The New York Times - USA (2020-07-22)

B4 N THE NEW YORK TIMES BUSINESSWEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2020

VIRUS FALLOUT | SOCIAL MEDIA | WORKPLACE

A new public service announce-
ment makes a point that federal
leaders have largely overlooked:
Asian-Americans are facing a
surge of harassment linked to
fears about the coronavirus pan-
demic.
The spot, which debuted on
Tuesday, includes testimonials
from a firefighter, a nurse, a
driver, an artist, the celebrity chef
Melissa King and others, who de-
scribe being told to “go back to
China” or having people spit in
their direction.
The somber ad, produced by the
nonprofit Advertising Council
with help from the Emmy-win-
ning writer Alan Yang, ends with a
request: “Fight the virus. Fight
the bias.”
Anxiety about the novel respi-
ratory virus, which was first de-
tected in Wuhan, China, has fueled
xenophobia and bigotry toward
people of Asian descent. A coali-
tion of civil rights groups recorded
more than 2,100 incidents in 15
weeks; the New York City Com-
mission on Human Rights re-
cently described a “sharp in-
crease in instances of hostility and
harassment.” A list of recent cases
compiled by the Anti-Defamation
League chronicles “surging re-
ports of xenophobic and racist in-
cidents,” including Asian-owned
stores defaced with racist graffiti,
video chats disrupted by anti-
Asian comments and people being
beaten or denied entry to busi-
nesses.
President Trump has repeat-
edly described the coronavirus as
the “Chinese virus” and, in recent

weeks, as “kung flu,” despite saying publicly that it is “very impor- tant that we totally protect our Asian-American community in the United States” and that the pandemic is “not their fault in any way.” Inflammatory statements from leaders can exacerbate racist behavior, according to re- searchers and civil rights leaders. The fight against pandemic-related harassment of Asian-Ameri- cans has largely fallen to civil rights groups, marketing agen- cies, social media accounts and nonprofit organizations, which have promoted hashtags like #IAmNotCovid19, #Rac- ismIsAVirus, #HealthNotHate and #MakeNoiseToday. Asiancy, an affinity group of the Wieden + Kennedy Portland ad agency, posted a video in May

about the repercussions of recent anti-Asian discrimination. The marketing firm IW Group re- cruited actors, musicians, design- ers and influencers to participate in the #WashTheHate campaign. The Ad Council, which also in- troduced a face mask initiative with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York this month, will roll out the new anti-harassment campaign online and on television. The issue of racism toward Asians hit “very close to home,” said Mr. Yang, who is known for

popular shows like “Parks and Recreation” and “Master of None.” He had just finished direct- ing and publicizing “Tigertail,” a family drama made for Netflix featuring a nearly all-Asian and Asian-American cast. One of the lead “Tigertail” actors, Tzi Ma, was at a Whole Foods store in Pasadena, Calif., early in the outbreak when a man approached in a car and told Mr. Ma that he “should be quarantined,” Mr. Yang said. Later, during an in- terview with Mr. Yang on Insta- gram Live, viewers left comments saying he and the interviewer, an Asian man, were the same person. “This wasn’t an abstract idea to me, something theoretical,” Mr. Yang said. “I knew people this was happening to.” He described the production process as “an emo- tionally fraught time,” when he toggled between overseeing the shoot over Zoom and attending Black Lives Matter protests. The result, Mr. Yang said, is a rare example of a nationwide marketing effort focused on Asian issues, represented by Asian-Amer- icans from a wide range of back- grounds. “It’s very meaningful to me,” he

said. “I never saw this growing up.” In a Pew Research Center sur- vey, 58 percent of English-speak- ing Asian-American adults said expressions of racist or insensi- tive views about Asians had become more common since the pandemic began. More than 30 percent said they had encoun- tered slurs or racist jokes in recent months, and 26 percent said they feared being threatened or physically attacked because of their race — a higher percentage than for Black, white and Hispanic adults. But many Americans, including several non-Asian members of the production team working on the Ad Council’s campaign, have been unaware of pandemic-related racism, Mr. Yang said. Steven Moy, the chief executive of the Barbarian ad agency, said campaigns like this one were “a good starting point.” “I don’t know if this is enough, or how effective it will be, but let’s do baby steps and create aware- ness,” he said. “I have not seen enough of this — we should do more.”

