When we think of technology there is often an association with power and knowledge. Alvaro Dominguez of Wired believes that not only is tech relatable to politics, but it has also become the bad guy in 2015. But, how can something so useful that has been simplifying the lives of everyone be the bad guy?
“In 2015, we learned that the tech industry in many ways is a lot like Washington,” according to the Wired article.
“As much as Silicon Valley likes to portray itself as a noble practitioner of well-intentioned entrepreneurship and innovation, that image itself is largely the product of spin. Tech, it turns out, is very much about image. It’s about power. And it’s about politics.”
To prove his point, Dominguez cites instances such as Uber’s push into cities nationwide, sports betting sites like Draftkings receiving negative attention and Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan’s announcement of a new philanthropic organization that they would have a lot of control over according to journalists who reported on the news.
What Dominguez has done is equate the criticisms that the government faces to those that tech companies are facing. He is insisting that the publicity that these tech companies is moving away from praise and on to criticism when it comes to some of their practices.
“Some of this souring has to do with the nature of the new kinds of businesses technology has bred. Nowadays, tech success isn’t necessarily predicated on building whole economies around new industries, as Amazon did with online retail, for instance, or Facebook and Twitter did with social networking,” Dominguez said.
“Instead, many wildly successful startups of today—the Ubers and Airbnbs and FanDuels—depend on seeking out legal ambiguity and exploiting it.”
So, while politics and politicians were often criticized in 2015, the tech companies also made their way into the mix.
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