Tech Wants Kamala – and More!
Technology Policy #116 | By: Mindy Spatt | August 26, 2024
Featured Photo: www.nytimes.com
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While President Biden’s campaign didn’t receive much support from the wealthy, powerful CEOs and venture capitalists of Silicon Valley, Vice President’s Harris campaign has been drawing in tech dollars from the instant she announced her candidacy.
Trump’s early efforts to reach tech money were led by his running mate, JD Vance, who spent a few years as a venture capitalist in the Valley. Still, Vance’s ties are not nearly as strong as Harris’s, who is from the Bay Area and has deep connections nurtured during her many years as an elected official.
A fundraiser for Harris in San Francisco early in the campaign brought in luminaries like Representatives Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Lee, and Governor Gavin Newsom, and raised the same $12 M that Trump had on his first visit here (See Technology Policy Brief # 112). But Harris’ event had 700 attendees; Trump’s only 100.
Trump’s efforts were bolstered by the tech industry’s notorious distaste for Biden appointee Lina Kahn, the FCC Chair who has been aggressive in pushing for accountability, regulation, and consumer protection. Under Kahn’s leadership, the agency has won orders requiring social media and streaming platforms to turn over information about deceptive advertising, fining Microsoft $20 million for collecting children’s data on Xbox and fining Amazon $25 million for violating children’s privacy laws.
Reid Hoffman, CEO of LinkedIn, has described Kahn as “waging war on American business.” Yet he is leading an effort to raise over $100 million to support Harris. Other heavyweight supporters include Sheryl Sandberg, the former COO of Facebook, Netflix’s Reid Hastings, and philanthropists Melinda French Gates and Laurene Powell Jobs. And Harris’ brother-in-law, Tony West, who is an executive at Uber.
Two websites have sprung up as part of the effort, Tech for Kamala and VC for Kamala. According to organizer Leslie Feinzaig, a co-founder of the Female Founders Alliance, the groups formed in part to counter the high-profile tech support Trump had been attracting, which many saw as an unwelcome shift to the right.
Hoffman and other big donors can have a huge impact on the race. The problem is that he has stated publicly that if elected he wants Harris to get rid of Kahn and appoint someone more to the industry’s liking as the top regulator. That has watchdog groups alarmed. Twenty-two organizations sent Harris a letter of concern urging her to commit to keeping Kahn on the FCC and not be beholden to wealthy corporate donors and their influence, saying:
“Monopolies, price gougers, and billionaires choosing their own regulators flies in the face of the principles of the work you have done as a leader of the Biden/Harris administration. We ask you to publicly signal your support for Lina Khan’s leadership of the FTC, competitive markets, and a pro-consumer agenda.”
Signatories include Public Citizen, the NAACP, Food and Water Action, and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a grassroots organization engaged in electoral work and issue advocacy with close ties to Senator Elizabeth Warren.
Kahn for her part isn’t intimidated and continues to push for accountability. Her most recent effort, on September 19, is a report on the vast amounts of personal data being collected and sold by tech companies including Facebook, Amazon, YouTube, and Twitter. She commented that “[While] lucrative for the companies, these surveillance practices can endanger people’s privacy, threaten their freedoms, and expose them to a host of harms, from identify theft to stalking. Several firms’ failure to adequately protect kids and teens online is especially troubling.”
Engagement Resources
- Tech for Kamala, https://www.tech4kamala.com
- VC for Kamala, https://www.vcsforkamala.org
- Bold Progressives, https://www.boldprogressives.org
- Untitled letter, July 30, 2024, https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/s3.boldprogressives.org/images/Khan_letter_-_Signed.pdf
- FTC Staff Report Finds Large Social Media and Video Streaming Companies Have Engaged in Vast Surveillance of Users with Lax Privacy Controls and Inadequate Safeguards for Kids and Teens, September 19, 2024, https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/09/ftc-staff-report-finds-large-social-media-video-streaming-companies-have-engaged-vast-surveillance
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