With help from Gavin Bade

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— We plan, God laughs: The Delta variant is shaking up tech companies’ plans for reopening their IRL offices and more. Will the rest of the U.S. economy follow suit?

— Fintech reflects: Ahead of the new House Select Committee’s first hearing on the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, PayPal and the Anti-Defamation League are launching an investigation into how extremists and hate groups rely on financial platforms.

— Forced labor crackdown finds new fans: Major tech industry players that once opposed legislation targeting companies’ use of forced labor from Uyghurs in China are slowly coming around to support it. Why the about-face?

HAPPY MONDAY AND WELCOME BACK TO MORNING TECH! Alexandra Levine here, back at the helm of POLITICO’s best daily newsletter about tech policy as a guest author. As they say: I’ll be here all week.

Got tips? Newsy nuggets? Send ‘em over to [email protected], and follow me on Twitter at @Ali_Lev. Got an event for our calendar? Send details to [email protected]. Anything else? Team info below. And don't forget: Add @MorningTech and @PoliticoPro on Twitter.

HOW THE DELTA VARIANT IS AFFECTING THE TECH WORLD — A new, fast-spreading strain of the coronavirus is causing cases to surge in the U.S. and threatening to derail President Joe Biden’s agenda. And as it does, it’s forcing tech companies in Silicon Valley and beyond to rethink everything from return-to-work policies for employees to how the platforms moderate content. Here’s what some of the most influential tech players are mulling over:

— On going back to the office: Social media giants’ decisions about remote work helped set the precedent for other sectors early in the pandemic, and now, it’s worth watching how the tech industry’s changing course on return-to-work may have a similar ripple effect. Apple is delaying plans to bring employees back to offices, with workers now returning in October at the earliest instead of September.

Twitter’s policies have not changed in light of the variant — it was one of the first major tech companies to announce last spring that employees could work from home “forever” — but it’s notably one of just a small number that require workers who wish to work in-office to provide proof of immunization. Google, meanwhile, is allowing unvaccinated employees to report to work in-person, meaning some workers are again masking up.

— On content issues: The contentious back-and-forth between Facebook and the White House last week shows how much pressure the social media titan is under when it comes to fighting the vaccine misinformation that now directly threatens the U.S.’ recovery. Facebook’s moderation has generally been too light for Democrats (who accuse it of negligence) and too heavy for Republicans (who accuse it of censorship). And in the absence of clear, consistent guidance from Washington, Facebook will remain in hot water: The company was forced to backpedal on some of its high-stakes content moderation calls in the spring, for example — and more recently, Biden himself accused Facebook of “killing people” with Covid misinformation (remarks the president eventually walked back). Even so, Facebook would argue it's been proactive and effective at policing false and misleading material related to the pandemic.

While the recent spike in cases caused by the Delta variant has further highlighted Facebook’s moderation struggles, Covid misinformation has been problematic across most mainstream social media sites, including Twitter and YouTube. (Twitter executives met with the office of Surgeon General Vivek Murthy as recently as July 12 to discuss these challenges.) But none have been singled out by the Biden administration quite like Facebook has, and this far into the pandemic, many of its users have developed deeply-held views (factual or otherwise) on Covid vaccines. How Facebook will get ahead of its misinfo problem now is anyone’s guess.

PAYPAL, ADL PROBE FUNDRAISING AROUND CAPITOL RIOT — PayPal is not the first financial platform to reflect on how fintech can play a role in enabling extremist organizing and criminal activity. Days after the insurrection at the Capitol, Stripe stopped processing payments to former President Donald Trump’s campaign website, which he used for fundraising, while Mastercard and American Express — two companies that spent most of their political contributions during the 2020 elections on Republicans — stopped donating to GOP lawmakers who challenged the results of the presidential race. Visa took similar action. Venmo, which is owned by PayPal, banned an organizer of the “Stop the Steal” rally that helped fuel the riot.

Now, PayPal is working with the ADL’s Center on Extremism to research how financial tools can inadvertently help bad actors and seed violence. The groups plan to share their findings with lawmakers and law enforcement.

“By identifying partners across sectors with common goals and complementary resources, we can make an even greater impact than any of us could do on our own,” said Aaron Karczmer, PayPal’s chief risk officer. ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt added that the initiative will set “a new standard for companies to bring their expertise to critical social issues.”

INDUSTRY DOES A 180 ON UYGHUR BILL — Industry interests are pushing House lawmakers to swiftly approve the Senate’s version of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act — legislation they once opposed. POLITICO’s trade reporter Gavin Bade helps us break down corporate America’s change of heart:

— Quick recap: The bill would require U.S. companies to guarantee that their supply chains do not rely on labor by imprisoned workers in China’s Xinjiang region. The House passed its version of the legislation last year, but it stalled in the Senate amid a concerted lobbying effort from technology and apparel companies. Apple was among the firms that reportedly tried to undercut the original proposal and that have denied or distanced themselves from allegations of using forced labor in Xinjiang.

To placate corporate opposition, Senate sponsors subsequently made changes to the implementation timeline and procedures. The bill passed the Senate unanimously this month, sending the altered version back to the House. (Apple now supports the Senate bill.)

— So what gives? The Senate bill would set new ground rules for the Customs and Border Protection process around imports from the Xinjiang region — procedures that American companies initially complained were opaque and onerous. If the Senate version becomes law, “CBP will be required to make its process for evaluating admissibility more transparent,” said Richard Mojica, a former CBP attorney now with Miller and Chevalier. The bill would require the Treasury and Homeland Security departments “to issue guidance to importers on the type of evidence required to show that goods were not made with forced labor, or that they do not contain products originating from Xinjiang,” he said. That provision is largely what won corporate America over to support the bill.

— What’s next: House leadership and backers of the bill, including Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), are chewing over the Senate’s version and have promised to not endorse changes they believe will weaken the bill. Industry, now satisfied with the bill, wants them to prioritize passage — but whether a final deal can come together before any August break remains to be seen. (You know how that goes.)

AND ELSEWHERE IN TECH-SLASH-CHINA NEWS, ICYMI — Chinese telecom giant Huawei is tapping Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta as a consultant, my colleagues Betsy Woodruff Swan and Daniel Lippman reported Friday. His goal: to help the Chinese hardware giant — which has struggled to dispel security concerns in Washington and disentangle itself from diplomatic tensions — cozy up to the Biden administration.

CORRECTION — Friday’s Morning Tech misspelled Slade Bond's name and misidentified his role. Bond is the chief counsel on the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee.

Gideon Lett, a former senior advisor for fair tech at Access Partnership, is joining BSA | The Software Alliance today as chief growth officer, based in San Francisco. … Sarah Smith, former chief accounting officer of Goldman Sachs, has joined Via’s board of directors as chair of the audit committee. … The European External Action Service, the EU’s diplomatic branch, is planning on setting up an office in San Francisco in hopes of improving relations with Silicon Valley tech companies, POLITICO Europe reports.

Eyeballs watching emoji: Amazon is hiring for a position helping to oversee its digital currency and blockchain strategy. … Google is hiring for a Europe-based privacy manager on its government affairs and public policy team.

In profile: Meet Joseph Mercola, an osteopathic physician who is “the most influential spreader of coronavirus misinformation online,” according to NYT.

And on that (not so) cheery note: Did you know disinformation-for-hire is a booming industry? More here via NYT.

Amazon probe underway: The e-commerce giant opened an investigation into allegations of discrimination and harassment across its cloud computing arm, Amazon Web Services, WaPo reports.

ICYMI: “The FTC on Friday asked a federal judge to give it more time to refile an antitrust suit against Facebook,” NYT reports.

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TTYL.