Big Tech had Harris’s back. Will she return the favor?
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 4 September 2024
⏱️ 32 minutes
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Summary
Vice President Kamala Harris has been supported by prominent technology executives since the beginning of her political career. She has maintained many of her Big Tech connections while also pushing tighter privacy policies,but she has left her stance on breaking up powerful tech companies largely undefined. This is at odds with the Biden administration’s commitment to antitrust enforcement, bringing lawsuits against companies like Google and Apple.
Host Martine Powers speaks with Cat Zakrzewski, a national technology policy reporter for The Post, about how Harris is navigating her close ties to Silicon Valley, and what her approach to Big Tech may be if she becomes president.
Today’s show was produced by Sabby Robinson, with help from Peter Bresnan. It was mixed by Sean Carter. It was edited by Monica Campbell and Ariel Plotnick. Thanks to Cristiano Lima-Strong for his reporting.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | As she enters the home stretch of the presidential race, Vice President Kamala Harris is pitching |
| 0:08.4 | her policies to voters. |
| 0:09.8 | Thank you everyone. |
| 0:11.4 | Thank you everyone. Thank you. Okay, let's get to business. Let's get to business. |
| 0:16.0 | All right. She talked more about her plans for the economy and immigration at the Democratic National Convention. |
| 0:23.4 | But she has been vague about one key area, big tech. |
| 0:28.8 | I will make sure that we leave the world into the future on space and artificial intelligence that |
| 0:39.0 | America not China wins the competition for the 21st century and that we strengthen not abdicate our |
| 0:47.2 | global leadership. |
| 0:50.1 | And Harris being cautious in how she talks about the tech industry is not surprising to people who've been following her career. |
| 0:57.0 | So Kamala Harris is a politician who came up in Silicon Valley's backyard. |
| 1:07.0 | She is someone whose political rise has been fueled by key tech figures who have become some of her primary donors and she's someone who has a long track |
| 1:18.0 | record of working on issues around social media and artificial intelligence. |
| 1:25.0 | That is Kat Zecresky. |
| 1:27.0 | She reports on national tech policy at the post. |
| 1:30.0 | She and our colleague Christiano Lima Strong recently looked into Harris's deep personal and financial |
| 1:36.1 | ties in Silicon Valley and how big tech's power has shifted among Democrats. One thing we've seen is really a sea change |
| 1:45.9 | in the Democratic Party's relationship |
| 1:48.2 | with the tech industry over the last decade. |
| 1:51.6 | You had President Obama who was widely seen |
| 1:55.7 | as a tech optimist who worked very closely |
| 2:00.8 | with people in Silicon Valley, frequently hosted them at the White House for events and |
... |
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