‘The worrying stranglehold of tech tycoons on political power’

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1. **The transition between Biden and Trump’s presidencies has been marked by conflicts of interest and the distribution of stipends to the benefit of Silicon Valley executives, writes Le Monde’s Stéphane Lauer.**

   In 2016, during his first presidential campaign, Donald Trump used a slogan that struck a chord with the American working-class electorate: “Drain the swamp!” The idea was to denounce the elites and lobbies who, behind the scenes, apparently ran the country in the interests of the few, to the detriment of the rest of the population.

   With Trump due to be inaugurated for the second time on January 20, the expression has all but disappeared from his vocabulary. Legitimized by a solid electoral base, the billionaire no longer even pretends to present himself as the herald of an America free of corruption and cliques.

   The worrying stranglehold of tech tycoons on political power is a case in point. The transition period between his upcoming presidency and Joe Biden’s has been marked by potential conflicts of interest and the distribution of stipends to the benefit of a handful of Silicon Valley executives.

   Among them, two categories can be distinguished. The first comprises those who bet on Trump by supporting his campaign and expect to reap the dividends thanks to policies favorable to their business. And then there are those who, realizing that the tide is turning, pledge allegiance to the new “boss” of the US at the 25^(th) hour, to buy his favor. Ready to renounce the few principles they had up until then, they shamelessly join the winning side.

   Among this second group is Mark Zuckerberg. The boss of Meta (parent company of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp) has just announced a substantial relaxation of moderation rules on his social media platforms, to the satisfaction of Trump. Zuckerberg is opening up a path to post-truth at the worst possible moment, as a man who has made it his trademark comes to power.

   **Read the full article here:** [**https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2025/01/13/the-worrying-stranglehold-of-tech-tycoons-on-political-power_6737008_23.html**](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2025/01/13/the-worrying-stranglehold-of-tech-tycoons-on-political-power_6737008_23.html)

2. **This has always been the case,** the only difference is this is the first generation of outspoken tycoons with platforms outside of newspapers to share their message and rally the masses.

   PS: Someone needs to teach Trump how to properly blend in the self tanner.

3. > Among them, two categories can be distinguished. The first comprises those who bet on Trump by supporting his campaign and expect to reap the dividends thanks to policies favorable to their business. And then there are those who, realizing that the tide is turning, pledge allegiance to the new “boss” of the US at the 25th hour, to buy his favor. Ready to renounce the few principles they had up until then, they shamelessly join the winning side.

   What a non-story. This has been the history of politics for human history. Why are we concerned with this behavior now? And what’s so wrong with the anti-corruption laws that we have in place that they were not fixed over the past 20 years?

   Even the premise is stupid. [Reddit is the 6th most trafficked site on the internet](https://backlinko.com/most-popular-websites). So we have facebook above it relaxing censorship rules, and we have X below it that has relaxed censorship rules. So we have one ultra left website (reddit) and two left with reduced censorship. What a strangle on political power we have.

4. Remember 20 or so years ago when tech leaders were offering something new and had a hopeful view of the future and warned us of government control?

   Skip forward and now we have them fighting over who could be the next best technofascist. I think Musk is in the lead with his Nazi safe space that would make Goebbels proud, but Zucks is throwing his hat in the ring.

5. Is it any different from any other powerful rich men wielding power in the past?

6. I feel America soon is passing the Athenian Threshold (how the Delian League turned from an alliance against the Persians into an empire of it’s own – see Delian Dialogie).

   Quite worrying, as America definetly can bank in on it’s power now and expand territorially and financially. However, every action has its cost. If they do, they will loose their soft power quite drammatically, and find themselves alone in the aftermath…

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