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Some 32 advocacy groups are urging President-elect Joe Biden to reject the influence of Big Tech in his administration.
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A group of 32 advocacy groups are imploring President-elect Joe Biden to say no to the influence of Big Tech in his administration.
“We believe that your administration must confront the threats posed by the monopolistic Big Tech companies,” said the letter, which seeks the exclusion of executives, lobbyists and consultants with ties to Alphabet Inc.’s GOOGL, -1.82% GOOG, -1.81% Google, Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, -0.85%, Apple Inc. AAPL, +2.11%, Facebook Inc. FB, -0.30% and Microsoft Corp. MSFT, -0.53%.
All but Microsoft are facing federal and state investigations for their business practices.
“We believe that eliminating the decades-old revolving door between Silicon Valley and your administration will only help your cause,” according to the letter, signed by consumer rights, antitrust reform, and labor and progressive organizations that include Public Citizen, American Economic Liberties Project and Open Markets Institute.
The five companies targeted in the letter were not immediately available for comment.
Privacy advocates and antitrust observers say they are alarmed by the number of individuals with links to Silicon Valley who are part of Team Biden.
Incoming White House chief of staff Ron Klain’s deep ties to the tech world make him the first major name from the industry to join the Biden administration.
Read more: Incoming White House chief of staff Klain has ties to tech world
The transition team has more than 20 people with tech ties who will help decide who is hired at federal agencies. Many of them are former Obama administration officials who joined tech companies as public-policy experts.
The list includes Nicole Wong, a former executive of Google and Twitter Inc. TWTR, -0.17%, who will shape the Office of Science and Technology Policy; Mark Schwartz, Amazon Web Services’ enterprise strategist, who will advise the Office of Management and Budget; Nicole Isaac, LinkedIn’s director of public policy for North America, who will help review the Treasury Department; Matt Olsen, Uber Technology Inc.’s UBER, -2.09%, trust and security officer, who is advising the intelligence community; and Ann Dunkin, Dell Technologies Inc.’s DELL, -1.13% chief technology officer, an adviser to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Three people who recently worked for former Google CEO Eric Schmidt — Martha Gimbel, senior manager of economic research at Schmidt Futures; and Victor Garcia and David Holmes from Rebellion Defense, a company backed by Schmidt — are part of the Biden transition team.
