As Silicon Valley eyes US election, beware Elon Musk and the tech bros with political nous | John Naughton
Way back in the 1960s “the personal is political” was a powerful slogan capturing the reality of power dynamics within marriages.Today, an equally meaningful slogan might be that “the technological is political”, to reflect the way that a small number of global corporations have acquired political clout within liberal democracies.If anyone doubted that, then the recent appearance of Elon Musk alongside Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania provided useful confirmation of how technology has moved centre-stage in American politics.Musk may be a manchild with a bad tweeting habit, but he also owns the company that is providing internet connectivity to Ukrainian troops on the battlefield; and his rocket has been chosen by Nasa to be the vehicle to land the next Americans on the moon.Sign up to ObservedAnalysis and opinion on the week's news and culture brought to you by the best Observer writers after newsletter promotionThere was a time when the tech industry wasn’t much interested in politics.
It didn’t need to be because politics at the time wasn’t interested in it.Accordingly, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon and Apple grew to their gargantuan proportions in a remarkably permissive political environment.When democratic governments were not being dazzled by the technology, they were asleep at the wheel; and antitrust regulators had been captured by the legalistic doctrine peddled by Robert Bork and his enablers in the University of Chicago Law School – the doctrine that there was little wrong with corporate dominance unless it was harming consumers.The test for harm was price-gouging, and since Google’s and Facebook’s services were “free”, where was the harm, exactly? And though Amazon’s products weren’t free, the company was ruthlessly undercutting competitors’ prices and pandering to customers’ need for next-day delivery.Again: where was the harm in that?It took an unconscionable time for this regulatory slumber to end, but end it finally did on Joe Biden’s watch.
US regulators, led by Jonathan Kanter at the Department of Justice (DOJ), and Lina Khan at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), rediscovered their mojo.And then in August the DoJ dramatically won an antitrust lawsuit in which the judge ruled that Google was indeed a “monopolist” which had taken anticompetitive steps to preserve its 90% share of search.The DOJ is now proposing “remedies” for this abusive behaviour, ranging from obvious ones like barring Google from contracts such as the one it has with Apple to make it the default search engine on its devices to the “nuclear” option of breaking up the company.The shock of this verdict to the tech industry has been palpable, and has led some movers and shakers in the Valley to think that maybe electing Trump might not be such a bad idea after all.Some of the loudmouths like Marc Andreessen – and, of course, Musk – have explicitly come out for Trump, but at least 14 other tech moguls are providing more discreet support.
And although quite a few tech leaders have – belatedly – come out for Kamala Harris, some are doing so with some reservations.Reid Hoffmann, the founder of LinkedIn, for example, donated $10m to her campaign, but says he wants her to fire Lina Khan from the FTC.The most dramatic evidence of how Silicon Valley lost its political virginity, though, comes from the extraordinary amounts of money that cryptocurrency companies have been putting into the election campaign.The New Yorker reports that crypto companies have already sunk “more than a hundred million dollars” into so-called SuperPACS supporting crypto-friendly candidates.The interesting thing is that this money seems to be aimed not so much at influencing who wins the presidency as at ensuring that the “right” people get elected to the House and the Senate.
This suggests a level of political nous that would have been disdained by the early pioneers of the tech industry in the 1960s.Technology might not have been political then; but it sure is just now.John Naughton is professor of the public understanding of technology at the Open University
Jack Leach felt like a Bazball ‘fraud’ but has found his England mojo again
At the start of the summer Jack Leach found himself out of the Test side and not sure how much fun he was having. The previous year had been ruined by a stress fracture of his back, the start of this one by a knee injury, and just as he returned to first-team cricket he fielded a call from Brendon McCullum telling him he was not going to be in England’s next Test squad. “After a long time out with injury,” he said, “I felt that might be it.”Now he is back in the team and back in Rawalpindi, where on his last visit he took what he considers “probably my favourite wicket” to win the first Test of the 2022 series against Pakistan, and where in the buildup to Thursday’s series decider, ground staff are busy cooking up a pitch they hope will suit their own spinners but might just help their opponents’ too.In between he had one of his best English summers, taking 45 wickets at 22
The Browns’ sad and seedy Deshaun Watson era nears its predictable endpoint
The QB’s injury confirmed what most of us already knew: the Browns’ decision to give him $230m was the worst in NFL historyCleveland’s fanbase came into Sunday’s home Browns-Bengals showdown steeped in feelings. Some of them greeted their own quarterback, Deshaun Watson, with deafening boos as he ran on to the field. If there was any doubt about how many fans feel about Watson, the same crowd showered running back Nick Chubb with cheers at an even higher decibel as he made his return from a lengthy injury layoff.Watson looks like he is headed for a lengthy period on the sidelines himself: in the second quarter, he went down with what ESPN reported is a ruptured achilles. His season is over
LeBron James rips WNBA referees over controversial call in Liberty’s finals win
Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve said the WNBA championship was “stolen” from the Lynx during her complaints about the officiating Sunday night.The New York Liberty beat the Lynx 67-62 in Game 5 in overtime, getting there after a disputed foul gave Breanna Stewart two free throws that tied the game with 5.2 seconds remaining in regulation.“We know we could have done some things, right, but you shouldn’t have to overcome to that extent,” Reeve said. “This shit ain’t that hard
WNBA finals Game 5: New York Liberty beat Minnesota Lynx in OT to win first title – as it happened
And so a culture-changing season in the WNBA comes to a close. Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese dominated the headlines during the season, but we’re ending with a dramatic finale that showcased the depth of talent in the league.Bryan Armen Graham was on the scene:That’s a wrap. Next up in women’s sports: the NWSL playoffs, coming up soon.What was the betting line on her winning instead of Stewart or Ionescu?Thoroughly deserved
New York Liberty hold off Minnesota Lynx in overtime to win first WNBA title
The New York Liberty are WNBA champions for the first time in their 28-year history after coming from behind to defeat the Minnesota Lynx 67-62 in overtime on Sunday night in a heart-stopping winner-take-all Game 5 of the finals.Jonquel Jones scored 17 points to lead New York on a night when her teammates Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu struggled mightily on the offensive end, combining for 5-of-34 shooting from the floor. The Liberty became the first men’s or women’s basketball team from New York to raise a banner since the ABA’s Nets back in 1976, sending a sellout crowd of 18,090 fans into a state of bedlam at the buzzer.“I could never dream of this,” said the Bahamian-born Jones, a first-time WNBA champion who was named Most Valuable Player of the finals after averaging 17.8 points and 7
Lando Norris hits out at ‘rushed decision’ on penalty after passing Verstappen
Lando Norris and the McLaren team principal, Andrea Stella, have condemned the FIA stewards, claiming they incorrectly interfered in the US Grand Prix, costing Norris third place and vital points in his world championship battle with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who took the place after Norris was given a penalty.The two drivers had engaged in a gripping fight for the final ten laps of the race , which was won by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Norris and Verstappen had vied with one another with great skill when Norris went round the outside of turn 12 to pass but in so doing both drivers went off track. Norris was then given a five-second penalty by the stewards for making the overtake off track, and their positions in third and fourth were reversed after they had crossed the line.Norris believed the stewards had been too hasty in their decision
As Silicon Valley eyes US election, beware Elon Musk and the tech bros with political nous | John Naughton
Quit if you don’t like our office-working policy, Amazon executive suggests
AI-generated child sexual abuse imagery reaching ‘tipping point’, says watchdog
AI mediation tool may help reduce culture war rifts, say researchers
Watchdog opens investigation into anti-immigrant posts on Facebook
Meta fires staff for ‘using free meal vouchers to buy household goods’