“Big Tech” has become an interesting target for Republicans running for Senate this year, using it to decry the censorship of conservative voices on social media, the invasion of privacy and the corruption of America’s youth.
But for three candidates in the hottest races in 2022 — Blake Masters, JD Vance and Mehmet Oz — the condemnation has a complication: they have deep ties to the industry as investors, promoters or employees. Moreover, their work involved some questionable use of consumer data that they are now criticizing.
Mr. Masters and Mr. Vance accepted the contradictions with the zeal of the converts.
“Basically, it’s my experience working in Silicon Valley and working with these companies that gave me this perspective,” said Mr. Masters, who entered Arizona’s Republican primary for Senate with the wind at his back on Tuesday. on Wednesday. “As they grew, they became more widespread and more powerful.
On his campaign website for Ohio’s open Senate seat, Mr. Vance called for the disbanding of big tech firms: “I know the technology industry very well. I’ve worked and invested in it, and I’m sick of politicians who talk a lot about Big Tech but do nothing. The technology industry promises us a better life and faster communication; Instead, it steals our personal information, sells it to the Chinese, then censors conservatives and more.
But some tech activists aren’t buying it so easily, especially two political newcomers who lead the Senate, bankrolled by Peter Thiel, Facebook’s first foreign investor and a longtime board member of the tech giant. Mr. Thiel’s own company, Palantir, works closely with federal military, intelligence and law enforcement agencies eager to access its classified data analysis technology.
“There’s a huge and very profitable industry in tracking what you do online,” said Sacha Haworth, executive director of the Tech Regulatory Project, which pushes for stricter regulations on tech companies. Regardless of these candidates’ prospects in the Senate, I think Peter Thiel is investing in his future if he invests in them.
Mr. Master, a Mr. Thiel protégé and former chief executive of Thiel’s venture capital firm, oversaw investments in Palantir and strove to spread the technology, which analyzes mountains of raw data that customers can use. .
Dr. Oz, a Republican representative for an open Senate seat in Pennsylvania, was part of a consortium of investors that founded Sharecare, a website that gives users a chance to ask questions about health and wellness — and a chance for businesspeople from the health care industry to answer them.
Sharecare’s RealAge Test feature quizzed tens of millions of users on their health characteristics, ostensibly to shave years off their age, and then paid the test results to clients in the pharmaceutical industry.
Mr. Vance, who is running for the Republican nomination in Ohio, and another Thiel student, used Mr. Thiel’s money to form the venture capital firm Naria Capital, which helped back Halo, a Catholic prayer and meditation app whose privacy policy allows it to share some user data. For targeted advertising.
The Vance campaign said the candidate’s stake in Hallow did not give him or the firm decision-making power, and Hallow CEO Alex Jones said personal and sensitive information, such as journal entries or reflections, is encrypted and not sold, rented or otherwise shared. Data brokers. It said that “confidential personal information” was not shared with “any advertising partners”.
All three Senate candidates have targeted the tech industry in their campaigns, railing against the collection of data from unsuspecting users and the invasion of privacy by greedy corporations.
In the year In a stunning video posted in July 2021, Mr. Masters said, “The Internet that is supposed to give us a wonderful future is instead being used to shut us down.”
Mr. Vance, in a campaign Facebook video, suggested that Congress make data collection — or at least disclosure — illegal before tech companies can “collect our data and sell it back to us in the form of targeted advertising.”
In December Shortly after announcing the campaign, a video appearedDr. Oz said, “I’ve taken on Big Pharma, I’ve gone to war with Big Tech, I’ve gone out with agrochem companies, big companies, and I have the scars to prove it.
It’s not surprising that many candidates for the top job have deep ties to the technology industry, said Michael Rosen, an associate fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, who has written extensively about the industry. Currently, this is where the money is, with access to technology reaching across the healthcare, social media, hardware and software, and consumer electronics industries.
“What’s novel about this cycle is that there are candidates on the right who are arguing for the government to regulate and regulate these companies because, in their view, they can’t be trusted to regulate themselves,” Mr. Rosen said.
“I am surprised that a free-market, conservative-style candidate thinks the government can do a fairer and more reliable job of policing and regulating speech than the private sector does.”
Left-leaning technologists say candidates like Mr. Masters and Mr. Vance are Trojan horses, taking popular moves to win federal offices with no interest in pursuing those positions in the Senate.
Ms. Haworth, whose group targets platforms such as Facebook and Amazon, said states such as California are moving forward with regulations that prevent online marketers from directing consumers to certain products or influencing them inappropriately.
She said she believes that if Republicans take control of Congress, they will impose weaker federal laws to replace state regulations.
“Democrats need to call out the hypocrisy here,” she said.
Mr. Masters said that empowering the government to control technology would lead to a different type of abuse, but “in this age of network monopoly, the answer is not to throw up your hands and shout ‘laissez-faire’.” correct.’
Multinational technology companies such as Google and Facebook have an edge over incumbent national governments, Mr Masters said.
“When I’m in the United States Senate, I mean everything I say,” he said of the “Trojan horse” saying.
It is not clear whether such complex issues will affect the fall campaigns. Jim Lamon, Mr. Masters’ Republican Senate rival in Arizona, has run ads portraying him as a “fake” scapegoat for California’s tech industry — but to limited effect. In a debate this month, Mr. Lamon said Mr. Masters. It was “owned”. By Big Tech Paymasters.
But under former President Donald J. Mr. Masters, a Trump endorser, appears to be the favorite for the nomination.
Mr. Vance’s Democratic opponent in Ohio, Tim Ryan, spoke about the 2016 election. Big Tech billionaires drinking wine in Silicon Valley and the Republican campaign bank.
Dr. Oz’s Democratic opponent in Pennsylvania, John Fetterman, did not raise the issue.
Mr. Vance’s spokesman, Taylor Van Kirk, said he took his pledge to limit the influence of tech companies seriously.
“JD has been vocal for a long time about his desire to dismantle Big Tech and hold them accountable for their losses,” she said. He strongly believes that in order to protect the constitutional rights of Americans, they must reduce their power over our politics and economy.
Representatives for the Oz campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
