Roundup: How tech is trying to shape the Kamala Harris agenda

You could be forgiven for having whiplash from seeing how quickly the momentum in the US presidential election has swung from Donald Trump to Kamala Harris over the past couple weeks. Prominent figures in the tech industry rapidly got behind Trump after the assassination attempt, but seem to have become much quieter since Harris replaced Joe Biden. Now, another set of tech billionaires are trying to gain influence on the Democratic side.

Harris is already swapping out some Biden campaign officials with her own, and among them are chief figures from Uber. Her brother-in-law Tony West is also Uber’s chief legal officer. He’ll be taking a break from his position with the labor-abusing company to help her in the election. David Plouffe, a former top advisor to Barack Obama, will also be joining the Harris campaign. Plouffe was Senior Vice President of Policy and Strategy at Uber and sat on its board. He was fined for illegally lobbying the Chicago mayor for Uber, worked to build a relationship between the company and the Obama administration, and used his diplomatic connections to help Uber when it was facing regulatory pushback in Europe. Uber is already solidifying its contractor labor model across the United States; it remains to be seen what Harris will do on that front.

Donors from the tech industry are also coming out for Harris. As a California politician, she has a lot of experience going to wealthy tech figures for campaign donations. She already has the backing of people like former Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, Melinda French Gates, and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. Hoffman, along with venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, are using their donations to try to get leverage with Harris, particularly by demanding she sack FTC Chair Lina Khan, who has been leading the antitrust fight against the tech industry. Harris hasn’t come to Khan’s defense. A report in the New York Times quoting an unnamed donor suggested Harris “expressed skepticism of Ms. Khan’s expansive view of antitrust powers,” while a Harris aide said there have been “no policy discussions” about replacing Khan. Not exactly a ringing endorsement.

On August 27, executives from Google, OpenAI, and Netflix will be hosting a fundraiser for Harris, but Harris herself will not be in attendance. The OpenAI participation stood out to me, as Harris has been a key part of the White House’s initiatives on AI, which have been criticized as basically being forums for CEOs with few, if any, critical voices allowed in the room.

It’s not a surprise to see tech billionaires trying to court both sides of the aisle, and they have the power and wealth to make demands. The Obama and Clinton administrations were both very friendly to Silicon Valley in their own ways. Some tech figures are getting behind Harris simply because they dislike Trump or even feel politically closer to the Democratic Party, but others will want to see policies that benefit them. The concern comes not from those demands, but the responses of the Harris campaign: notably, the lack of outright support for Khan and the actions she’s taken against the tech industry and corporate power more broadly, but also the decision to involve key architects of Uber’s war on workers.

Harris’ vice-presidential pick, which will be announced in the coming days, might further suggest which direction she’s heading.

Another great roundup this week. In our recommended reads, there are stories about the real gig economy, SpaceX’s disregard for the environment, and Coinbase seeming to breach election finance rules. Plus, the usual labor updates and other tech news you might have missed!

Over on Tech Won’t Save Us, I spoke to Chris Carlsson about Processed World, a magazine that skewered the computerization of society and the changing world of work in the 1980s and 1990s. I also spoke to Al Jazeera’s The Take about the tech billionaires getting behind Donald Trump.

Have a great week!

— Paris