{"id":152065,"date":"2021-01-11T23:32:58","date_gmt":"2021-01-11T20:32:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/big-tech-alums-to-fill-biden-posts-amid-crackdown-on-trump-allies\/"},"modified":"2021-01-11T23:32:58","modified_gmt":"2021-01-11T20:32:58","slug":"big-tech-alums-to-fill-biden-posts-amid-crackdown-on-trump-allies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/big-tech-alums-to-fill-biden-posts-amid-crackdown-on-trump-allies\/","title":{"rendered":"#Big Tech alums to fill Biden posts amid crackdown on Trump allies"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Big Tech alums to fill Biden posts amid crackdown on Trump allies<\/strong>”
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Senior employees of tech giants such as Facebook<\/a>, Google and Twitter are preparing to join President-elect Joe Biden\u2019s administration amid a digital crackdown on President Trump\u2019s supporters.<\/p>\n

The companies are purging their platforms after Wednesday\u2019s Capitol riot and break-in by Trump supporters, in the name of preventing more violence.<\/p>\n

But skeptics fear potential government-sanctioned censorship and surveillance akin to the post-9\/11 Patriot Act, which federal authorities secretly interpreted as allowing for the dragnet collection of domestic call records.<\/p>\n

Big Tech aides pouring into the Biden White House and federal agencies will give the companies access to decision-makers, including the president, potentially conflating the policies of the large companies and government. The influx also could influence other policies, including anti-trust actions and the future of Section 230 legal protections.<\/p>\n

One of the most powerful figures in the White House later this month will be Jessica Hertz, a former Facebook lawyer who will serve as Biden\u2019s White House\u00a0staff\u00a0secretary, vetting correspondence, regulations and app<\/a>ointments that will reach his desk.<\/p>\n

Emily Horne, who will broker the White House National Security Council\u2019s communications with the media, worked at Twitter from 2017-2018, according to<\/a> her LinkedIn profile. The NSC has a large staff anchored on White House grounds, and significantly influences administration policy on defense and foreign affairs.<\/p>\n

A fleet of other Big Tech vets are helping review appointments for Biden\u2019s transition office and may follow him into office after Jan. 20.<\/p>\n

Mark Schwartz from Amazon Web Services is helping vet appointments to the White House Office of Management and Budget, which controls spending policy across the federal bureaucracy. <\/p>\n

Google global program manager Deon Scott is reviewing applicants to the Department of Homeland Security, Facebook strategic response aide\u00a0Zaid Zaid is on the Biden vetting team for State Department jobs, Facebook associate general<\/a> counsel Christopher Upperman is working on the Small Business Administration and Facebook\u00a0director of strategic response\u00a0Rachel Lieber is vetting spy agency staff.<\/p>\n

Amazon international tax director Tom Sullivan is vetting State Department appointments and Cynthia Hogan, who led Apple\u2019s lobbying as vice president for public policy and government affairs, previously helped with Biden\u2019s VP selection vetting.<\/p>\n

In DC, a widely accepted axiom says \u201cpersonnel is policy,\u201d and civil libertarians are expressing concern after the companies censored Trump and his allies.<\/p>\n

Twitter canceled Trump\u2019s account Friday night and purged many accounts belonging to right-wingers, as well as Trump allies Michael Flynn and Sidney Powell, who backed Trump\u2019s claims that voter fraud gave Biden a win \u2014 despite court rulings to the contrary.<\/p>\n

Facebook and Instagram, meanwhile, banned Trump from using the networks through at least Biden\u2019s inauguration on Jan. 20, expressing concern that he would incite violence. <\/p>\n

As Trump fans migrated to upstart Parler to communicate, Google and Apple dropped the platform from its app stores and Amazon has booted the network from its servers, taking the site offline completely.<\/p>\n

Journalist Glenn Greenwald, whose reporting on whistleblower Edward Snowden\u2019s 2013 mass surveillance revelations won a Pulitzer Prize, tweeted<\/a>, \u201cHistory moves quickly. The 9\/11 attack was 20 years ago. That means nobody under 35, maybe 40, has a real political memory of it. Liberals begging corporations to censor \u2018extremist\u2019 speech. Emotions exploited to demand quick new anti-terrorism laws & powers? The same dynamic.\u201d<\/p>\n

The American Civil Liberties Union\u2019s senior legislative counsel Kate Ruane said<\/a>, \u201cWe understand the desire to permanently suspend [Trump] now, but it should concern everyone when companies like Facebook and Twitter wield the unchecked power to remove people from platforms that have become indispensable for the speech of billions \u2014 especially when political realities make those decisions easier.\u201d<\/p>\n

Journalist Michael Tracey, a past supporter of socialist Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, wrote<\/a>, \u201cThe new corporate authoritarian liberal-left monoculture is going to be absolutely ruthless \u2014 and in 12 days it is merging with the state. This [is] only the beginning\u2026 The real \u2018threat\u2019 at this point is crazed oligarchs + politicians using the \u201ccrisis\u201d to consolidate power.\u201d <\/p>\n

He added: \u201cNotice that the threat of \u2018violence\u2019 Twitter says justifies their political purge never applies to traditional forms of state violence \u2014 Trump\u2019s tweets announcing bombings or assassinations were never seen as necessitating some disciplinary intervention in the name of \u2018safety\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the Nov. 3 election, Republicans rallied in October to repeal Section 230 of the Communications Decency following Twitter and Facebook censorship of The Post\u2019s reporting on documents from Hunter Biden\u2019s laptop, which appeared to link the elder Biden, then-Democratic presidential candidate, to his son\u2019s work in China and Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Twitter claimed without evidence that Hunter Biden\u2019s documents may have been hacked, although the records were sourced from a Delaware computer repairman who provided documents indicating the equipment was legally abandoned. Neither Hunter Biden nor the Biden campaign denied their authenticity. Facebook said it was throttling article distribution pending \u201cfact checking,\u201d but later relented.<\/p>\n

The Senate Judiciary Committee held a November hearing on censorship of The Post\u2019s reporting, with Republicans accusing tech giants of censoring truthful information out of political bias while some Democrats pushed for additional censorship. <\/p>\n

President Trump has waged continuous efforts throughout his administration to repeal Section 230 in an effort to curb online censorship and political bias by tech companies. In December, he vetoed the annual defense spending bill because Congress did not repeal Section 230, citing it as a matter of national security and election integrity.<\/p>\n

Democrats will hold the White House, Senate and House under Biden, though historically both Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) backed repeal of Section 230, which gives companies immunity for third-party content.\n <\/p><\/div>\n