Trump Tech
From Tech Bros to AI, here's what we're reading after the election 🤓
Hi friends. As you might have heard, something happened in the news this week.
Like us, you’re probably still processing it all. Perhaps you’re avoiding it entirely. But if not, take a look at this quick roundup of what we’ve been reading to get to grips with what Trump’s victory means for our digital rights. Looks like we’re not going to be short of topics to work on in the coming years…
👾 BROS. Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s ‘relationship’ has dominated headlines but many other Tech Bros have sent their congrats to the President-elect, seeking to cosy up to him in anticipation of what he might (or more likely, won’t) do on tech regulation.
👾 AI. Trump believes AI should only be lightly regulated, and has vowed to repeal Biden’s AI Executive Order on “day one.” This would undo some of the progress made following the directive, from combatting AI-generated sexual abuse to datacentre regulation.
👾 MONOPOLY. Big Tech companies hold enormous power designed to protect their profits, not the public. We believe breaking up their monopolies could transform our digital world, giving people freedom to choose tech that is designed to serve them. But Trump is likely to dial back some antitrust cases, including attempts to break up Google over its dominance in online search and ad tech.
👾 EUROPE. Trump’s return is unlikely to be good news for US-EU relations. In June, the European Commission alleged that Musk’s platform X is breaching the Digital Services Act with its deceptive design of verified users, lack of advertising transparency and failure to give researchers access to data.
👾 DISINFO. Considering Trump’s own history of spreading disinformation, experts have said we’re unlikely to see reforms that deal with harmful content related to politically sensitive topics over the next four years.
With such a bleak outlook, it’s easy to despair. But we’ve been here before. And we know from experience that channelling our fear into action is what will get us through the next four years. Stick with us and we promise to keep campaigning, reporting and informing you of Big Tech and their algorithms' latest dirty tricks.
We’ll be back with our regular newsletter next week. Thank you!
Rasha Abdul-Rahim
Interim Executive Director, People vs Big Tech