JD Vance in Relation to Big Tech
by jon 2024-8-12Here we are in 2024, with two presidential candidates in the running. Our nation's politics are as heated as ever, and there are many important issues on the table. For me however, in my sphere of influence, I focus on small companies and technology. So I specifcally want to look at JD Vance's position when it comes to big tech. First, we'll define what big tech is, who JD Vance is, and what Vance want to accomplish with big tech.
What is Big Tech?
Wikipedia gives a definition in which I agree about what "Big Tech" is:
Big Tech, also known as the Tech Giants or Tech Titans, are the largest IT companies in the world. The concept of Big Tech is similar to the grouping of dominant companies in other sectors. It typically refers to the Big Five United States tech companies: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft; or the Magnificent Seven, which includes Nvidia and Tesla. Big Tech can also include Chinese companies such as Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, and Xiaomi (BATX). (Wikipedia)
The definitely here importantly includes Chinese companies. So when I refer to big tech, I am referring specifically to:
- Alphabet, or Google
- Amazon
- Apple
- Meta, or Facebook and Instagram
- Microsoft
- And the big Chinese companies. But mostly the former 5.
The primary concern I have over these companies is centralization and monopolization. My concern isn't so much about their politics or policies, generally. Companies should be free to lawfully conduct business in a way they see fit. However, when a majority of users flock to these central companies, then at that point the policies become dangerous, and we reach the "who-whom" situation (which is, who is deciding for whom what and when is best).
The primary services that each of these companies offer is:
- Google: Search, advertisements, mobile phones, and Cloud
- Amazon: AWS (cloud) & marketplace
- Apple: Mobile phones
- Facebook: Social media
- Microsoft: Azure (cloud) and Windows operating system
The usage of big tech is almost ubiquitous with life. When you make a phone call or send a text message, you are likely using either a Google or Apple phone. When you check your email, you might be using Google's mail system. When you purchase something, you might be using Amazon's marketplace. When you search for something, you might be using Google.
Anf if you're not doing any of that with big tech, then the websites you interact with are likely hosted on AWS or Azure.
There is billions of dollars flowing through these companies, and the world relies on them. This central reliance on these companies gives them a massive amount of control over what people see and when. Important pieces of information or products or messages can be withheld without obvious explanation at any time. Histories can be rewritten and presented as truth, simply because people trust these providers.
Who is JD Vance?
Vance was born in Ohio in 1984, and is "best known as the author of Hillbilly Elegy (2016)" (Britannica). Vance is currently "a United States Senator for the great state of Ohio. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2022 and sworn into office on January 3rd, 2023" (Senate). He also served as in the US Marine Corps, "where he served from 2003 to 2007" (Wikipedia-a). He graduated from Ohio State University, and Yale Law School. He married a woman named Usha, that also attended Yale, and is also accomplished. Vance is also the Vice President pick of Donald Trump for the 2024 presidential election.
After Yale, "Vance and his wife moved to San Francisco, where he worked with a venture capital firm..." (Wikipedia-a). Now we get the interesting part. Here is a list of firms that Vance joined before running for the Senate:
- 2016, joined Mithril Capital Management, a venture capital firm founded by Peter Thiel. (Yahoo)
- 2017, "joined Revolution, an investment firm started by AOL co-founder Steve Case" (Yahoo).
- 2020, "JD Vance launched his own venture firm, called Narya Ventures, alongside Colin Greenspon" (FastCompany).
- 2022, Runs for Senate.
Notes about Revolution, LLC: "Vance agreed to join ... Revolution, to invest in Midwestern startups and help launch a new seed fund. While at Revolution he overlapped with Ron Klain, who would later become President Biden's first chief of staff" (Axios). You can find the Revolution site here:
Notes about Narya Ventures: "Investor J.D. Vance has raised $93 million to start a venture capital firm, Narya Capital, based in his home state of Ohio, with fund backing from major names including Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, Eric Schmidt and Scott Dorsey" (Axios-a). The website is found here:
You might also check out the FastCompany link (in the references), to see what companies Vance had invested in as a venture capitalist. It is an interesting list, and includes things like Rumble.
Another interesting note, "Vance ... counts the Invesco QQQ Trust as one of his largest investments" (Benzinga). I'm not entirely sure if Benzinga meant that he was also emotionally invested, or just monetarily. But Invesco QQQ "is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that features Apple, Google, Microsoft, and more" (Invesco).
Vance and Big Tech
In February this year, Vance posted his concern about Google on X:
Long overdue, but it's time to break Google up.
This matters far more than any other election integrity issue. The monopolistic control of information in our society resides with an explicitly progressive technology company. (X)
I mentioned earlier Google's dominance in the search space, for which "a federal judge declared that Google had breached antitrust regulations in its quest to dominate the online search and advertising sectors" (ReclaimTheNet).
An interesting note, there has been two others "viewed as ... looking to break up tech companies," which is the "Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass)" (Benzinga).
Vance asked an antitrust reform event's audience the following:
"The fundamental question to me is, how do we build a competitive marketplace that is pro-innovation, pro-competition, that allows consumer to have the right choices and isn't just so obsessed on pricing power within the market that it sort of ignores all the other things that really matter?" (Benzinga)
He also stated at the event:
"I think that Google and Facebook have really distorted our political process. And I think a lot of my friends on the left would agree with me, but they might disagree with me directionally about how to fix that problem ... We have to stop the craziness, and I think one way to do it is to stop the way that these companies control the flow of information in our country."
Although we have seen collusion from the federal government with big tech companies, the monopoly problem has become a bipartisan issue.
My next question becomes, what is the plan moving forward? Back in March this year Vance talked with Fox Business, "[a]ddressing the likelihood that legislative action may be taken against Google," and Vance "claimed there are 'growing calls' across the political spectrum for a shakedown on the tech giant" (Fox). Stating:
My friends on the left, ... say they feel like our democracy is under threat. The biggest way our democracy is under threat is you have these massive, international companies that are sort of controlling what we think, what we read, what information we consume ... But I actually do think that there's going to be growing momentum to rein Google in. (Fox)
So far, I'm not seeing much in the way of an administrative plan to deal with big tech. So we'll need to stay vigilant looking at congress and the courts. As I mentioned earlier, a federal judge had declared Google a monopoly recently. However, it doesn't seem clear what will happen with that.
References:
RollCall. https://rollcall.com/2024/07/17/once-a-tech-investor-vance-is-now-big-tech-critic/
Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Tech
Senate. https://www.vance.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Senator-JD-Vance-Biography.pdf
Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/J-D-Vance
Wikipedia-a. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JD_Vance
Axios. https://www.axios.com/2024/07/16/jd-vance-venture-capital-career
Axios-a. https://www.axios.com/2020/01/09/jd-vance-venture-capital-fund-ohio-silicon-valley-peter-thiel
Yahoo. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/peter-thiel-launched-j-d-131520343.html
FastCompany. https://www.fastcompany.com/91157500/companies-jd-vance-invested-in-as-a-vc
X. https://x.com/JDVance/status/1761041871617278246
ReclaimTheNet. https://reclaimthenet.org/federal-judge-declares-tech-giant-a-monopolist
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