The NBA/China story isn’t just about the NBA. It’s about where American corporations will draw the line (or erase it) between their values and their revenues. Buzzfeed: Apple Has Removed A Mapping App That Let Protesters In Hong Kong Track Police. “Apple removed the app days after the company was criticized in Chinese state media for aiding ‘rioters’ in Hong Kong. An editorial in People’s Daily, a government-run newspaper, said: ‘Letting poisonous software have its ways is a betrayal of Chinese people’s feelings.'” Also, from the LA Times: Apple pulls Taiwanese flag emoji from iPhones in Hong Kong. (First they came for the Emojis…) And from The Verge: Apple removes Quartz news app from the Chinese App Store over Hong Kong coverage.

+ “It’s unlikely many basketball fans in the US were paying close attention to the months-long protests in Hong Kong.” But they are now. Quartz (not banned from NextDraft): The NBA may have just thrown Hong Kong’s protesters a new lifeline.