The era of the invisible CEO is over. In 2025, silence equals irrelevance. Todays audiences in the attention economy dont wait for press releases. Theyre actively engaged on LinkedIn, exploring niche podcasts, diving into Substacks, and sizing up leaders not just on what they sell, but what they stand for.The crucial question then becomes: In a landscape filled with tech skepticism, debates over hero leaders, the influence of cancel culture, dwindling newsrooms, and widespread misinformation, is a public voice essential for CEOs?According to recent data, yes. You cant afford for them not to have a public voice.The days of direct influenceForget billboards and banner ads; direct communication is more effective than almost every other source of information in terms of trust and influence.According to Mission Norths Brand Expectations Index:
84% of knowledge workers and 81% of the general public trust direct communications from companies, including podcasts, long-form articles, and videos, more than national news, social media, or even academic journals.
Source: Mission Norths Brand Expectations Index 2025
Among knowledge workers, technical articles (72%), practical explainers (69%), and human-interest stories (66%) are especially effective in building credibility and deepening knowledge.
75% of IT decision makers report increased trust when they encounter real-world stories of people using or innovating with AI.
These arent just content preferences. Theyre strategic cues for howand whereaudiences want to engage.Thought leadership is the new due diligenceThe 2024 LinkedIn-Edelman B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report adds more urgency:
73% of decision makers say thought leadership is more trustworthy than product sheets or traditional marketing.
70% of C-suite executives say high-quality thought leadership has made them question whether to stick with a current vendor.
90% say theyre more receptive to outreach from companies that publish insightful content regularly.
In short: If your brand wants a seat at the table, it needs to consistently say something smartand human. Your content is your strategy. And your CEO is your sharpest edge, or your most prominent blind spot.The CEO effect: Reputation as a trust multiplierA companys brand is increasingly a reflection of its leadership. From vision and values to risk tolerance and resilience, executives are expected to show up and show their work.According to the Brand Expectations Index, 67% of knowledge workers and 57% of the public believe the CEOs reputation directly influences their trust in a company. That number climbs in innovation-forward sectors like AI, healthtech, and climate.And the message cant be all features and forecasts. Todays audiences, especially in tech, seek techno-optimism: forward-looking, hopeful stories that focus on human possibility. Its a mindset: Dont just tell me what the technology does. Show me who it helps, and how.When CEO visibility is a must
In B2B industries, credibility is paramount: Buyers want to know whos behind the productreputation and reliability matter.
Emerging industries demand clear leadership: In industries like AI, climate tech, or biotech, trust is still being built, making it a prime opportunity for CEOs to shape the narrative.
Investors invest in people, not just products: Pre-IPO or high-growth phases magnify the equation where visibility equals credibility, which in turn equals valuation.
Values-led brands require visible leadership: A silent CEO can signal apathy at best, evasion at worst.
Attracting top talent depends on engaging leadership: The next generation wants to work with leaders, not just for them.
If youre in one of these categories and your CEO is nowhere to be found, that silence speaks volumes, not in your favor.The limits of CEO visibilityThere are real limits to putting the CEO front and center:
Authenticity gap: Not every CEO is a natural communicator, and audiences can smell a ghostwriter.
Brand-led companies: In some B2C or community-led brands, the product or movement is the hero, not the leader.Crisis optics: When a company is under fire, CEO visibility can sometimes inflame rather than reassure.
If the CEO cant lead out front, who can?When the CEO isnt the right messenger, companies still have impactful options:
Other executives: Elevate functional leads, from CTOs to CHROs, who can speak credibly to their domains.
Structured editorial formats: Launch a company podcast, Substack, or LinkedIn series that features a range of internal voices and customer stories.Narrative clarity: Shape a strategic story arc that anchors all content, from founder essays to customer case studies, even if it doesnt come from the CEO directly.Owned platforms: Use LinkedIn, Medium, YouTube, and even internal newsletters to showcase expertise in ways that feel transparent and consistent.
The key? Tell real stories. Lead with humans. Dont just spotlight innovationshow how it solves problems that matter.The bottom lineTodays business landscape favors the bold. Not the brash, but the brave. That doesnt always mean having the loudest voice, but it does mean having a meaningful one.Whether through the CEO or a broader bench of leaders, companies must find a way to lead in public: to show values, expertise, and vision in a way that feels honest and human. Done right, executive thought leadership isnt vanity PR its strategic infrastructure for brand trust, market leadership, and business growth. And in the age of AI, authenticity, and algorithmic noise, your CEOs voice isnt just a nice-to-have; it can be your most significant differentiator.Tyler Perry is co-CEO of Mission North.
Just a week before New York City’s primary election, the city’s comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander is the latest elected official to be taken into custody by federal immigration officials who are ramping up large-scale arrests outside immigration courtrooms across the United States.
