For Republicans running for the Senate this year, “Big Tech” has become a catch-all target. This is a phrase used to condemn conservative voice censorship on social media, invasion of privacy, corruption of American youth, or all of the above.
But for three of the hottest races in 2022, Blake Masters, JD Vance, and Mehmetooz, the blame comes with complexity. They have deep ties to the industry as either investors, promoters or employees. In addition, their work included some of the suspicious uses of consumer data that they are currently criticizing.
Masters and Vance have accepted a contradiction with the convert’s enthusiasm.
“Basically, it’s my expertise from working in Silicon Valley and working with these companies that gave me this perspective,” said Tuesday in the Arizona Senate’s Republican primary. Said Mr. Masters who entered. on wednesday. “As they grew up, they became too popular and too powerful.”
Mr. Vance, On the Ohio Senate Campaign websiteCalled for the dissolution of a large technology company and declared: I worked on it and invested, and I’m tired of politicians who talk a lot about Big Tech but do nothing about it. The technology industry has promised a better life and faster communication for all of us. Instead, it steals our personal information, sells it to the Chinese, and censors conservatives and others. “
But some tech activists simply don’t buy it. Not so from the two political newcomers funded by Senator by Peter Thiel, Facebook’s first external investor and longtime director of the tech giant. Thiel’s own company, Palantir, works closely with federal forces, intelligence agencies, and law enforcement agencies eager to access its secret data analytics technology.
“There is a large, highly profitable industry by tracking online behavior,” said Sacha Haworth, executive director of the TechOversight Project, a new liberal interest group that demands stricter regulations for tech companies. Stated. “If Peter Thiel is investing in them, regardless of the prospects of these candidates in the Senate, I think he is investing in his future.”
Masters, a disciple of Thiel and a former chief executive officer of Thiel’s venture capital firm, oversees Palantir’s investment and analyzes large amounts of raw data to detect patterns available to clients. We pressed for the spread of technology. ..
Dr. Oz, a Republican candidate for the Senate in Pennsylvania, is part of a consortium of investors who founded Sharecare, a website that provides users with the opportunity to ask questions about health and wellness, and is responsible for marketing the healthcare industry. A chance to answer them.
Sharecare features, RealAge testGave quizzes about health attributes to tens of millions of users, helped shave tens of years on the surface, and then published test results to paying customers in the pharmaceutical industry.
Ohio’s Republican candidate and another Tiel student, Vance, used Tiel’s money to set up a venture capital firm, Narya Capital. Privacy policy allows you to share some user data For targeted advertising.
The Vance campaign said the candidate’s investment in Hello did not give him or his firm decision-making power, and Halo CEO Alex Jones said that private and sensitive data such as journal entries and reflections would be encrypted. A data broker that states that it has been encrypted and is not sold, rented, or otherwise shared. He said that “personal sensitive personal data” is not shared “with any advertising partner.”
All three Senate candidates are targeting the tech industry in campaigns to combat data collection from unprotected users and privacy breaches by greedy businesses.
and Flashy video posted in July 2021“The Internet, which was supposed to bring us a great future, is being used instead to keep us out,” Masters said.
Vance, during the campaign Facebook videoProposed that Congress make data collection illegal, or at least require disclosure, before tech companies “collect data and sell it back in the form of targeted advertising.”
In December Video appearance immediately after he announced the campaign“I took on Big Pharma, fought Big Tech, fought agrochem companies and big companies, and was hurt to prove it,” Dr. Oz declared.
Michael Rosen, an assistant fellow at the Conservative American Enterprise Institute, who writes extensively about the industry, is not surprised that high-office candidates have deep ties to the tech industry. He said there is money there these days and the reach of technology extends to industries such as healthcare, social media, hardware and software, and consumer electronics.
“What’s new in this cycle is that on the surface there are candidates on the right side who are insisting that the government intervene and regulate these companies. In their view, they regulate themselves. I can’t trust it, “Rosen said.
“The conservative type of candidate in the free market believes that the government will do more fair and reliable speech regulation and mitigation work than the private sector,” he said.
The technical expert on the left says that candidates like Masters and Vance are Trojan horses, have no intention of pursuing these positions in the Senate, and are taking a popular stance to beat the federal government. Is called.
Haworth, a group targeting platforms like Facebook and Amazon, said states like California prevent online marketers from directing consumers to specific products or overly influencing their behavior. He said he was already in the process of regulating for.
She said she believed that if Republicans ruled Congress, they would impose weak federal regulations to replace state regulations.
“The Democratic Party should call for hypocrisy here,” she said.
“The answer in this era of network monopoly is to raise your hand,” Masters said, sympathizing with concerns that empowering the government to regulate technology would only lead to another type of abuse. It’s not about shouting Laissez-faire. Fair. “
According to Masters, multinational tech companies like Google and Facebook outperform governments in power.
Regarding the “Trojan horse” claim, “I’m going to do everything I say when I’m in the US Senate,” he said.
It’s not clear if such a complex issue will affect the fall campaign. Jim Lamon, a rival to the Republican Senate of Masters in Arizona, Aired advertisement He made him Tar as a “fake” stalker horse in California’s tech industry, but with limited effectiveness.In this month’s discussion, Ramon told Masters “Owned” By his payer at Big Tech.
But with the support of former President Donald Trump, Masters seems to be a clear favorite of the nomination.
Rep. Tim Ryan, an opponent of Mr. Vance’s Democratic Party in Ohio, said “Big Tech Millionaire Drinking Wine in Silicon Valley” Bankroll Republican campaigns.
John Fetterman, an opponent of Dr. Oz’s Democratic Party in Pennsylvania, has not raised this issue.
Vance spokeswoman Taylor Van Kirk said he is taking his promise to limit the influence of tech companies very seriously.
“JD has long been open-minded about his desire to disband Big Tech and hold them accountable for their overkill,” she said. “He strongly believes that in order to protect the constitutional rights of Americans, we need to reduce their power over our politics and economy.”
The representative of the Oz campaign did not respond to the request for comment.
