By: Adith GopalIn March, Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren rolled out a plan to break up tech giants Amazon, Facebook, Google, and others. Early this month, the audio was released with conversations between Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg discussing to coworkers that Facebook will plan to sue the US government if Warren is elected in 2020. In the audio, Zuckerberg can be heard saying “If she gets elected president, then I would bet that we will have a legal challenge, and I would bet that we will win the legal challenge.” “Does that still suck for us? Yeah. I mean, I don’t want to have a major lawsuit against our own government. That’s not like the position you want to be in. We care about our country and want to work with our government to do good things,” Zuckerberg added. “But look, at the end of the day, if someone’s going to try to threaten something that existential, you go to the mat and you fight.”
Warren’s criticism of Silicon Valley comes at a time where those tech giants have been scrutinized for lack of data security and privacy and election influence during and following the 2016 US presidential election. Zuckerburg and other tech giants’ CEOs, like Google’s Sundar Pichai, have testified before Congress to explain their efforts against election interference and increasing data security. Zuckerberg has also stated his opinion that Warren's plans to break up the tech giants wouldn't prevent election interference, saying "It’s just that breaking up these companies, whether it’s Facebook or Google or Amazon, is not actually going to solve the issues,” he said. “And, you know, it doesn’t make election interference less likely. It makes it more likely because now the companies can’t coordinate and work together.” Despite Zuckerberg's leaked audio, Warren has not changed her stance on the tech giants, later saying that "they [the tech giants] have “bulldozed competition, used our private information for profit, and tilted the playing field against everyone else.” Warren later tweeted about Zuckerberg's leaked audio, sending a five-tweet thread using the hashtag #BreakUpBigTech. In those tweets, Warren continued criticizing the tech giants, saying “Imagine Facebook and Instagram trying to outdo each other to protect your privacy and keep misinformation out of your feed, instead of working together to sell your data, inundate you with misinformation, and undermine our election security,” she said. “That’s why we need to #BreakUpBigTech.”
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Co-Editor - Adith GopalHello, readers! My name is Adith, and I am a senior and current Co-Editor of the Wilson Paw Print. I hope you can enjoy getting informed on some current news here at Wilson and abroad! If you have any questions about myself or the newspaper as a whole, email me at [email protected]! Co-Editor- Alexa MonosMy name is Alexa Monos and I am a co-editor of the Wilson Paw Print. If you have any questions or ideas about the newspaper or wish to get involved email me at
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