The democratic candidate is running to be the city’s next mayor, aiming to succeed incumbent Mayor Eric Adams.
On Tuesday, federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested and detained Lander at an immigration court while he was escorting a person out of a courtroom, according to his campaign, as reported by The Associated Press.
Video posted on Bluesky shows Lander’s detention inside 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan as he tried to walk a man out of immigration court. He is forcibly removed by masked federal agents and calmly asks: “Do you have a judicial warrant? Show me the warrant.”
This photo of ICE arresting Brad Landerwhose only crime was asking to see a warrantis fucking insane. What the hell is happening to this country!? pic.twitter.com/7a5IpoTMDv— Mike Nellis (@MikeNellis) June 17, 2025
ICE is a federal law enforcement agency housed under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. DHS said on X that “Lander was arrested for assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer.” The social media post also said: “No one is above the law, and if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will face consequences.”
No one is above the law, and if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will face consequences.New York City Comptroller Brad Lander was arrested for assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer. https://t.co/lPo9hsmfhY— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) June 17, 2025
Last Thursday, Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California was forcefully removed from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noems news conference in Los Angeles and handcuffed by federal officers as he tried to speak up about immigration raids prompting L.A.’s recent protests, as well as those across the nation.
Widely circulated video of that incident showed a Secret Service agent on Noems security detail grabbing Padilla by his jacket and shoving him, as the senator interrupted her and asked a question at the news conference.
Speaking on the comptroller’s official YouTube channel, Lander’s wife, Meg Barnette, also a lawyer, said Lander was still in custody Tuesday afternoon at the time of this writing. “What I saw here today is not the rule of law,” she added, per NBC New York.
It remains to be seen if the increasingly aggressive behavior of ICE agentswho are targeting not only immigrants and green card holders but now also arresting American citizens and elected officialsis legal.
Who is Brad Lander?
Democrat Brad Lander is New York City’s 45th comptroller and has held the position since 2022. According to his campaign website, he is currently running for mayor “to deliver a safer, more affordable, and better-run New York City.”
Lander is a self-described “dad, Brooklynite, and a lifelong public servant who has spent his career solving New Yorkers problemsfirst as an affordable housing leader, then in the City Council, and now as NYC Comptroller.”
According to his campaign site, his priorities include: ending street homelessness for people with serious mental illness; solving the city’s affordability crisis by building affordable housing, freezing the rent, increasing homeownership, expanding free childcare and afterschool programs; and delivering a better run city government by cleaning up corruption.
Its amazing how far a firebrand politician has to step over the line of decency in 2025 to prove that such a line even exists anymore.
By any metric, U.S. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah sprinted past that line over the weekend, with a deeply distasteful, macabre string of tweets about a political assassination in Minnesota. Now, hes experiencing something vanishingly rare in modern American politics: sustained, real-world blowback for something he wrote online.
The day after a gunman shot and killed former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband at homeand also shot and injured Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife at their homethe shooters motives remained in question. That didnt stop Sen. Lee, however, from going all in on the Elon Musk-approved assumption that the shooter was acting on behalf of the far left.
On Sunday, June 15, Lee posted a pair of tweets on his personal account that betrayed a distinct lack of sympathy for the victims, let alone any sense of tact or decorum. Both included a police-released image of the shooter, with one assigning blame to the far left (This is what happens [w]hen Marxists dont get their way) and the other absurdly implying that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz bore a share of the blame (Nightmare on Waltz [sic] Street.)
Soon enough, the facts collided with Lees interpretation. Although alleged shooter Vance Boelter served on a civilian economic board under Gov. Walz, all current evidence indicates that he is a deeply religious, conservative anti-abortion advocate and a vocal Trump supporter. He is also said to have had a hit list of 45 elected officials, all Democrats.
Lee has long had a reputation for out-of-pocket tweets. The third-term senator and January 6 enthusiast changed his personal X account handle to @BasedMikeLee in 2022, after MAGA influencers like Benny Johnson urged him to go harder on social media. (In MAGA parlance, based essentially means being unapologetically conservative or anti-woke.) Since the change, he has repeatedly caused a stir with his frequent, provocative tweets, most recently for pushing a false claim about Prince Harry and suggesting the royal redhead be deported.
None of Lees previous tweets, though, have provoked a backlash like the one currently unfolding. The first wave of condemnation arrived online, with scathing tweets from a wide range of high-profile X users, including actress Sophia Bush, former Obama staffer and Pod Save America cohost Dan Pfeiffer, and former Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele.
Next came the responses on TV.
The cohosts of The View took Lee to task for his callous tweets on Mondays episode. In any other job, you would be fired instantly, cohost Sara Haines declared during the broadcast.
