Tag: Big Tech

Scoop: Trump allies target Biden picks with Big Tech ties

Axios logo

Escalating the GOP’s push against Big Tech, Trump allies are targeting Biden nominees who worked for — or even advised — Apple, Amazon, Google or Facebook.

Driving the news: The Center for American Restoration, a think tank formed by Trump-era Office of Management and Budget director Russ Vought, wrote a letter to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Republican senators Friday urging them to reject nominees with Big Tech ties.

The big picture: Powerful factions on both the left and right are uniting around a similar goal: Keep tech influence out of the Biden administration. Continue reading.

Chaos scenarios drive gatekeepers’ election prep

Big Tech is holding dry runs to game out Election Day chaos scenarios, key participants tell Axios.

Axios has learned that Facebook, Google, Twitter and Reddit are holding regular meetings with one another, with federal law enforcement — and with intelligence agencies — to discuss potential threats to election integrity.

  • Between March 1 and Aug. 1, Twitter practiced its response to scenarios including foreign interference, leaks of hacked materials and uncertainty following Election Day. Continue reading.

Robert Reich: Here’s why we need to break up Big Tech

AlterNet logoThe combined wealth of Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and Google’s Sergey Brin, and Larry Page is larger than the combined wealth of the bottom half of the American population.

They are the leaders of a second Gilded Age – ushered in by semiconductors, software and the internet – which has spawned a handful of hi-tech behemoths and crushed competition.

Facebook, Amazon, Google, Apple, and Microsoft now have the highest market values for all public corporations in America.

View the complete June 25 article by Robert Reich on the AlterNet website here.

Scoop: Bipartisan senators want Big Tech to put a price on your data

Axios logoSenators Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) will introduce legislation on Monday to require Facebook, Google, Amazon and other major platforms to disclose the value of their users’ data, as first reported Sunday evening on “Axios on HBO.”

Why it matters: Our personal data is arguably our most valuable asset in the digital age, but internet users don’t have any way of knowing how much their data is actually worth.

The big picture: Two decades ago, consumers made a bargain — we traded our data in exchange for using “free” sites like Facebook, Instagram, Google, YouTube and Twitter. Warner says he wants consumers to be more informed about the real value of what they give up in the form of, for example, location data, relationship status, data about the apps we use, our age, gender and lifestyle.

View the complete June 23 article by Kim Hart on the Axios website here.