With Ads and Hashtags,

Fighting Anti-Asian Hatred

A public service announcement from the Advertising Council and Alan Yang.

THE AD COUNCIL

By TIFFANY HSU

Over 2,000 incidents

and little action from

Washington.

Jide Zeitlin, the chief executive of Tapestry and one of only four Black chief executives in the For- tune 500, resigned on Tuesday and later said the unexpected move, less than a year into his ten- ure, was related to a past relationship. The company’s board had been made aware of a misconduct allegation involving Mr. Zeitlin and hired a law firm to investigate, according to a person familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity. After Tapestry, which owns the Coach and Kate Spade fashion brands, announced that Mr. Zeitlin was stepping down for “personal reasons,” he released a statement saying the exit was tied to a past relationship with a woman. In a letter posted to LinkedIn on Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Zeitlin elaborated, saying the relationship started and ended 13 years ago and had nothing to do with his role at Tapestry. “I did not use power, wealth or position to further that relationship,” he said. He said it was a mis- take in his personal life that he had dealt with at the time. In the LinkedIn post, Mr. Zeitlin said the relationship was “with a woman I had met while pursuing my interest in photography.” Mr. Zeitlin, who spent two decades at Goldman Sachs, said he some- times used a pseudonym based on his middle name, James, when photographing strangers in order to protect his privacy as he rose “through the ranks as a rare Black banker.” The executive said that the relationship had recently become an issue because William D. Cohan, a journalist who has written for publications including Vanity Fair and The New York Times, was asking questions about it while working on an article about Mr. Zeitlin. Mr. Cohan acknowledged in a statement that he had been working on a story about Mr. Zeitlin and Tapestry with Pro- Publica. “I reached the conclusion this past weekend that this distraction will not allow me to meet my re- sponsibilities as C.E.O.,” Mr. Zeitlin wrote. Tapestry hired the law firm Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Ja- cobson to investigate Mr. Zeitlin’s conduct, the person familiar with the matter said. Tapestry, which is based in New York, said that Joanne Crevois- erat, its chief financial officer, would serve as interim chief exec-

utive and that it had started a search for a permanent replace- ment. In March, Tapestry had said Mr. Zeitlin would remain at the helm for at least three more years. Mr. Zeitlin’s departure comes as the retail industry grapples with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Tapestry, like other re- tailers, has been forced to close stores and adjust operations in China and the United States as the virus continues to spread. The company, which also owns Stuart Weitzman, is a giant with about $6 billion in annual sales, but its shares have dropped by roughly 50 percent this year. It next reports earnings on Aug. 13. Mr. Zeitlin, who is married, became the Tapestry chief in Sep- tember; he had been the company’s chairman since 2014 and was a board member before that. As

part of his exit, he also resigned from the board. Mr. Zeitlin was previously a private investor overseeing the Keffi Group, an investment office. Born in Nigeria and adopted by an American family as a child, he attracted praise and attention last month for a staff letter, later pub- lished on LinkedIn, about civil rights and the Black Lives Matter movement. He went on to discuss the protests and the importance of antiracism and diversity in corpo- rate America on shows like “Good Morning America” and “Face the Nation.” In its announcement on Tues- day, Tapestry praised Mr. Zeitlin for his leadership, including his work during “these unprecedent- ed times” and his “key role in driv- ing the development of Tapestry’s strategic growth agenda.”

Jide Zeitlin, who led Tapestry.