On Monday night, the backlash continued on TV, with Jon Stewart excoriating Lee on The Daily Show. The host began by relaying an anecdote of his own previous encounter with Lee. While Stewart had been working to extend the 9/11 victim compensation fund in 2019, he facilitated a series of meetings between various senators and a group of first respondersand apparently found Lee uniquely unmoved by the cause.
I say this for context, Stewart added, for why I use Senator Lee as the avatar for the insanity of this moment. He then played a clip of Lee from 2024, talking through tears about Laken Riley, a young nursing student who was notoriously murdered by an undocumented immigrantciting it as proof that Lee is indeed capable of being moved by senseless murder, but seemingly only when doing so is politically useful.
‘He seemed kind of surprised to be confronted’
Perhaps the most profound response to Lees tweets came not on X or on TV, but in person.
On Monday afternoon, U.S. Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesotaa friend and colleague of the shooting victims, and someone who was also allegedly on the killers hit listtracked Lee down and pulled him out of a meeting to confront him over his rhetoric. (One of her aides also reportedly sent Lees office a furious letter about the additional pain youve caused on an unspeakably horrific weekend.)
Although only a photograph exists to document the exchange, Smith later revealed to reporters that she told Lee his tweets were brutal and cruel, and that he should address the millions of viewers on X more responsibly.
As for how Lee responded to the in-person confrontationwell, apparently he hardly did. “He certainly didn’t promise to take it down or say anything publicly about it, Smith told one reporter. He seemed kind of surprised to be confronted.”
Lees reticence continued later on Monday, when he refused to speak with reporters asking for comment about his tweets and the ensuing confrontation.
(During the writing of this article, Lee took down the tweets.)
A brief history of senators behaving badly
Lee obviously knows what he wrote about the shooting on his personal account was inappropriate. Anyone needing proof need merely look at the corresponding tweet from Lees official account, which reads like boilerplate mainstream politician-speak after a senseless tragedy.
The reason he may have felt comfortable posting something so beyond the pale on his other account is because senators so rarely face consequencs outside of electoral defeat for words or actions that are legal, no matter how deplorable, and Lee isnt up for reelection until 2028.
Apart from Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, who resigned last year following a bribery conviction, the last senator to resign in disgrace was Al Franken of Minnesota, who stepped down in 2017, when sexual misbehavior allegations emerged at the peak of the #MeToo movement.
The difficulty and rarity of imposing any punitive action on a sitting senator was underscored a few years ago with similarly unfortunate commentary that passed without repercussions.
In October 2022, an intruder broke into then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosis home in a targeted attack and brutally assaulted her husband. While Paul Pelosi recovered from his skull fracture in the hospital, high-profile right-wing personalities such as Donald Trump Jr. and Elon Musk jokingly riffed on the conspiracy theory that Pelosi had injured himself in some sort of illicit tryst.
Before the facts came in, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas joined in on the fantasizingrather than condemning the violent attackwhile his fellow Sen. John Cornyn of Texas tried to spin the assault into an indictment of President Biden. Though Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin apologized for his own insensitive remarks, neither senator did so, and neither faced any consequences, and the world moved on.
The situation with Lee is different, however, in a way that makes it harder to move on so quickly.
Given that one of the political targets in this instance died of her injuriesalong with her husbandthe cold, stark, factually challenged, instant politicization of their murders comes across as frankly sociopathic.
If the lack of contrition around Cruz’s and Cornyns tweets should have been a warning about where the culture was heading in 2022, Lees tweets are a sign that weve arrived therein a place where a successful political assassination can seemingly be shrugged or even laughed off if the target plays for the opposite team.
Judging from Lees reaction to Smiths confrontation, though, all that keyboard bravado seems to fall away when a representative of the real world comes knocking in person. Its hard to remain so based while looking someone right in the eye.
Whether Lee eventually apologizes or not, the photo of Smith confronting him about his tweets has the potential to travel even further than the tweets themselves. This image is a reminder that U.S. politicians who have forgotten or lost their decency online should relentlessly be made to answer for it offline.
Amid global conflict, domestic unrest, and AIs surging impact in all corners of business, its getting harder than ever to decipher noise from substance. To help navigate this challenge, LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman shares valuable insights about Trumps public spat with Elon Musk, the crisis in the Middle East, and whether AI is realistically poised to spark a white-collar bloodbath.
This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by Robert Safian, the former editor-in-chief of Fast Company. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations with todays top business leaders navigating real-time challenges. Subscribe to Rapid Response wherever you get your podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode.
