Big Technology
Trump Forced Big Tech Out of ‘Neutrality,’ and There’s No Turning Back
Tech companies once tried to skate above the political fray. No longer.
Whenever Donald Trump walks out of the White House, he’ll leave behind a changed tech industry, one that let go of its reluctance to act politically during his administration, and will likely never go back.
Silicon Valley, for much of its existence, thrived while asserting its platforms were neutral. Companies argued they simply built technology, and people decided how to use it. The position was convenient, allowing tech firms to welcome almost any user or client without taking responsibility for their actions. And until Trump, it mostly worked.
The platform fallacy came crashing down during the Trump era due to two coinciding factors. The first is that politics became explicitly about morality, and less about policy, in a way it hadn’t in decades. Then, over Trump’s four years, the tech industry boomed, becoming so dominant the government needed it. These elements forced tech companies to decide what could be said on their platforms and which parts of the government they’d work with, setting a lasting precedent.
