discrimination. Masoud Shojaei,…