There is so much going on in the economy and in tech right now. It’s hard to know where to focus. How would you describe this moment with so much change on so many fronts? Do you compartmentalize topics? Do you say: In this bucket is what’s going on in AI, and over here is what’s going on with U.S. trade? Or is it all interconnected for you?
So obviously, AI plays across everything. Like what does it mean not just for, obviously, work, and what does it mean for geopolitics, and what does it mean for invention and science, and what does it mean for medicine? But also, even when you see, let’s send in the National Guard and the Marines to L.A.; that doesn’t necessarily generate the question of AI, but it does generate the thought “we live in chaotic times.” There’s a couple of questions that go across all of them.
And when something happens like Israel starts bombing Iran, is that its own bucket, or does it get you to start rethinking other things that are around it also?
It’s mostly its own bucket, but it does go. And there’s this general [sense of] the world is descending into chaos. We’ve self-ended the post-World War II American world order, and I think that there will be thousands of lives and lots of suffering that will come from that, because I think the post-World War II American world order has been one of the most golden times in human history. And the fact that we have deliberately self-destroyed that will have a bunch of different costs, and I think the costs include increasing conflict and chaos everywhere in the world. So that has its macro theme, which the Israeli bombing of the Iranians is in.
Now, I also think, of course, the Iranian nuclear program is a problem. In Trump, one, I actually thought his ending the treaty deal was a mistake. But the Iranians are a force for engaging in global terrorism and global conflict. So the fact that there’s something being done to try to contain nuclear ambitions is not in itself a bad thing. It’s probably unfortunate that the way that that’s happening is bombing, but I would’ve preferred the treaty, negotiationwords are always better than physical violence.
Yeah. I have to ask you about the public split between Elon Musk and Donald Trump. Maybe it’s a truce now; it’s hard to say. Regardless, Silicon Valley must be buzzing. I’m curious what the reactions are. Are there any lessons that leaders are drawing from it in dealing with the president? In dealing with Elon?
Well, I think there’s a whole stack of things. I think one is that there were a bunch of Silicon Valley leaders who deluded themselves that Trump was the sensible businessman and the Dems were antibusiness, and it was that straightforward. And they went . . . look, part of the reason why entrepreneurial people like Elon were getting in the business is because they felt that, for example, one of the biggest expense lines in the federal government is the deficit, is just the interest payments. It’s like we as a country have over decades borrowed money on credit cards to finance our operations. And just like anyone knows, when they borrow money on credit cards, it puts a huge dent in their operating income and what to do. And that’s what we’ve been doing as a country.
I think part of what Elon’s learning from the “Big Beautiful Bill” that’s being proposed is we’re actually not being business-sensible here. And so Elon sparked in the way he normally sparks, which is to make a whole bunch of, frankly, massively inflammatory tweets. And that caused a general reaction on both sides, which informed everyone. It was like, one, this Big Beautiful Bill is not a pro-future of American business because it’s going to increase our debt line a whole lot. That issue got drowned in various power politicking.
In terms of being business-sensible, do people look at the time and effort that Musk has put into politics and spending his time in Washington? Was that time well spent in a business-sensible way?
I think most people think it’s probably been a pretty bad net negative. What are the actual things that DOGE has really accomplished? It started with these big claims about shaving off fraudulent expenses to help rightsize the deficit. And there were a lot of claims about reducing fraud, and literally zero substantiation about the reductions being particularly fraud-oriented or anything else. So I think that’s not been successful.
And then obviously Elon’s engagement with this has caused . . . I mean, I see, call it, three times as many Teslas with anti-Elon bumper stickers in the neighborhoods I drive around in than there are Teslas without anti-Elon bumper stickers. Most purchasers of Teslas believe in such things as climate change and think that we have to be rational on these topics. And the fact that Elon is staying silent on an administration that’s claiming that climate change is a complete fiction, I think that’s been . . . not just has DOGE been a big problem, but I think the Tesla customer base is in clear revolt on this stuff. And so I think all of those things have been real challenges.
I saw that the Anthropic CEO, Dario Amodei, told Axios recently that there was a white-collar bloodbath coming, that people are dramatically underestimating AI’s impact on jobs. Do you agree with that? Do we know what the impact will be?
Well, frankly, no one knows. Anyone who claims that they know exactly what the impact is is either self-deluding or other-deluding. Dario is right that over, call it, a decade or three, that it will do a massive set of job transformation. And some of that job transformation will be replacement issues. Just like, for example, when computer programs, Excel and other things, started happening, the people whose job it was to write in the ledger, the accounting ledger . . . that job went away. But on the other hand, the accountant job didn’t go away. The accountant job, if anything, everyone was predicting that the accountant job would go away. And actually, in fact, the accountant job got broader, richer, et cetera. It’s like scenario planning, financial analysis.