LOREN MATTHEW/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Tapestry’s C.E.O. Resigns

After Misconduct Allegation

By SAPNA MAHESHWARI

meant the key did not change de- pending on the message being sent or on the user sending it. The key was also far from ran- dom: It was “1234567890123456.” With such weak encryption, monitoring all of the app’s com- munications with the server would be possible simply, for in- stance, by being on the same un- protected Wi-Fi network as some- one else using the app. The Times examined the app’s code and confirmed Mr. Rechten-

stein’s findings. After The Times approached the South Korean authorities about the security flaws last month, officials said they had put a priority on deploying the app quickly “to save lives.” Mr. Jung, the Interior Ministry official, said his team had devel- oped the app with Winitech, a software maintenance and repair company in Daegu, a South Kore- an city that became a center of the outbreak in February. Winitech’s senior managing di- rector, Hong Seong-bok, said that when the company first devel- oped the app, it expected that only a small number of South Koreans would ever use the software. “We had never thought that it would be used by so many people, becoming a must-install app for all arrivals at the airport,” Mr. Hong said. Mr. Jung said that while the group had worked around the clock to develop the app and train officials on how to use it, they

lapses only after the engineer,
Frédéric Rechtenstein, and The
Times notified them.
“We were really in a hurry to
make and deploy this app as
quickly as possible to help slow
down the spread of the virus,” said
Jung Chan-hyun, an official at the
Ministry of the Interior and Safe-
ty’s disaster response division,
which oversees the app. “We
could not afford a time-consuming
security check on the app that
would delay its deployment.”
The ministry fixed the flaws in
the latest version of the app,
which was released in Google and
Apple stores last week. South Ko-
rean officials said they had not re-
ceived any reports that personal
information was improperly re-
trieved or misused before the vul-
nerabilities were patched.
Governments worldwide have
raced to deploy virus-tracing apps
only to face complaints about poor
security practices. With the soft-
ware gathering so many details
about users, their health and their
locations, the apps are prime tar-
gets for hackers. But pressure to
act quickly appears to have al-
lowed software with inadequate
security features to be rushed out
in several nations.
The Times found this spring
that a virus-tracing app in India
could leak users’ precise loca-
tions, prompting the Indian gov-
ernment to fix the problem. Am-
nesty International discovered
flaws in an exposure-alert app in
Qatar, which the authorities there
quickly updated. Other nations,
including Norway and Britain,
have had to change course on
their virus apps after public out-
cry about privacy.
In April, South Korea began re-
quiring all visitors and residents
arriving from abroad to isolate
themselves for two weeks. To
monitor compliance, they had to
install an app whose name in Ko-
rean means Self-Quarantine
Safety Protection.
As of last month, more than
162,000 people had downloaded
the app, which tracks users’ loca-
tions to ensure they remain in
quarantine areas. Violators might
be required to wear tracking
wristbands or pay steep fines.
In May, Mr. Rechtenstein re-
turned to his home in Seoul from a

trip abroad. While self-isolating at home, he became curious about the government’s seemingly sim- ple app and what extra features it might have. That prompted Mr. Rechtenstein to peek under the hood of the code, which is how he discovered several major security flaws. He found that the software’s developers were assigning users ID numbers that were easily guess- able. After guessing a person’s credentials, a hacker could have retrieved the information pro- vided upon registration, including name, date of birth, sex, national- ity, address, phone number, real- time location and medical symp- toms. Mr. Rechtenstein also found that the developers were using an insecure method to scramble, or encrypt, the app’s communica- tions with the server where data was stored. Instead of HTTPS, the security standard used by apps like Gmail and Twitter, the app used an encryption key written di- rectly into its code. Doing so meant hackers could easily find the key and decode the data if they had tried. It also

