Silicon Valley Is Coconuts for Kamala Harris: Why Biden’s Exit from the Race is a “Coupling”

Today on WIRED Politics Lab, how Democratic megadonors in Silicon Valley are showing their support for Vice President Kamala Harris now that President Joe Biden has dropped out of the race. Republican and far-right lawmakers have called Biden’s exit a “coup” on the internet.

Harris immediately confirmed that she is running and promised to fight in order to win the election.

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Source: Silicon Valley Is Coconuts for Kamala Harris

Kamala Harris and the tech policy: what we know (and don’t know) about tech policy (and how we can help them stay in the country)

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When avoiding the question about breaking up large tech in the future, Harris said that the companies need to be regulated in a way that ensures their privacy is not being compromised. Her first priority is to make sure that privacy is intact.

Harris, who was born in Oakland, has some personal connections in the tech industry as well. Her brother-in-law, for example, is Uber’s Chief Legal Officer Tony West. The Washington Post says that she was at the wedding of Sean Parker, the former president of Facebook.

Tech and entertainment companies were among the top contributors to Harris’s 2020 presidential campaign. The University of California gave the most money to her campaign, according to Open Secrets, a nonpartisan organization that tracks political donations. Harris raised $144,00 from Alphabet, $137,000 from Disney, and $134,000 from AT&T.

The right has already zeroed in on Harris’s tenure as so-called “border czar,” even though her actual role was focused on diplomacy with Central America. Biden has policies regarding legal immigration and visas that would likely be continued by Harris. A key interest of the tech sector is in maintaining or expanding the H-1B visa program, which lets high-skilled workers remain in the country to work in highly specialized jobs. The Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act would remove caps for employment-based green cards, according to a press release. She said in a statement that we need to do more to remove discrimination and encourage family unity in order for high-skilled immigrants to stay and contribute to the economy. She has not spoken on the issue more recently.

Source: Here’s what we know (and don’t know) about Kamala Harris and tech policy

The Secretaries of Silicon Valley: On The Status Of Silicon Valley Under Trump, Biden, Vance, and Theoretical Expectations

Nevertheless, the US is still not on track to meet climate goals it set under the Paris agreement of slashing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 percent by the end of the decade. Donald Trump could try to wipe existing climate policies off the books.

The Biden administration managed to pass legislation marking the biggest investments in clean energy and climate yet in the US. And the Environmental Protection Agency under Biden and Harris has introduced sweeping new pollution regulations for cars, power plants, and industrial facilities. All in all, the measures could transform the way Americans get around, how their homes are built, and how they get their energy.

Harris has been tasked with addressing the root causes of immigration from Central America. In that role, she focused in part on strengthening the economics of the region and secured private sector commitments from companies including Meta to help train entrepreneurs and small business owners there, and help women build their online presence and access financial services. Under Biden, the Department of Homeland Security has ramped up its use of border surveillance technology, a practice that could continue during a Harris presidency.

Meanwhile, Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance have indicated they would be open to a less regulated environment for crypto — Trump is even slated to speak at a crypto conference over the weekend. This deregulatory attitude has attracted large sums of money to Republican party campaigns from the crypto industry and other high net worth individuals. (Their firm, a16z, has a $4.5 billion crypto fund.)

The VP is likely to become the Democratic presidential candidate. She was suddenly catapulted to front-runner status for the Democratic presidential nomination after President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign and endorsed her for the position, and now key power brokers in the party have publicly backed her. Harris has roots in California’s Bay Area which is the heart of the tech industry.

We know where she stands on climate, we know what she feels about privacy, and we know a lot of things, but there are still a lot of unanswered questions that she has yet to answer. She remains an enigma over the tech antitrust and TikTok ban. She hasn’t spoken to the issues that concern the moneyed donor class of Silicon Valley.

“I think this is a big opportunity for the Democratic Party to do a little bit of introspection and say — where have they lost certain communities?” Box CEO Aaron Levie, who frequently donates to Democratic candidates, told The Verge in an interview. He said the party has seen “missed opportunities” with the tech and business community, like in pushing for taxes on unrealized gains and failing to update the H-1B visa program for high-skilled workers. He hopes that the tone and message of the party will lead to a reset on some of the policy initiatives.

Source: Here’s what we know (and don’t know) about Kamala Harris and tech policy

Kamala Harris, tech policy, and the U.K. Summit: What we know (and don’t know) about Facebook, or Why we should not enforce it

Still, she left the possibility of enforcement open. She told CNN that they have to look at breaking up Facebook. She said that the platform was a utility that went unregulated.

Silicon Valley, which has differing views on antitrust, is where Harris will find some friends, whichever path she chooses. (The most direct beneficiaries of antitrust policy, after all, are the rival companies.) Levie said there were no dinners where three people could agree on an antitrust policy. I have friends who are ardent supporters of capitalism, free markets and Lina Khan who is fond of keeping Big Tech in check.

There is one area of privacy in which Harris has had a strong, substantive record: legislation and enforcement targeting the sharing of non-consensual images. This issue is an extension of her work around sex traffickers on the internet and it hasn’t resulted in a generalized policy position on data privacy.

She began working in this area before heading to Washington, DC. While she was California attorney general, Harris secured a guilty plea over a hacking scheme to steal intimate images off of people’s Google accounts.

As the vice president she was responsible for being a point of contact for the administration on a number of issues, including Artificial Intelligence, labor, and civil rights.

Companies and labs developing advanced artificial intelligence are facing greater regulatory scrutiny due to the technology’s associated risks, including privacy issues, bias and discrimination, deepfakes, and the controversial potential of artificial general intelligence. Tech leaders such as Openai CEO Sam Altman have called for the government to regulate Artificial Intelligence.

When people around the world cannot discern truth from fiction, is that not a problem for democracy? Harris said at the U.K. summit.

Source: Here’s what we know (and don’t know) about Kamala Harris and tech policy

TikTok and the Biden Sensitivities to Crypto-Aware Market Regulatory Reform: A Brief Report from the New York Times DealBook Summit

The popular social media platform TikTok could be phased out in January if ByteDance doesn’t sell it off. Harris told reporters a ban wasn’t the goal even after President Biden signed the bill.

Harris didn’t say anything when asked about her views on TikTok during the New York Times DealBook summit in November.

The Biden administration has had a less-than-rosy relationship with the crypto industry due to Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler’s stance on how it should be regulated. Even if Harris puts in her own SEC chair pick, she should be able to improve relations with the sector.