brett.that was of the global situation room, sam of new america, and sarah frier.ulars are looking into facebook's digital currency libra, a currency that has not launched yet. according to a document, the european commission is investigating potential anti-competitive behavior amidst concerns the ambitions would unfairly shut up rivals. sarah frier join us again with a guest to discussed. >> they are very concerned that cannot reasonably so, that if the company controls this currency that could rival the u.s. dollar, that is way too much power to have. what facebook has said, this is not just our project. this is the project of all of our partners, there is a dense, distributed network. emily: some of those partners have kind of backed away. >> or refused to raise their hand. they could come out there and say yes, we stand behind facebook, but facebook gets all the recognition for being innovative and creating this. there is a little bit of tension behind the scenes. >> it is interesting from three angles. i think the first angle from facebook's point of view, in

and bloomberg tech's sarah luber text sarah frier. there finding >> these coordinated disinformation efforts that are trying to discredit the protesters, calling them violent, saying what they are doing is maybe backed by western resources, just trying to cause tension within the group, which is similar to the tactics we have seen from russia in the u.s. emily: twitter says it kicked off 936 accounts. facebook, five fake accounts, seven pages, three groups. we have statements from both companies. twitter saying overall, these accounts were deliberately and attempting to sow, discord in hong kong, undermining the political position of the protest movement on the ground. facebook saying, although the people behind this activity attempted to conceal their identities, our investigation found links to individuals associated with the chinese government. twitter said the same. brett obviously, it doesn't , sound like a huge number of accounts, but an image in this political landscape can go a long way and have an impact on the world. what is

andy: that was sarah frier alastair of eq t ventures. this company is going head-to-head with walmart in the emerging retail market heard this is bloomberg -- market. this is bloomberg. ♪ emily: amazon is doubling down on india. has openedrce giant its largest campus in the south indian city of hyderabad. walmart spent $60 billion last year on acquiring an indian online retailer. in comparison, jeff has pledged $5.5 billion was operations in the country. our senior editor of global technology joined us to discuss. has over 60,000 employees there, a third are in hyderabad. presence in big housing them altogether is probably a smart move. the bigger thing is why they are making such a big deal about this, it is one office building. they've been trying to grow inside india in an unfavorable regulatory environment for five years. last december, the modi government made it difficult for them to run their conventional retail website in india last year. they have to behave more like a marketplace for other sellers, so, you know putting a big st

sarah frier joined us again with a venture partner to discuss. rah: they are very concerned that, reasonably so, that if the company controls this currency that could rival the u.s. dollar, that is way too much power to have. what facebook has said, this is not just our project. this is the project of all of our partners, there is a dense, distributed network. emily: some of those partners have kind of backed away. to raise theired hand and say this is our problem too. they could come out there and say yes, we stand behind facebook, but facebook gets all the recognition for being innovative and creating this. there is a little bit of tension going on behind the scenes. >> it is interesting from three angles. i think the first angle, from facebook's point of view, it shows the extent -- moving into payments is something they have talked about for a long time. this is a very ambitious move and signals where they want to go. the second thing is that it shows that alternative currencies have come to stay. this is no longer something for the future. fa

bloomberg's sarah frier.ing up, in a long-awaited, cbs and viacom finally announced its $11.7 billion deal. we've got all the details next. we are livestreaming on twitter. find us there @technology. be sure to follow our global breaking news network tictoc on twitter. this is bloomberg. ♪ emily: in long-awaited dealnews, cbs agreed to merge with viacom in an $11.7 billion transaction. it unites the most-watched u.s. broadcast network with the parent of paramount pictures and channels like nickelodeon. it followed a marathon session of negotiations as the two sides hashed out a price. what was it? what clinched the deal? >> i think they finally realized that after two, three years of going back and forth, that whatever misgivings they had, needed toboth just get bigger so they could compete in this streaming war. over the past few years, we have seen time warner sell out to at&t. we have seen fox and the murdochs sell a lot of their assets to disney. now most of the companies playing in media entertainment ar

change is happening at multiple levels. >> that was sarah frier.amazon is betting big on india. how the company is going head-to-head with walmart in the emerging retail market. ♪ [inaudible] ♪ >> amazon is doubling down on india. the e-commerce giant has opened its largest campus to date in it south indians any as battles for the fastest-growing retail markets. walmart spent $60 billion on acquiring an indian retailer. comparison, jeff bezos previously pressed $5.5 billion toward operations in the country. our senior executive editor of global technology joined us to discuss. ♪ >> amazon has over 60,000 employees, already a big presence and housing them altogether is probably a smart move. buts one office building iny have been trying to grow an unfavorable regulatory environment for five years, last december the modi government passed laws that made it difficult for them to run their traditional retail website and they have to be more like a website. putting a big stake in the thend, shovels in >> the hiring people -- biggest office holds 5000 pe

