Last month, Sen. Elizabeth Warren made headlines by releasing a plan to break up tech giants like Facebook, Google and Amazon.
Now, one powerful organization is coming to the tech industry’s defense on the issue: the conservative Koch network.
Americans for Prosperity, a political advocacy group backed by billionaire Charles Koch, is currently running a two-week long targeted online advertising campaign calling on members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to “oppose any effort to use antitrust laws to break up America’s innovative tech companies.”
The online ads are running in the home states of each of the 22 senators on the committee, primarily on Facebook and Twitter. Those who click on the ads will be directed to a page where they can sign a letter to the committee members.
Jesse Blumenthal, who leads tech and innovation for the Koch network, told CNN Business that the organization has been tracking the antitrust issue “for awhile” and speaking in person with members of the Judiciary Committee on both sides of the aisle.
“Antitrust is one of the most powerful tools that the government has. We worry about the politicization of that tool,” Blumenthal said. “It ought to be used to benefit consumers and not as a political prop.”
The ad campaign, which was first reported by Politico, comes amid a sea change in the relationship between Silicon Valley and Washington DC. Less than a decade ago, President Barack Obama held an intimate dinner with top executives from Facebook, Google and other tech companies. Today, a right-leaning organization is effectively defending the interests of these same companies against an aggressive proposal from a Democratic presidential candidate.
“Oh look — the Koch brothers don’t like my ideas,” Sen. Warren tweeted in response to the ad campaign. “Apparently they’re horrified about any effort to try and rein in the economic and political power of giant corporations. I’m shocked.”
This shifting political dynamic comes after a bruising two year period in which key tech companies have faced sharp criticism across the political spectrum for failing to prevent the spread of fake news and misinformation, as well as for their data privacy practices and amassing too much power.
After Sen. Warren touted her plan on Twitter (TWTR) last month, she was retweeted by Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, who wrote that “Big Tech has way too much power to silence Free Speech.” In February, the Federal Trade Commission launched a task force to track “anticompetitive conduct” in the tech industry. The FTC said this task force may review tech mergers that have already been approved.
Against this backdrop, tech industry trade groupsare not averse to having an influential organization push back against what they predictably consider to be unsound policy — even if that organization is ideologically distinct from liberal Silicon Valley and is said to have played a key role in undermining political efforts to curb climate change.
“To the extent that Koch or others are willing to engage in substantive, constructive dialogue on these issues, they are welcome,” said Ed Black, president and CEO of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, a trade group that counts Facebook (FB), Google (GOOG) and Amazon (AMZN) as members.
“I personally thought it was cool,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, which represents more than 2,200 tech companies.
The hope, according to these officials, is that the Koch network may be able to broaden the dialogue on the antitrust issue by talking about it from a different perspective and, in the words of Shapiro, bring a certain “hey, wake up Republicans” factor to the issue.
Blumenthal said the Koch network has talked to “lots of folks in the tech industry,” but stressed that it is “not in any sort of coordinated campaign,” or trying to speak on behalf of tech companies so much as pursue what it sees as a principled cause.
It’s about “what is the appropriate role for government and what sort of conditions lead to the highest degree of innovation,” Blumenthal says.
Facebook declined to comment for this story. Representatives for Amazon and Google did not respond to a request for comment.
Update: This story has been updated to better identify the Koch brother currently backing AFP.