Just because a function’s coming that has a replacement area on a certain set of tasks doesn’t mean all of this job’s going to get replaced. It does mean there’s going to be a lot of transformation, and that some specifc things that used to be described by job description will be completely gone. But that doesn’t even necessarily mean that a function is going to go way down. So I think there is a massive tsunami of transformation coming.
And I called Dario to talk to him, because I deeply respect his point of view on lots and lots of topics, about the bloodbath thing. And we see the world in different variables here because bloodbath just implies everything going away, versus where I tend to think all, having published Superagency. is that we at least have many years, if not a long time of person plus AI doing things.
Could I just replace, for example, my accountants with GPT-4? The answer is absolutely not. That would be a disastrous mistake. And it’s just simply like saying, also, let’s replace my marketing department or my sales department with GPT-4. Absolutely not.
Now, should each of these departments be using GPT-4 and Copilot and Claude and everything else in order to operate? Yes, they should be starting to experiment with that. There’s various ways in each of these departments you can be amplified with this work, but that’s nowhere close to a bloodbath. The bloodbath is a very good way to grab internet headlines, media headlines.
What jobs are most likely to be replaced? They’re the ones where we’re trying to program human beings to act like robots, like a customer service script, et cetera, in terms of the way you’re operating, and that’s the most natural replacement. But even then, it’s unclear that that will be a bloodbath, because of the question of what the adoption of companies looks likehow it’s refined in even with massive transformation, that will happen in a relatively short time frame.
So yes, I think people are underestimating AI’s impact on jobs, but I think inducing panic as a response is serving media announcement purposes and not actually, in fact, intelligent industry and economic and career path planning.
Just in time for the start of this summer’s busy travel season, Skytrax has named Qatar Airways the worlds best airline at its 2025 World Airline Awards at the Paris Air Show on Tuesday.
This is the Middle Eastern carrier’s ninth win at what has been dubbed “the Oscars of the aviation industry.
“To retain this title in a highly competitive and ever-evolving global industry reflects [our] relentless efforts across every part of the business . . . [as we] continue to set new standards in aviation . . . and is a clear validation of our vision to shape the future of air travel,” Qatar Airways Group CEO Badr Mohammed Al-Meer said in a statement.
The top spots were dominated by Middle Eastern and Asian airlines known for their exceptional service, luxury cabins, and state-of-the-art in-flight products, as airlines increasingly compete for the lucrative luxury market post-pandemic. Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways, Emirates, and All Nippon Airways rounded out the top five placings after Qatar Airways. In all, 325 airlines were surveyed by Skytrax.
In addition to its No. 2 overall ranking, Singapore Airlines was recognized for having the “worlds best cabin crew” and “worlds best first class service.” Cathay Pacific Airways moved up to third place this year and was also honored for “worlds best in-flight entertainment.” Emirates ranked No. 4, and All Nippon Airways came in fifth place, winning for “world’s best airport service.”
Here’s a look at Skytrax’s Top 20 list.
The World Top 20 Airlines In 2025
1. Qatar Airways
2. Singapore Airlines
3. Cathay Pacific Airways
4. Emirates
5. All Nippon Airways
6. Turkish Airlines
7. Korean Air
8. Air France
9. Japan Airlines
10. Hainan Airlines
11. Swiss International Air Lines
12. EVA Air
13. British Airways
14. Qantas Airways
15. Lufthansa
16. Virgin Atlantic
17. Saudi Arabian Airlines
18. Starlux Airlines
19. Air Canada
20. Iberia
One glaring omission: U.S. carriers. In fact, domestic airlines like Delta, American, United, and JetBlue didn’t even crack the top 20, much less the top 10.
A look at the world’s top 100 airlines shows Delta Air Lines ranked at No. 22, trailed by United Airlines at No. 51, JetBlue at No. 52, Alaska Airlines at No. 69, Southwest Airlines at No. 76, American Airlines at No. 83, and Hawaiian Airlines at No. 100.
For North America, specifically, Air Canada won “best regional airline,” while Delta Air Lines received the award for the “best airline staff service in North America.”
The rankings come amid growing concerns about aviation safety in the United States after a number of staffing cuts at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) by the Trump administration’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Some critics wonder whether the cuts are causing current airport delays and possibly contributing to safety issues, in the wake of an alarming incident in April involving a 90-second outage in radar and communication systems at Newark Liberty International Airport that left controllers unable to communicate with aircraft. The episode prompted one anonymous air traffic controller to later call the airport “not safe.”
A full list of winners across all categories is on view at the Skytrax website.
Meta’s decision to introduce advertisements into WhatsApp has reignited competition in the secure messaging space, giving rival app Signal a fresh opening to make a pitch for users.