we are joined by bloomberg tech's sarah frier and alastair mitchell, an investor in a number of early-stageech companies with business in europe and the united states. explain to us what the eu is looking at. sarah: they are concerned, and reasonably so, that if the company controls this currency that could rival the u.s. dollar, that is way too much power to have. what facebook as said, this is not just our product, this is a project with all these partners, there's a distributed network of people who will help on this. emily: some of those partners have kind of backed away. sarah: or refused to raise their hand. yes,could come out and say we stand behind facebook, but facebook has all the recognition in being innovative and creating this. there is a little bit of tension behind the scenes. alastair: i think the first angle from facebook's point of view, it shows the extent to theirtheir invitations -- ambitions in a post privacy world, this is a very ambitious move and the second thing is that it shows that stable coin alternative currencies are here to stay. this is no longer something f

as well as bloomberg tech's sarah frier. >> it is hard to reach much -- read much into it.u have to, you have to. almost a tautology. i think when he is talking about is that it can be difficult to force significant divestiture, something we would call a breakup. and in order to get that type of remedy at court, you need to show it is really necessary. so again sort of a tautological comment. but i think that's what he's getting at there. emily: sally, would you agree -- i mean there's certainly been a , lot of questions given that the ftc recently fined facebook, for privacy violation, but critics say at that time it did not go far enough. you know, do you agree that he has what it takes or the agency has what it takes to make that leap if they have to? sally: i think he was just really stating the fact that that's a remedy that every antitrust enforcer needs to consider. i would not really expect it out of joe simons, given how he handled the facebook consent decree violations and really just gave them a slap on the wrist. i know a $5 billion fine sounds like a lot, but i

sarah frier covers twitter and facebook. how massive were these chinese operations? these operations significant in that they were the first effort that has been taken down by twitter and facebook as a significant disinformation operation by china. aose companies have had previous entanglement, taking down efforts by russia, iran, other countries. this is the first time the chinese government has been implicated in one of these campaigns. the campaign itself was relatively small but still very significant in that sense. emily: twitter is saying it will stop taking out money from state backed media companies. what exactly will be impact of that be? sarah: twitter users were complaining that a lot of the chinese government media was able to promote their own information, spread them to people not necessarily following that news. promoting a certain version of the story and really propaganda, that should not be able to be promoted per twitter's guidelines. the company came out and said they are making a global rule that they cannot be any state backed media. that does n

here's sarah frier. sarah: think about facebook and what makes facebook work.e in advertising business this year, it's all about data. the data facebook has compiled, not just from its users, but from third parties, from tracking people around the internet, understanding what they click on and watch and care about, that is the value at the center of their advertising business. and so when the ftc comes and tells them you can't share that data with anybody else, great! facebook loves that, in a way. they are big enough now that they do not really need to rely on other companies building other kind of products. there used to be a reason for facebook to share its data with all of the developers for games for facebook and quizzes and all the things you remember from the facebook of five or six years ago. but now, the company is big enough that it does not need to rely on that network. so the ftc is punishing a version of facebook that no longer exists. jason: it is such a provocative idea. i loved reading this story because it turned it on its head. it made me thin

sarah frier has the story in san francisco. what do we know so far about the investigation? ow they are looking into whether there is some sort of antitrust concern with facebook having all of this power over a currency. of course, facebook is tried to make the case they won't launch the currency until they appease regulators. they are also stating this is not just a facebook project, it is a project with multiple entities signed on. thatr, they are the ones are fighting the regulatory battles before they launch. shery: will this launch at all? it was only announced two months ago and we are already seeing a lot of resistance not only from the eu, we have seen powell talk about it, president trump talk about it. we've had congressional hearings already. sarah: it is indicative of how difficult it will be for facebook to do anything at all new or scary. this is a company that has lost a lot of trust with users and the government and its also a company that has about 2.7 billion users of its product around the world. it is really important for people to understand how things wo

