- caption
- source
- AP
- For US President Donald Trump and some of his allies,
the idea that there’s a liberal bias in tech produces the same
gut reaction as gun control and immigration. - The news website Axios reported Thursday that Trump was
not about to back down in his war on Google and other firms,
with one unnamed source calling it “an issue that’s here to
stay.” - Silicon Valley seems resigned to the long fight. “There
will be no fixing this,” a tech executive told The New York
Times.
President Donald Trump and his allies are getting ready for a
long fight with America’s tech giants.
That’s according to the news website
Axios, which says it has spoken with several of Trump’s
allies about his escalating attack on companies including Google
and Twitter.
One source told the website that the idea these platforms
contained liberal bias was getting conservatives as exercised as
the gun-control debate and immigration issues.
“It’s risen to the level of being an emotional or gut issue with
conservatives, like guns/immigration,” an unnamed Trump operative
told Axios. “It’s an issue that’s here to stay.”
Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., piled on with a similar
sentiment, saying he didn’t think the issue was “going away” or
“changing.” He added that he would support the creation of a
conservative social network meant to rival Facebook.
Trump has roasted Google for two straight days, accusing the
company of favoring liberal news articles in its search results
and
falsely suggesting it failed to promote his State of the
Union address after doing so for President Barack Obama. The
quotes from sources close to him suggest these attacks will only
continue.
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- source
- Getty / Justin Sullivan
Axios said Trump may also be using this line of attack to affect
what is discussed in next week’s Senate Intelligence Committee
hearing, during which Twitter’s CEO, Jack Dorsey; Facebook’s
chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg; and potentially the Google cofounder
Larry Page are expected to give evidence on foreign influence
operations.
Silicon Valley seems resigned to a long fight
And it appears that Silicon Valley is resigned to a rumbling war
with the president.
Kara Swisher, the editor at large for the tech website Recode,
said in a New York Times opinion
piece that social-media platforms had become such a “toxic
swamp” that it would be nearly impossible to clean them up –
particularly when they’re in the crosshairs of competing liberal
and conservative demands.
“For one set, we can’t take enough down; for another set, we
can’t leave up enough,” an unnamed tech executive told her. “One
side thinks social media enabled populism, while the other thinks
the opposite. There will be no fixing this.”