Big Tech companies seek senior roles in Joe Biden’s administration

Big Tech companies are keen to place their executives in senior roles in vital parts of president-elect Joe Biden’s administration. The Biden transition team has added to its staff several officials from Big Tech companies, which emerged as top donors to the campaign.

According to Reuters, executives and employees at tech companies such as Google, Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft Corp are pushing to place candidates in senior roles at government agencies. The agencies include the US Commerce Department, Office of the United States Trade Representative, the Office of Information & Regulatory Affairs, the State Department and the Department of Defense.

Its being brought to the fore that many company executives who helped raise money for the Biden campaign, or have ties to those on the president-elect’s transition team, have a huge commercial interest in pushing candidates with industry ties at the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission. Both these agencies are investigating whether Big Tech abused its market power. However, sources say that spotlight from progressive interest groups and members of Congress will make it much harder for Silicon Valley to succeed.

For instance, Eric Schmidt – Google’s former Chief Executive has been making personnel recommendations for appointments to the Department of Defense as the company tries to pursue military contracts and defense work. Another example is that two Amazon officials landed spots on the president-elect’s agency review teams for the State Department and the Office of Management and Budget.

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Cameron French, a Biden transition spokesman, said agency review team members and future administration appointees will be committed to implementing Biden’s policy ideas. He said each member of the Biden-Harris transition and incoming administration will have values that align with the President and Vice President-elect on a host of issues including the tech sector.

Researchers, lawyers and consultants told Reuters that such moves are part of an effort by many large tech company officials to influence future policymaking. Max Moran, a researcher with the Revolving Door Project, said appointing the CEO or top executives of a tech company directly in to your cabinet is bad optics and bad politics.