Hi Members!
I hope you had a great weekend. We’ve got a great lineup for you this week, with a field guide on the political workings of Silicon Valley. Big Tech has caught attention—and disfavor—on all points along the political spectrum, with both left and right finding fault with companies like Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, and Facebook. But for all the committee hearings and stump speeches, the US tech industry feels confident it treat political challenges much like it has treated technological challenges—as problems that can be solved. Our tech reporter and author of this week’s field guide, Michael Coren, puts it far better than I can:
Big tech is now using its wealth and power to do more than shape regulation of its activities. It’s influencing policy far beyond its narrow self-interest. Channeling the idealism that spawned many of these companies in the first place (remember’s Google’s founding credo, “Do no evil”?), this new class of global companies wants to reshape society in its image. By their reckoning, the world should look more like the digital economy: fast-paced, innovative, open to rapid failure, and disruptive.
We’ll be looking at all the ways technology companies are influencing governmental affairs, including who the people are to watch in the SV/DC relationship, the ways the two places misunderstand each other, and a Q&A with former UK prime minister Tony Blair. We’ll cap off the week with a conference call on Friday, at 11am ET/4pm GMT. Stay tuned for details.
As always, we love to hear from you. Send us questions, comments, and dinners at the Washington Palm to members@qz.com.
Here’s to a productive week,
Sam Grobart
membership editor