lacked the expertise to make the software secure. Over time, the government also asked Mr. Jung’s team to add sur- veillance functions to the app, which officials said had increased their workload and prevented them from spending time hunting for security flaws. A feature was added, for in- stance, that caused a quarantined person’s phone to emit a noise or vibrate when it was not physically moved for more than two hours. If the user did not respond by pick- ing up the device, it was a potential sign that the person had ven- tured out and left the phone be- hind. The app would then alert the authorities. To keep a closer watch on quarantine violators, another function was added to connect tracking wristbands to the app. “We were simply overwhelmed with work,” said Koo Chang-kyu, a South Korean official. In meetings last month with Mr. Rechtenstein and a Times report- er, South Korean officials initially played down the security issues, saying that they had deleted personal data and disabled the app once a user completed the two- week quarantine. But Mr. Rechtenstein demon- strated in the meeting that his data could still be retrieved from the government server by using the app on his phone, even though his quarantine had ended more than a week earlier. South Korean officials later said they had fixed the problem. South Korea has become a global poster child for its creative and transparent handling of the coronavirus pandemic. But the app’s security flaws show how the country lags in protecting personal data, Mr. Rechtenstein said. He also expressed disappointment at how long it took the authorities to fix the problems. The episode could “affect per- ceptions about the Korean model” for combating the pandemic, Mr. Rechtenstein said.

FROM FIRST BUSINESS PAGE

Bus riders in Seoul, South Korea, a country that has been praised for its use of digital tools to tame the coronavirus.

WOOHAE CHO FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

‘We could not afford

a time-consuming

security check on the

app that would delay

its deployment.’ Jung Chan-hyun, an official at South Korea’s Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

South Korea’s Quarantine App Left Data Exposed

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OAKLAND, CALIF. — Twitter said Tuesday evening that it had removed thousands of accounts that spread messages about the conspiracy theories known as QAnon, saying their messages could lead to harm and violated Twitter policy. Twitter said it would also block trends related to the loose network of QAnon conspiracy theories from appearing in its trending topics and search and would not allow users to post links affiliated with the theories on its platform. It was the first time that a social media service had taken sweep- ing action to remove content affiliated with QAnon, which has become increasingly popular on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. The theories stem from an anonymous person or group of people who use the name “Q” and claim to have access to government secrets that reveal a plot against President Trump and his supporters. That supposedly clas- sified information was initially posted on message boards before spreading to mainstream internet platforms. Over several weeks, Twitter has removed 7,000 accounts that posted QAnon material, a company spokeswoman said. The accounts had been increasingly ac- tive and had been involved in co- ordinated harassment campaigns on Twitter or tried to evade a pre- vious suspension by setting up new accounts after an old account was deleted. An additional 150,000 accounts will be hidden from trends and search on Twitter, the spokeswoman added. In May, Facebook removed a cluster of five pages, 20 Facebook accounts and six groups affiliated with QAnon, saying they had violated its policy against coordi- nated inauthentic behavior. More than two years after

QAnon, which the F.B.I. has la- beled a potential domestic terror- ism threat, emerged from the troll-infested corners of the internet, the movement’s supporters are now trickling into the mainstream of the Republican Party. Precisely how many candidates are running under the banner of QAnon is unclear. Some estimates put the number at a dozen, and few are expected to win in Novem- ber. A number of the candidates have sought to spread a core tenet of the QAnon conspiracy: that Mr. Trump ran for office to save Amer- icans from a so-called deep state filled with child-abusing, devil- worshiping bureaucrats. Accord- ing to QAnon, backing the president’s enemies are prominent Democrats who, in some telling,

extract hormones from children’s blood. The president has repeat- edly retweeted QAnon supporters. Ahead of the 2016 presidential election, the baseless notion that the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, and party elites were running a child sex-trafficking ring out of a Washington pizzeria spread across the internet. In De- cember 2016, a vigilante gunman showed up at the restaurant with an assault rifle and opened fire into a closet. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube managed to largely suppress that conspiracy theory, but as the presidential election nears it has ap- peared to rebound on those platforms and newer ones, like Tik- Tok.

Twitter Expels Accounts

Tied to Fringe Theories

Of QAnon Movement

By KATE CONGER

The first time a social

media service takes

on a conspiracy mill.

Matthew Rosenberg and Jennifer Steinhauer contributed reporting.

The New York Times - USA (2020-07-22)

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