By Evan Greer, Vice
Washington is on the verge of doing something big: finally passing meaningful legislation to rein in the monopoly power and abusive practices of Big Tech giants.
Feeling the heat, Silicon Valley’s lobbyists have sunk to a new low: using the safety of trans and queer people as a wedge issue to undermine tech reform bills that would help, not harm, the LGBTQ+ community. My community.
Earlier this month, the Chamber of Progress—an organization that lobbies on behalf of Big Tech and is run by Google’s former head of policy, called on Sen. Klobuchar and Rep. Cicilline to throw cold water on their own bipartisan antitrust bills: The American Innovation and Choice Online Act and the Open App Markets Act.
The Chamber opportunistically seized on false claims made by Congressman Ken Buck (R-CO) and Fox News host Laura Ingraham that antitrust reform is a way to “stop woke companies’ from standing up for LGBTQ+ rights. In a letter to Klobuchar and Cicilline, the lobbyists encouraged the lawmakers to denounce Buck’s claims. “If antitrust is used to punish companies for speaking up on social justice issues, the result could be a chilling effect on corporate leadership against hate and bigotry,” the tech lobbyists wrote.