After the tech giant announced it would begin to include ads in WhatsApps Updates tab, which is used by roughly 1.5 million people per day, Signal president Meredith Whittaker took to X to lure users to her messaging tool: “Use Signal,” she wrote. “We promise, no AI clutter, no surveillance adswhatever the rest of the industry does.”
Use Signal. We promise, no AI clutter, no surveillance adswhatever the rest of the industry does. We lead we dont follow pic.twitter.com/11naKMBLlw— Meredith Whittaker (@mer__edith) June 17, 2025
Signal and WhatsApp have long competed to attract encryption-minded users. Meta’s promises that its new WhatsApp ad features would be implemented “in the most privacy-oriented way possible” have done little to quell doubts. Max Schrems, a data privacy advocate who runs the European nonprofit NOYB (which stands for “None of Your Business”), warned that with the addition of ads, Meta was blatantly ignoring European Union privacy laws. “Meta seems to follow the approach by the Trump administration and simply ignores EU rules as somehow ‘illegitimate,’ he wrote in a blog post. “European regulators urgently need to take clear action.”
Privacy concerns over Meta’s data practices reached a fever pitch in 2018 with the Cambridge Analytica scandal. In 2021, WhatsApp saw another wave of users migrate to Signal after a privacy policy update allowed for increased data sharing with businesses and third parties.
Monday’s addition of ads raised more concerns. As Lena Cohen, a staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) told Fast Company this week: “The fact that Meta has promised that it’s adding ads to WhatsApp with privacy in mind does not make me trust this new feature.”
Signal is adept at turning such moments into branding opportunities. Earlier this year, it saw a surge in sign-ups in the midst of the “Signalgate national security crisiswhen a journalist from The Atlantic was accidentally added to a private Signal group chat involving the highest levels of government that discussed, in real time, an imminent U.S. military strikein part because it became part of the national discussion, but also because Signal ensured the story wasn’t spun to blame the app for the leak
Whittaker has never hesitated to take a swing at WhatsApp and Meta, either. Earlier this year, in an interview with a Dutch newspaper, she discussed the app’s data collection, saying: It tells you exactly who youre communicating with, at what time, how often, and where you are. You can derive so much from that. WhatsApp can link that information to Facebook, to Instagram, and to payment data that they could buy into. Signal simply doesnt have all that data.
Will Cathcart, WhatsApp’s head, denied that, saying his product used the same security protocol as Signal. (The war of words continued to escalate between the two for days to follow.)
While Signal might have the guerrilla-marketing upper hand, WhatsApp wins when it comes to scale. WhatsApp reportedly has roughly 3 billion monthly active users globally, and Signal has an estimated 40 to 70 million.
Signal is a nonprofit and open-source platform, whereas WhatsApp has benefited from Metas resources and marketing muscle (advantages that aid in user growth but can also prompt suspicions). “Meta’s business model is based on collecting as much data as they can about people in order to sell highly targeted ads,” the EFF’s Cohen tells Fast Company. “The reason this new [WhatsApp] feature concerns me is that it creates yet another opportunity for Meta to abuse people’s private information.”
Apple won Creative Marketer of the Year at Cannes Lions, and Fast Company’s Jeff Beer sat down with their longtime agency partner TBWA\Media Arts Lab’s Katrien De Bauw (global president) and Brent Anderson (global chief creative officer) to discuss their most impactful work
U.S. retail sales dropped more than expected in May, weighed down by a decline in motor vehicle purchases as a rush to beat potential tariff-related price hikes ebbed, but consumer spending remains supported by solid wage growth for now.
The largest decline in sales in four months reported by the Commerce Department on Tuesday added to moderate job growth last month in suggesting that domestic demand was softening. That was reinforced by other data showing production at factories, outside motor vehicle assembly, decreased in May.
President Donald Trump’s aggressive and often shifting tariff position has heightened economic uncertainty, making it difficult for businesses to plan ahead. Federal Reserve officials meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday are expected to leave the U.S. central bank’s benchmark overnight interest rate unchanged in the 4.25%4.50% range while monitoring the fallout from the import duties and rising tensions in the Middle East.
“Tariff announcements have had a clear impact on the timing of large-ticket purchases, notably autos, but there are few signs yet that tariffs are leading to a general pullback in consumer spending,” said Michael Pearce, deputy chief economist at Oxford Economics. “We expect a more marked slowdown to take hold in the second half of the year, as tariffs begin to weigh on real disposable incomes.”
Retail sales fell 0.9% last month, the largest decrease since January, after a downwardly revised 0.1% dip in April, the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau said. The second straight monthly decline unwound the bulk of the tariff-driven surge in March. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast retail sales, which are mostly goods and are not adjusted for inflation, decreasing 0.7% after a previously reported 0.1% gain in April.