emily: sarah frier, thank you. coming up, amazon is betting big on india. company will go head-to-head with walmart in the emerging retail market with the largest campus ever, next. this is bloomberg. ♪ emily: this is "bloomberg technology." amazon is doubling down on india. the e-commerce giant opened its largest campus to date as it battles walmart for one of the fastest-growing retail markets. walmart spent $16 billion last year acquiring indian retailer retailerndian flipkart. stone joins us to discuss. you have traveled to india to report on amazon. why put the largest campus in india? brad: amazon has a lot of employees in india. all the tech companies do. amazon has i think over 60,000 employees there. already a big presence, housing them altogether probably a smart move. biggest part is that they are making such a big deal out of this. it's one office building. they've been trying to grow inside india in an unfavorable for fivey environment years. the modi government made it difficult for them to run their conventional retail website in india last y

we are joined by bloomberg tech's sarah frier and alastair mitchell, an investor in a number of early-stageech companies. the euexplain to us what is looking at. sarah: they are concerned, and doubly so, that if the company controls this currency that could rival the u.s. dollar, that is way too much power to have. they have said, this is a project with all these partners, there's a distributed network of people who will help on this. emily: some of those partners have kind of backed away. refused to raise their hand. facebook has all the recognition to be innovative and creating this. there is a little bit of tension behind the scenes. alastair: i think the first 's point offacebook view, in a productivity world, this is a very ambitious move and the second thing is that it stable: alternative -- stable coin alternative currencies are here to stay. to deal do they have with the concerns of governments, but also their own central banks. that they are going up against technology companies coming up with their own version. we have invested in one called token x. it is going to be a very crowd

given the studio, we've got sarah frier, who covers, of course, facebook for us. read into joe simon's comments? >> it's hard to read much into it. if you have to you have to? that some was a tautology. i think he's talking about how it can be difficult to force significant divestitures, something we would call a breakup. in order to get that type of remedy at court, you need to show that it's really necessary. tautologicalf a comment, but i think that is what he means. emily: would you agree? there have been questions given that the ftc recently find facebook $5 million -- $5 billion for violations, but critics say that fine did not go far enough. do you agree that he has what it takes for the agency has what it takes to make that leap if they have to? >> i think he was really stating the fact that that is a remedy antitrust's need to consider. i would not expect it out of joe simon considering how he handled privacy violations. $5 billion sounds like a lot, but it's not going to change anything or protect the american people from privacy violations. i do not exp

hubbard,at was sally charlotte's lehman, and sarah frier.lling amid the chinese slowdown, but alibaba has room to run, reporting better-than-expected results. this is bloomberg. ♪ emily: tencent reported second-quarter revenue that missed estimates, while they beat profit expectations. online ad revenue grew a worse than expected 16% as they grapple with competition and an economic slowdown. i spoke with selina wang in beijing. selina: the focus was on the decline in growth along the online ad revenue. this was a promising area and we are starting to see that hit by broader macro economic issues, as well as competition. what was interesting is where the company pointed out the sector,, from the auto real estate sector, financial sector, which is not a surprise given the stream of weak economic data. room,g elephant in the that company has been on a roll in terms of getting companies to buy into their ads and buying user eyeballs onto their platform. the company did not engine that company by name but said they would be investing more in vide

sarah frier, mark bergen, thank you both as well. coming up, china's cyber rich. federal agency is looking to make sure the u.s. is protected from beijing and says tackling threats from china is their top priority. we will discuss that next. this is bloomberg. ♪ emily: while the u.s. keeps ratcheting up the heat on china in the trade war, a new u.s. cyber agency is targeting beijing. the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency known as the cisas says china represents the greatest strategic risk to the u.s., therefore the agency's top priority is to guard against tech supply chain risks coming out of china. to discuss, bloomberg cybersecurity reporter william. we also have ryan, the executive vice president of the cyber security firm proof point. what does this mean? how does this agency intend to protect the u.s. tech supply chain from china's threat? william: we heard from the director yesterday who outlined the agency strategy for the next five years. president trump signed the law that created this agency that sits inside the dhs. it did not really sta

let's cross to sarah frier, who covers twitter and facebook. me ask, how would this chinese campaign compared to russia's efforts back in 2016? a lot ofere are similarities. in both campaigns, what you see is a government creating accounts that masquerade as real all in sort of insert themselves into culture, and today today day-to-day news and insert political messages. it is not obvious that accounts are political at first. we saw messages from these accounts trying to discredit the ow discord ino s hong kong, to make it seem like they were more violent than they were, comparing them to cockroaches, so there was a lot of messages that came across that twitter and facebook have both said very emphatically that these are from the chinese government. paul: have we had any reaction from china, a denial or otherwise? sarah: so far, we have not heard any clear reaction from china, but it is still early. i hope we do here soon -- hear soon. the companies are reevaluating their policies for state run media. tortoise as today it will no longer allow a