As President-elect Donald Trump nominates candidates who take a hawkish stance against big technology, especially its censorship practices, Microsoft and its founder Bill Gates are nominating Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. I tried my best.
In late October, new york times Bill Gates reported said He donated about $50 million to Future Forward USA Action, a “dark money” political action group that supported Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential bid. Future Forward was one of the major Democratic groups pushing anti-Trump ads during the 2024 presidential election.
Gates did not explicitly endorse Harris, but insisted that “this election is different.” he said this New York Times:
I support candidates who demonstrate a clear commitment to improving health care, reducing poverty, and combating climate change in the United States and around the world. “While I have a long history of working with leaders from across the political spectrum, this election is unlike any before and of unprecedented importance to the American people and the most vulnerable people around the world. It has sex.
of times Gates wrote that he was trying to avoid political conflict so he could work with Democratic and Republican administrations.
But his organization appears to be increasingly tied to the Democratic Party and its presidential candidates.
Microsoft President Brad Smith and his wife, Kathy Soules-Smith, hosted a $5,000 fundraiser in 2023, with donations going to the Biden Victory Fund. smith was on top Fundraising activities For Democrats during Biden's first term.
The tech giant made a number of hires that later sparked controversy with the 45th president.
Christopher Krebs, head of cybersecurity policy at Microsoft, went on to serve as director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
Krebs claimed that the 2020 presidential election was one of the most secure in terms of internet security and technology.
At a Senate hearing in December 2020, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) criticized Krebs:
If you're saying it's the safest election based on no dead people voting, no non-citizens voting, no one breaking absentee rules, I think you're wrong. Masu. And I think that's what upsets a lot of people on our side. They probably take your statement to mean, “Well, there was nothing wrong with the election.''
“I don't think you've done any research on the issues we've heard here. So, really, you're just saying something in a different way and what it is. —The way I see it,” the Kentucky senator added.
Meanwhile, at the end of the Biden administration, the Federal Trade Commission opened Examining extensive antitrust investigations.
Even at Microsoft blamed Google ran a shadow campaign against them.
President-elect Donald Trump on Friday said Gates asked her to come to his Mar-a-Lago mansion.
Now, the Trump administration may take a different tack, working to combat censorship and other anticompetitive practices by big tech companies.
“Big Tech and Microsoft are working hard to restore their image against MAGA and President Trump, not only because they have funded their enemies, but because they have employed them and censored and blocked conservative ideas. I hope we don't remember that we continued to do that,'' a person familiar with the Trump administration's thinking told Breitbart News.
In early December, President Trump nominated Gale Slater, an antitrust veteran and economic advisor to J.D. Vance, to lead the Justice Department's antitrust division.
outlet reported He said the department is expected to continue its crackdown on big tech, including those introduced during President Trump's first term.
President Trump said Slater will “ensure that our competition laws are vigorously and fairly enforced, with clear rules that promote, not stifle, the ingenuity of our great companies.” said.
President Trump also nominated Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Director Andrew Ferguson to head the antitrust division.
In mid-December, Mr. Ferguson urged the FTC to investigate “illegal collusion” among big tech platforms and called for an end to boycotts of advertisers. This is because they believe it will hurt competition.
He echoed Secretary Melissa Holyoake's proposal to reinstate President Trump's first-term Executive Order 13925 to promote transparency regarding the content moderation and censorship practices of major tech companies.
He wrote:
We need to not only specifically address censorship practices, but also examine the structural issues that may have given these platforms such influence over American life and speech in the first place. We must vigorously enforce our antitrust laws, especially against platforms found to be unlawfully restricting Americans' ability to freely and openly exchange ideas. We must prosecute all illegal collusion among online platforms and stand up to advertiser boycotts that threaten competition between them.
“Censorship, even when done transparently and honestly, is harmful to American democracy. The Commission must use its powers to the fullest to protect the free speech rights of all Americans. No,” Ferguson continued.
“That power includes the power to investigate collusion that could stifle competition and suppress free speech online. We should conduct such investigations. And we If our investigations reveal anticompetitive cartels that facilitate or promote censorship, we should expose them.”
President Trump nominated Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner Brendan Carr to lead the agency. Carr said America's democracy depends on a censorship cartel and called on major tech platforms to dismantle the “censorship cartel.” Kerr said the Technology Masters of the Universe had worked with “the Orwellian name Newsguard,” fact-checking groups and advertising agencies to force “one-sided coverage.”
Microsoft is partnering with NewsGuard, whose co-founder suggested that Hunter Biden's laptop revelations in 2020 were “a hoax perpetuated by the Russians.”
Sean Moran is a policy reporter at Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3.