They increased 3.3% year-on-year in May.
Sales last month were also held down by lower receipts at service stations because of cheaper gasoline as the White House’s protectionist trade policy has raised fears over global growth, restraining oil prices. But hostilities between Israel and Iran have boosted oil prices. A 25% duty on imported motor vehicles and trucks came into effect in April. Unseasonably cooler weather likely also hurt sales.
Receipts at auto and parts dealerships tumbled 3.5%. Sales at building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers dropped 2.7%. Receipts at service stations fell 2.0%, while those at electronics and appliance stores slipped 0.6%.
Sales at food services and drinking places, the only services component in the report, declined 0.9%. Economists view dining out as a key indicator of household finances.
But online sales jumped 0.9%, while those at clothing retailers increased 0.8%. Furniture store sales soared 1.2%. Sporting goods, hobby, musical instrument and book store sales advanced 1.3%.
Retail sales excluding automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services increased 0.4% in May after an upwardly revised 0.1% fall in April.
These so-called core retail sales, which correspond most closely with the consumer spending component of gross domestic product, were previously reported to have dropped 0.2% in April.
Downside risks mounting
Economists estimated that growth in consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of economic activity, was so far this quarter tracking at least a 2.0% annualized rate after slowing to a 1.2% pace in the first quarter.
The Atlanta Fed is forecasting GDP rebounding at a 3.5% annualized rate in the second quarter. The anticipated surge will largely reflect a reversal in imports, which have fallen sharply as the frontloading of goods fizzled. The economy contracted at a 0.2% pace in the JanuaryMarch quarter.
Downside risks to consumer spending are, however, rising. The labor market is slowing, student loan repayments have resumed for millions of Americans and household wealth has been eroded amid tariff-induced stock market volatility. Economic uncertainty could lead to precautionary saving.
“The outlook for consumer spending is cloudy,” said Bill Adams, chief economist at Comerica Bank.
Stocks on Wall Street fell. The dollar rose against a basket of currencies. U.S. Treasury yields fell.
Economists said retailers likely offered discounts last month, adding that could explain part of the benign consumer price data in May. They, however, expected price pressures to build up in the month ahead.
That thesis was supported by a separate report from the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics showing import prices, excluding fuels and food, increased 0.4% in May after advancing 0.5% in April. In the 12 months through May, the so-called core import prices increased 1.3%.
Core import prices are being driven by dollar weakness, with the greenback down about 6.2% this year on a trade-weighted basis. Trump’s aggressive trade posture has shaken investors’ confidence in the dollar, eroding the appeal of U.S. assets.
“This is another sign that inflation will pick up this summer and into the fall as prices start to reflect the higher costs for goods from enacted tariffs,” said Ben Ayers, senior economist at Nationwide.
A third report from the Fed showed manufacturing output edged up 0.1% in May, lifted by a 4.9% jump in motor vehicle and 1.1% rise in aerospace and miscellaneous transportation equipment production. That followed a 0.5% decline in April.
But excluding motor vehicles, factory output fell 0.3% amid declines in fabricated metal products, machinery and nonmetallic mineral products. There was also a steep decrease in energy nondurable consumer goods production.
Manufacturing, which accounts for 10.2% of the economy, relies heavily on imported raw materials.
Trump has defended the duties as necessary to revive a long-declining U.S. industrial base, but economists say that cannot be accomplished in a short period of time, citing high production and labor costs as among the challenges.
“Continued uncertainty around where trade policy will ultimately land is preventing many businesses from taking on new capital expenditures, unsure of the policy and underlying demand environment,” said Shannon Grein, an economist at Wells Fargo. “We expect manufacturing to continue to tread water in the months ahead.”
Lucia Mutikani, Reuters
Kraft Heinz announced on Tuesday their brands will no longer release new products with synthetic or artificial food dyes, and will completely phase them out of their current products by 2027.
The major food conglomerate, which owns brands like Kraft, Kool-Aid, and Jell-O, said in a statement that nearly 90% of their U.S. products are already free of FD&C colors. They say their signature ketchup has never used artificial colors and has always relied solely on tomatoes for the products bright red hue.
The nearly 10% of Heinz products that use some of the 36 color additives and nine petroleum-based synthetic dyes currently approved by the FDA, include drink products such as Kool-Aid and Crystal Light, and food products such as Jell-O and Jet-Puffed.
Why now?
Heinzs statement comes just months after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced plans to phase out all petroleum-based synthetic dyes by the end of 2026, and encouraged major food companies to do so voluntarily.
The Trump Administration and RFK Jr.s Make America Healthy Again campaign has long advocated against artificial dyes, linking them to potential cancer risks and ADHD symptoms, like hyperactivity.
