Silicon Valley Vs American Politics Benton Institute For Broadband

Tech-world insiders are getting more involved than ever in national politics this year—and it’s not just Elon Musk. But as the presidential election looms, there’s a major disconnect between American politics and Big Tech when it comes to their visions of America’s future. On the campaign trail, Vice President Kamala Harris talks about the risk of “more chaos,” incipient fascism and a quick, steep slide back to the gender politics of the 1950s. Meanwhile, the retrograde cultural assumptions of former President Donald Trump’s platform were on full display at Madison Square Garden. Meanwhile in Silicon Valley, AI entrepreneurs promise a world where there’s little to be afraid of (except maybe overregulation) — and nostalgia is nothing but a brake on a future we should be ushering... The mismatch between the mindset driving tech—the engine of America’s prestige and global economic dominance—and the mindset driving American politics has never been sharper, and it’s upending technopolitics on the campaign trail.

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society 1041 Ridge Rd, Unit 214 Wilmette, IL 60091 © 1994-2025 Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. All Rights Reserved. The panel explored the tensions between the Silicon Valley supporters of Donald Trump and the president's MAGA base. WASHINGTON, January 30, 2025 - A venture capital firm's policy document has sparked fresh debate about Silicon Valley's political realignment and drew increased attention to tech industry priorities in the lead up to Donald... The “Little Tech Agenda”, released by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz on July 5, 2024, preceded significant developments in tech industry political alignments, most notably Elon Musk's unprecedented $277 million in support for Trump...

The document focused on several key issues: cryptocurrency regulation, artificial intelligence development, merger and acquisition policies, and capital gains taxation. These priorities helped create what some industry observers are calling a "permission structure" for Silicon Valley executives to support Trump's return to the White House. "This document opened up a space for Elon and Andreessen to support Trump in a way that you've never seen, especially the Silicon Valley jet set," said Will Rinehart, senior fellow at the American... "You really have never seen them go for a president, and specifically haven't seen them go for a right-lean president like this in quite some time." Tech-world insiders are getting more involved than ever in national politics this year — and it’s not just Elon Musk. But as the presidential election looms, there’s a major disconnect between American politics and Big Tech when it comes to their visions of America’s future.

On the campaign trail, Vice President Kamala Harris talks about the risk of “more chaos,” incipient fascism and a quick, steep slide back to the gender politics of the 1950s. Meanwhile, the retrograde cultural assumptions of former President Donald Trump’s platform were on full display at Madison Square Garden on Sunday. On both sides, fear and nostalgia — whether for the depolarized nation of Bush-Dukakis ‘88, or an America before civil rights law — are the defining themes of this election. Meanwhile in Silicon Valley, AI entrepreneurs promise a world where there’s little to be afraid of (except maybe overregulation) — and nostalgia is nothing but a brake on a future we should be ushering... For all the skepticism Americans may feel about where technology is going, the industry’s vision is as utopian as ever: One of the most head-spinning vibe shifts in business and politics over the past couple of years has been the realignment of the tech industry sharply to the right.

Elon Musk in the White House running a conservative corporate restructure via the Department of Government Efficiency. Venture capitalists betting the house on Donald Trump. Mark Zuckerberg adding UFC boss Dana White to the Meta board, ditching content moderation and going bro mode on Joe Rogan. Jeff Bezos deciding to turn The Washington Post into The Wall Street Journal. It’s a shift, no doubt, and a very visible one — especially for those who have pictured the tech industry as branded hoodies, laptops, ping pong tables and breezy social liberalism. But the foundations for the change have been there for a very long time, and there are already stress fractures emerging.

