“I believe the former president should be responsible for his words, and the people who broke the law should be responsible for their actions”. A lot has changed since this quote. The “former president” is president once again, and Mark Zuckerberg, the author of this quote was a first-row invitee at Trump’s inauguration last Monday. And he was not the only one. Other tech CEOs like Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Google’s Sundar Pichai and Apple’s Tim Cook all got courtside seats for the new-old president’s inauguration tirade. Not to mention Musk’s infamous cabinet appointment, where he was tasked to make bureaucracy more ‘efficient’.Their U-turn is remarkable, especially considering the progressive, anti-government origins of these tech titans. Instead, they are now backtracking on inclusivity measures, hate speech regulations and fact-checking services to please the new political regime. The burning question is, how have the once anti-government tech titans become the state itself?
‘Move fast and break things’
The quote attributed to Zuckerberg reflected a radical creativity seeking to disrupt systems for innovation’s sake. This mentality defined the rugged early years of virtually all Silicon Valley startups, who wanted to capitalise on the rapid growth of the internet boom. Their main source of ideological inspiration was Ayn Rand’s objectivism. Her philosophy was based on self-interested rationality, with individuals being the world itself. Her famous idea that once one dies, the whole world dies galvanised tech moguls, to shape the world into their own image. Apple’s motto, Think Different captures this anti-establishment sentiment perfectly.
The tech-optimists were inspired by creating a utopia, where machines and people would work together in perfect harmony. Technologies could disrupt the status quo, and power would be decentralised in the hands of small tech communities. You could buy or sell things on EBay without needing permission from the government, organise protests on Facebook, voice your opinion on Twitter, without being in a public space. In short, technology would allow individuals to shape their own future, without being limited by institutions. The tech titans were blazing a new trail in history.
Abandoning the utopia
Their heroic visions, nonchalant outfits and flashy presentations charmed the world. There seemed to be a world of difference between the stuffy corporate leaders and the Messianic tech utopists. At least that’s what they thought. Their bank accounts went from zero to billions in a few decades, and the power they wielded over society became immense. The tech titans quickly turned into moguls, with control over cloud services, public speech, data, online transactions, essentially all facets of our lives.
Decisively, the 2016 Elections alongside the Brexit Referendum raised serious questions about the subversiveness of tech companies in our lives. As the documentary The Great Hack exposed the way Facebook has been selling data unethically, while evading accountability. Furthermore, Amazon’s corporate tax scandal, which revealed that the multi-billion venture did not pay a single dollar of income tax in 2018, significantly degraded their image in the public eye. It seemed as if the tech titans were just as unethical, as the institutions they seeked to overturn. The crucial difference was, they now wielded more power than anyone in history before.
They realised that in order to expand their power further, they needed to band together to fight governments. Anti-competitive legislation adopted by the European Commission, as well as the Biden administration’s efforts to reign in the power of tech moguls inspired them to create a united front.
Pledge of allegiance?
It was clear that the tech utopia dreamed up by the likes of Musk and Zuckerberg was in shambles. The once anti-establishment startups are now the ones in the lobbying halls of Washington and increasingly calling the shots. Their ‘united front’ demonstrated during Trump’s inauguration day was a sight to behold. The ones dreaming up the digital system we live in, now turned against it and abandoned their values to secure political and economic power. While the prospects of the ever-expanding tech empire seem frightening (with the rapid rise of AI and intentions to colonise Mars), it is unclear whether the pledge of allegiance will hold for long.
Evidently, President Trump was elected into power again by those who are fundamentally disenchanted with the American political system. Not only are these the lowest earners in American society, but ironically also whose jobs are most threatened by the spectre of technology, specifically AI. These inconsistencies could signal tensions within the heart of power, in the not-so-long future. The fault lines are already becoming visible with Steve Bannon, Trump’s key political strategist voicing criticisms about the power of the tech giants. Another potential concern for this coalition could be the charisma and individual aspirations of each individual involved. It seems implausible that when money and power are up for grabs, the tech oligarchs and President Trump will make elegant deals. In short, we can only hope for a scenario where this coalition collapses. But what happens then?
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