Donald Trump was inaugurated on January 20 for his second term as the President of the United States. As the Republican president of a politically divided country, many U.S. citizens disagree with his policies, ideas, and cabinet choices. A recently popular point of discussion is Trump’s incorporation of tech billionaire Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, into his administration as Head of the Department of Government Efficiency: a new government department introduced by President Trump. As the future of Trump’s term becomes the present, we wonder how his presidency will affect the country’s tech industry.
Mark Zuckerberg, one of the largest tech industry leaders in the world, sat behind President Trump during his inauguration, among other tech bosses. Although Zuckerberg, who was once a backer of liberal causes, was never one to officially reveal his political ideology, US citizens have noticed he has become more open to tying himself to the Republican right. Mr. Pardini, US citizen and teacher at SHC, is disturbed by Zuckerberg’s political switch, but his move was not surprising.
How do you feel about tech leaders switching sides of the political spectrum?
I’m disgusted by it: hypocrisy of any kind, regardless of my own politics. To go one route and then to change your route only because the person in power has a different political set from what you previously espoused. I mean, what does that mean about your foundation as a human being, your integrity? It’s just, on the other hand, I never really had a high opinion of the integrity of some of these tech leaders, Zuckerberg, for instance. Not that I’m close friends with him, but just from what I’ve learned about him or Bezos or definitely not Musk.
Large businesses have always held some sort of power within the federal government. However, this new wave of billionaire “tech bros” who backed President Trump’s campaign with millions of dollars in campaign donations is filled with individuals who have been in the public spotlight for years. Whereas before, the wealthy individuals involved in the government may not have been very relevant in popular culture, Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos, and more are all extremely recognizable figures. We interviewed Ms. Apablasa and asked her how she felt about major corporations being politically involved in the US.
How do you feel about major tech corporations involving themselves in the government?
I’m wary of any big corporations’ influence on our government. And so the du jour, like, the big corporation of the day is tech. So I was a little bit alarmed seeing, you know, the bros sitting in the second row at the inauguration, but this has happened for years? Of course, it has. Right? So, of course, there’s a bunch of corporations at these events. It’s just our eyes are on it right now because of the scope and sequence of or because of the major scope of social media and technology companies. Right? So I just think we’re all just paying attention now, whereas in the past, these people, these billionaires, they’ve always been invited to the inauguration. I think we’re just seeing it, I think, a little more clearly now.
But there is another angle to this story: tech itself. To understand Trump’s relationship with tech and all of the policies he’s created thus far, we spoke to the Vice President of Communications at YouTube for a better look at how it affects the company as a whole.
How do the new Trump policies change how the big tech companies operate?
Let’s take, for example, DEI. So the executive order was essentially the president saying he didn’t want government agencies to employ diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. And he was going to demand that they all stop. But in addition to that, he talked about government companies that had contracts with the government. So that could be any company that potentially has a contract with the government. So those are the kinds of specifics that a company has to look into. There’s another one, another executive order when it comes to online censorship. There’s a suspicion that it’s going to require the government to turn over documents about tech companies’ correspondence with the Biden administration, which isn’t that different from what Jim Jordan was asking for in Congress over the last several years to kind of see if the Biden administration was applying pressure to tech companies to remove content or censor content.
So a lot of media likes to claim that YouTube censors conservative voices. Do you anticipate policies changing?
I don’t. So I don’t anticipate policies being put into place that would force YouTube to change its policies. I think there’s been a movement on both the left and the right to get rid of something they call CDA 230, which they believe provides tech platforms with immunity. What it does is it allows us to enable free speech without being held live liable for sets of free speech. So we would have to censor more because we would be so worried that the content uploaded to YouTube, if we were responsible for it, was illegal, or it was wrong in some way, and we were going to be sued for it. And similarly, like on something like hate speech, we have zero tolerance for hate speech on YouTube. But one of the things that we were realizing in the wake of the conflict in Israel, and Gaza, with the Palestinians, was we were removing content that was being broadcast on national television shows because it was too violent. And if television shows could show it, and YouTube wasn’t, we felt like that wasn’t the right outcome. And so we loosened our hate speech policy in that particular instance, because we wanted, as long as it had what we call EDSA, or EDSTA content, which is educational, documentary, scientific, or artistic. And the idea is, as long as you’re explaining what’s happening, so a battle in Ukraine or a conflict between, you know, Israeli soldiers and Palestinian soldiers or Hamas soldiers, as long as you provide some context on it, it should be allowed on the site.
What do you think has made the public realize only recently that big corporations have influence in our government?
I don’t know if this is all of it, but I think sometimes we don’t know the names and faces of a lot of the CEOs of major corporations. Right? But we certainly do with Elon. We certainly do with Zuckerberg. We certainly do with Bezos. Right? Because their names and faces are so visible and out there. Whereas I feel like maybe pre-social media, these influences could move a little bit more silently and a little more with a little more anonymity.
Trump’s relationship with Big Tech has been a scare for everyone—but no one is as anxious for the future as Gen Z, whose generation has grown inseparable with their phones. Some are upset that they might not be able to use TikTok anymore; others are concerned with the threat of oligarchy and corruption. But for high schooler Noah Fink, a senior here at SHC, the only cause for fear, he thinks, is fear itself. He worries about Big Tech’s ability to divide—but he sees our own ability to connect to one another as an even more powerful force. As a part of SHC’s trip to Washington D.C. to witness the inauguration, he regarded this polarity first hand.
What do you think about the way that leaders in tech, such as Mark Zuckerberg, have changed their political platform in the past election cycle?
They’re just trying to gauge what is going on in the political climate, and how that’s going to affect their businesses, and how they’re going to make the most money, and still retain their power. I mean, both Trump and Zuckerberg seem to just go whichever way the wind flows, and the wind flows towards hatred right now.
What kind of emotions did you see on display when you were in D.C.? How were people’s reactions to Trump’s Inauguration?
There were different people from around the country, and there were people who went full out; they brought their support with Trump flags and Trump merch. And every word that Trump spoke, they fed into it, and they were loving it. And then people with a more liberal point of view were offended, even appalled.
Did you yourself witness any kind of disagreements between the differing political groups at this inauguration event?
I noticed a lot of people on the trip wanted to get into it with [Trump supporters] and see why they voted for Trump. But what I found interesting is people who are heavy conservatives and believe everything [Trump] says, still have good human policies with them. Someone helped me, who’s a Trump supporter; he helped me iron my shirt. So I feel like all this new way of how politics are going, it’s so polarized. It’s almost hard to see that we, as a human body, can still act and treat each other like humans.
There are many unique perspectives on the effects of incorporating technology with politics. As the US continues to be a leading contributor in the industry, both tech giants and their innovations are changing the status quo beyond the nature of familiar political standpoints. The question on what happens next remains at the forefront of Trump’s current term and will continue for many years.
