Big technology is abandoning decades of a mixture of apparent political neutrality with a marked tendency towards progressivism and Democratic candidates, especially if we compare the present with just eight years ago, when Trump was about to enter the White House. History has changed a lot in this time.
Why is it important. Big technology companies are experiencing a very different 2024 from 2016. They face the greatest regulatory threat in their history, with antitrust investigations and legislation unfavorable to their interests that threaten to dismember their empires and reduce their influence.
Trump right now represents an opportunity for them to avoid it.
The panoramic. Mark Zuckerberg’s dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago is a turning point. Tim Cook has made a striking turn: he has publicly congratulated Trump, in contrast to 2016, when after his victory he sent an email to all employees quoting Martin Luther King Jr. and defending diversity.
His message, focused on American “ingenuity, innovation and creativity,” uses terms that resonate with Trump’s rhetoric without compromising Apple’s brand.
In detail. CEOs who previously avoided politics now publicly congratulate the president-elect. The threats they pose to their companies are very great. Meta may be forced to part with WhatsApp and Instagram. Google faces a double federal investigation that jeopardizes its ownership of Chrome and part of its advertising business. Microsoft is also under scrutiny by the FTC and the ghosts of the past return to Redmond.
The global context increases the pressure. Australia has banned social networks for those under 16 years of age, a child protection exercise that underlines the end of the open bar for technology companies. Canada has sued Google for anti-competitive practices. Let’s not even talk about what happens in the European Union. The regulatory trend is global and seems unstoppable.
Between the lines. The technology industry is no longer as interested in growth as it was eight years ago. Of course he is, but now he is also looking to save himself. Specifically, save yourself from the impact that regulations that defend privacy or free competition can have on your businesses.
And they are committed to pragmatism, so they need to bring their positions closer to Trump.
The contrast. Eight years ago, a certain activism in Silicon Valley against the figure of Trump was much more common. Today tempers are surprisingly calm. It has its explanation: so far this year alone there have been more than 130,000 layoffs, in 2023 there were more than 260,000. That, and corporate policies, have been corralling political activism in the company.
All of this has transformed the work culture of the sector, less obsessed with improving the world and having it permeate their worldview, and more about pursuing business results without ambitions beyond the walls of their department. The Glassdoor report published a year ago already pointed in this direction: another phase for technology companies.
The future. The way Trump manages all these crises (the threats of a ban on TikTok, on Meta being dismembered, on Chrome leaving Google…) will determine what digital landscape the United States and the world have for the coming years.
Tech leaders are perfectly aware of this and view Trump more as businessmen and less as activists, in contrast to what happened in 2016.
Featured image | Carles Rabadà on Unsplash
In WorldOfSoftware | Silicon Valley has a problem: its engineers are beginning to look to the other side of the Pacific. Specifically towards China