I’m writing this as our debut missive for Capital Brief’s new Ideas section, where I hope we’ll be able to deeply explore some of the dynamics that are driving conversations across our core coverage... Silicon Valley tech workers, once apolitical, are increasingly protesting a growing pro-Trump shift among industry elites, reflecting a deepening divide between leadership and the workforce. Demonstrators rally against President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk in San Jose, Calif., as part of a national day of action on Saturday, April 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Emily Steinberger) Connie Chew, right, and Aggie Goltiao, left, sing a song of protest at a rally against President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk in San Jose, Calif., as part of a national day... (AP Photo/Emily Steinberger)

Demonstrators rally against President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk in San Jose, Calif., as part of a national day of action on Saturday, April 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Emily Steinberger) A Tesla vehicle drives past demonstrators during a rally against President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk in San Jose, Calif., on Saturday, April 5, 2025, as part of the nationwide “Hands Off!”... (AP Photo/Emily Steinberger) For years, as the social-media and startup world exploded, the tech industry was known for the outspokenness of its employees — largely liberal-skewing young technologists on the West Coast, who pushed their companies hard... This is changing faster than anyone expected.

At the donor level, the rightward political shift is well-documented. At the employee level, things look different. Political contribution figures from 2024 show that even as Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai and Tim Cook flanked President Donald Trump at his inauguration, workers at Meta , Alphabet and Apple overwhelmingly backed Democratic candidates. Benton Institute for Broadband & Society 1041 Ridge Rd, Unit 214 Wilmette, IL 60091 © 1994-2025 Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. All Rights Reserved.

In 2017, Denmark became the first nation to appoint an ambassador to Silicon Valley, mandated to represent and advocate for the country’s technology interests at corporations like Facebook and Google.1 Jeppe Kofod, Denmark’s Minister... This should not be viewed as an unexpected development within the international diplomatic scene. In the past decade especially, social media platforms have become prominent spheres where geopolitical conflicts develop and unfold.4 Concerns around the spread of false and divisive content on the internet, the lack of regulation... Additionally, big tech companies hold massive economic power, rivaling a number of nations in this regard. In January 2022, for example, Apple Inc. became the first company in history to reach a $3 trillion market value – greater than the GDP of the United Kingdom.5 Likewise, in the summer of 2020, the Bank of America calculated that...

tech stocks were more valuable than the entire European market. Thirteen years ago, the European market was four times larger than the U.S. tech industry,6 illustrating the rapid growth Silicon Valley companies witnessed since their emergence in the late 1990s and early 2000s. This issue brief explores the nuanced implications of holding social media platforms to equal political standing as sovereign states. Investigating big tech companies’ increasing lobbying efforts in Washington, their unregulated ability to influence public opinion, and their opaque soft power practices, it argues that their foreign policy influence should be examined and dissected... Tailored regulations should be enacted to address key social and political considerations, while still creating and enabling opportunities for technological advancement on a global scale.

The start of Silicon Valley’s influence on American political practices dates back to a landmark lawsuit between the federal government of the United States and Microsoft in 1998.7 Already on its way to become... government assumed a “hands-off” approach towards tech companies, loosening tax return requirements for internet companies and creating a “digital free zone.”10 By the end of the decade, however, the company’s size and alleged anticompetitive business practices attracted the attention of regulators within the Clinton administration, who were being encouraged by lobbyists from Microsoft’s competitors, like... The judge found that Microsoft’s position in the market did constitute a monopoly, which threatened both competition and innovation in the industry.13 Microsoft was ordered to break into two separate entities, one for operating... After appealing the decision, Microsoft instead reached a settlement with the Department of Justice in 2001, preventing a break-up.14 Nevertheless, the landmark lawsuit made one thing clear for Silicon Valley tech giants: you have...

People Also Search

• Silicon Valley vs. American politics | Benton Institute for Broadband ...
• Silicon Valley vs. American politics - POLITICO
• Silicon Valley's 'Little Tech Agenda' Marks Shift in Trump-Tech Relations
• Silicon Valley vs. American politics | by Derek... - Scoop.it
• From 'useful idiots' to the White House: How Silicon Valley learned to ...
• Silicon Valley's political involvement began long before Musk and Bezos
• In Silicon Valley, tech leaders' support of Trump creates a divide | AP ...
• Silicon Valley workers learn to worry about their politics | Benton ...
• Silicon Valley's Political Shift: A Tug-of-War Between Progressivism ...
• The Rising Political Power of Silicon Valley - Publications ‹ Fiker ...