Escalating GOP pressure against Big Tech, Trump’s allies target Biden’s nominees who have worked for – or even advised – Apple, Amazon, Google or Facebook.
Driving the news: The Center for American Restoration, a think tank formed by the director of the Trump-era Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought, wrote a letter to Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) And to Republican senators on Friday urging them to reject those indicated by Big Tech ties.
The big picture: Powerful factions on the left and right are uniting around a similar goal: to keep the influence of technology outside the Biden government.
- Republican groups aligned with Trump who promote an anti-technology message are motivated by an argument that big tech companies have a lot of power over conservative speech and that antitrust laws should involve them.
- In November, 32 progressive groups wrote to the Biden government calling for a rejection of Big Tech’s influence, arguing that its business practices are detrimental to consumers and the economy.
What they are saying: “We ask you and the Republican Senate conference to reject nominees for antitrust enforcement positions if those nominees worked as lawyers, lobbyists or consultants for major technology companies like Apple, Amazon, Google or Facebook,” says the letter shared with Axios .
- Vought’s group, a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization, intends to continue to press on the cultural issues on which Trump has assembled his base, such as electoral fraud and the power of big technology and social media, previously reported Lachlan Markay from Axios.
- The letter is signed by more than a dozen other conservative groups, including the Conservative Partnership Institute, the Internet Accountability Project and the Media Research Center.
Between the lines: Candidates that the Biden government is examining for key antitrust enforcement functions in the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice generally have no direct ties to Big Tech, so the request is more symbolic than anything.
- Attacking technology companies is a rare area of alignment left and right, but it has been largely driven by opposing underlying ideologies.