Surprise! Biden Has Ties to 5 Major Tech Companies

By Chuck Ross
Daily Caller News Foundation

• Joe Biden has hired at least 14 current or former executives from five major tech firms to serve in his administration or advise his transition team.
• The firms — Apple, Google, Amazon, Twitter and Facebook — have all clamped down this week on President Trump and Parler, a social media site popular with conservatives.
• Conservatives have long expressed concern over Biden and Democrats’ close ties to the major tech companies.
• Apple’s top lobbyist is a longtime Biden adviser. Former executives from Twitter and Facebook are also joining the Biden White House.

At least 14 people who President-elect Joe Biden has picked to serve either in his administration or to advise his transition have worked for the Big Tech firms that cracked down earlier this week on President Donald Trump and a social media site popular with conservatives.

Apple’s top lobbyist was a chief adviser to the Biden transition team. A former Facebook executive will serve as staff director in the Biden White House, and a former Twitter executive will serve as chief spokesperson for the National Security Council under Biden.

Current and former executives at those firms and two others, Google and Amazon, fill out other positions in the incoming Biden administration, or his transition team.

The five tech giants all took action this week against Trump and Parler, the social media site, in response to riots at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.

Twitter permanently banned Trump over what it called violent rhetoric in the wake of riots at the U.S. Capitol building. Trump supporters breached the Capitol building to protest a vote to confirm Joe Biden as president.

Five people died in the mayhem, including U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick. Ashli Babbit, a Trump supporter from San Diego, was also fatally shot by a police officer while trying to enter a restricted area of the Capitol building.

Parler, a social media company popular with conservatives who have grown disenchanted with Twitter, was also targeted in a sweeping crackdown by the tech companies.

Apple and Google removed Parler from its app stores, meaning that users will not be able to access it on their iPhones or Samsung Galaxy phones.

Apple said on Friday that Parler had “not taken adequate measures to address the proliferation of these threats to people’s safety.” Google removed Parlerfrom its app store on Thursday.

Amazon plans to take even more drastic measures, according to BuzzFeed News. The tech giant notified Parler that it would cut the site off from its cloud hosting service, Amazon Web Services, on Sunday, meaning that Parler would be offline unless it finds another web host. Read Full Article >