Red dyes have especially been put on the chopping block, with Red No. 3 being singled out as needing to be eliminated no later than January 2027, with calls for companies to reformulate their food products.
The vast majority of our products use natural or no colors, and weve been on a journey to reduce our use of FD&C colors across the remainder of our portfolio, Pedro Navio, North America President of Kraft Heinz, said in a statement. In fact, we removed artificial colors, preservatives, and flavors from our beloved Kraft Mac & Cheese back in 2016.
Who else has eliminated synthetic additives?
States and companies alike are suffering pushback from the current administration and consumer market to rid their products of artificial additives and theyre seemingly obliging.
Companies such as Tyson, and PepsiCo owned brands like Lays and Tostitos, have already pledged to stop using synthetic and petroleum-based dyes by the end of this year.
Other wide-reaching bans have come from states on both sides of the political aisle including California, Virginia, and West Virginia, with 23 other states actively pursuing bans.
For consumers interested in the federal rules governing color additives and dyes in foods, cosmetics, and drugs, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services maintains a searchable online database with up-to-date information.
Indie streamer Mubi raised a staggering $100 million from Sequoia Capital. Then, fans started boycotting.
Mubi built a loyal audience of cinephiles through breakout hits like The Substance and Decision to Leave. But after subscribers examined investor Sequoia Capitals portfolio, many took to X to denounce the streamer. They pointed to Sequoias ties to Israels military campaign in Gaza, highlighting its investments in the Israeli defense tech startup Kela. Even after Mubi issued a public statement, its social media remains flooded with Palestinian flags and posts about canceled subscriptions.
Even after Mubi issued a public statement, its social media remains flooded with Palestinian flags and posts about canceled subscriptions. The crisis raises broader questions about the financial forces shaping the indie film world.
Mubis money crisis
Founded in 2007, Mubi coasted for a decade on a loyal base of cinephiles. Then, the distributors films began breaking out, most notably with The Substance, the $80-million-grossing body horror starring Demi Moore. Between 2016 and 2025, Mubi jumped from 100,000 to 20 million subscribers. That growth enabled the company to invest in more films. At the 2025 Cannes festival, Mubi was a top buyer, acquiring titles like The Sound of Falling and the Jennifer Lawrence-led Die My Love.
Its success also helped Mubi secure significant funding. After closing a $100 million fundraising round, the company was reportedly valued at $1 billion. The round was led by Sequoia Capital, the investment firm known for backing companies like Nvidia, Reddit, and PayPal. Sequoia also led a $10 million seed round for Kela, an AI-powered defense tech firm founded by four former Israeli intelligence officials, one of whom also worked as the general manager of Palantir Israel. That connection sparked outrage among some Mubi fans.
On X, users organized a boycott of the streamer after learning about its ties to Sequoia. One protest flyer claimed that Sequoia is deeply invested in Israels genocide of the Palestinian people. As posts gained traction, Mubi issued a statement on Instagram that many fans considered inadequate. The company’s social media postseven unrelated onescontinue to attract comments from upset subscribers.
When reached for comment, Mubi sent Fast Company the same statement shared on its Instagram: Over the last several days, some members of our community have commented on the decision to work with Sequoia given their investment in Israeli companies and the personal opinions expressed by one of their partners. The beliefs of individual investors do not reflect the views of MUBI.
How big money invaded independent filmmaking
Mubi is far from alone in facing investment controversies. A24, known for films like Civil War and Moonlight, is valued at $3.5 billion. In 2024, A24 accepted $75 million from Thrive Capital, an investment firm that has also put more than $1 billion into OpenAI. Some fans were dismayed that A24, ostensibly a bastion for human-made art, would align itself with investors helping to accelerate generative video.
Other independent film studios dont just take money from large firmstheyre owned by them. Annapurna Pictures, the company behind Her and Hustlers, is owned by Megan Ellison. Megan is the daughter of Larry Ellison, cofounder of Oracle, and sister of David Ellison, CEO of SkyDance. Neon, distributor of Anora, is owned by The Friedkin Group, which invests heavily in automotive companies like Toyota. Focus Features is owned by Comcast. Sony Pictures Classics belongs to Sony. IFC Films is under AMC.
Some holdouts still maintain a more independent path. Blumhouse Productions focuses on low-budget, scalable horror films, which allows it to operate without major outside investment. Briarcliff Entertainment uses its lack of financial stakeholders to support riskier projects, including The Apprentice and the Jonathan Majors-led Magazine Dreams.
But most independent filmmakers cannot avoid the pull of Wall Street, Big Tech, or other powerful investors entering the entertainment world. These financial ties often leave fans in an ethical bindan issue many Mubi subscribers are currently trying to navigate.
