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from the with-great-power-comes-great-responsibility dept.
At The Hill,
Washington Monthly Executive Editor Gilad Edelman said the perception of Silicon Valley has shifted dramatically among Democrats and Republicans since the 2016 presidential election.
Edelman told Hill.TV that the industry was relatively insulated from criticism and viewed favorably by both parties until President Trump's surprise victory over Hillary Clinton, saying his win "really scrambled a lot these beliefs and intuitions."
"Silicon Valley seems to have gone from an industry with no enemies to an industry with no friends," Edelman said during an interview on "Rising."
"Democrats realized that whatever the CEOs of Google or Facebook might think, these platforms seems to have facilitated Donald Trump's election," he added. "On the right, the fact that Trump could get elected while breaking from some pretty serious orthodoxies — at least superficially on economic matters — meant that maybe there was more room to criticize corporate business practices than conservatives had previously thought."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by janrinok on Wednesday September 11 2019, @05:25PM (3 children)
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 11 2019, @07:28PM
While this is indeed a factor, let's not also forget the creeping Dystopia of a tech-powered surveillance state.
Since the Snowden revelations, it's become impossible to ignore the role of Silicon Valley in enabling authoritarianism at home and abroad. The likes of Project Dragonfly don't do much to persuade the public that Big Tech is above selling out their fellow citizens for cash or, increasingly, political power and influence as well. More and more we see the manifestations of warnings made 20 years ago, but which the heady pace of technological progress and quality of life improvements made difficult to hear. Now as the benefits of tech slow down, people are more willing to question why companies need all this data, when we don't really see a lot of benefit from it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 11 2019, @08:01PM (1 child)
But it has equally to do with right wing believing that they're biased against by the industry and left wing believing that hatred is just allowed to flourish unchecked. And how the tech industry is complicit with that (on both sides).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 12 2019, @02:53AM
Nice insight - yes of course the social media companies just want you to get on there and FROTH. Good, bad, other - just get on there and get others on there. Sell the eyeballs.