Tuesday, June 7, 2022

HIGH TECH'S ASSAULT ON DEMOCRACY - Blake Masters: Google Rigged the 2020 Election

 

Blake Masters: Google Rigged the 2020 Election

Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia
Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia
3:15

Blake Masters, the Arizona Senate candidate who recently won the endorsement of Donald Trump, appeared on Breitbart News Saturday on SiriusXM this weekend where he outlined his plan to take on Big Tech’s election interference if elected to the U.S. Senate.

Masters, who grew up in Tucson, Arizona, is a former Silicon Valley venture capitalist. The Senate candidate told Breitbart News political editor Matt Boyle that Google was by far the greatest threat to U.S. election integrity, and promised to use his experience in the tech industry to restrain the company.

“I think we let Google swing the 2020 presidential election, I’ll say that,” said Masters.

“Most people in the U.S. Senate don’t understand how technology works like I do, they don’t care, they don’t know how bad these companies are — well I do. So I’m going to use that background that I have to go in and find a way to meaningfully restrain these companies and make them behave.”

“Twitter is by far the most ideological, they’re the most crazy left wing. But they’re also, while powerful, probably less powerful than Facebook and Google.”

Mark Zuckerberg surrounded by guards

Mark Zuckerberg surrounded by guards ( Chip Somodevilla /Getty)

Sundar Pichai CEO of Google ( Carsten Koall /Getty)

“You’ve got a few problems, one is censorship. It’s crazy that Facebook and Twitter were allowed to deplatform President Trump. He was still the President of the United States when they kicked him off! I think that should be illegal. We’ve got to treat these companies like common carriers. We regulate them like the phone company — the phone company can’t listen in to you and me have a conversation and decide oh, that’s too conservative, these Breitbart guys, we’re going to shut them down. They’re not allowed to do that. They’d probably love to do that, but we don’t allow them to discriminate against users because of their politics. So why on earth, at this point, wouldn’t we treat Facebook and Twitter the same way?”

“We’ll just ban political discrimination. A little bit easier said than done, but I know how to do that.”

“The harder problem will be to restrain Google, because like you said, if they just subtly tweak their search engine algorithms… They have a complete monopoly on the U.S. search engine market. If they’re subtle enough, they could boost Biden content, suppress Trump content in the weeks preceding the 2020 election, and boom that’s a rigged election. You know, I can’t prove that they did that, but come on — they’re clever people, they’ve got the motive, they’ve got the opportunity, so we’ve got to find a way to convene an investigative team to go in there. We’re going to forcefully embed a team of software engineers — I’ll personally oversee them in the senate — and we’re going to make sure Google isn’t rigging the election weeks before anybody votes.”

“I think if we don’t do that, you can do whatever you want at the local level, tighten up election security, that’s great, we need to do that — but if we don’t get a hold of Google, we’re not going to have free and fair elections in this country.”

Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election. Follow him on Twitter @LibertarianBlue

Amazon Sellers Reject Executives’ Efforts to Rally Opposition to Big Tech Antitrust Bill

FILE - In this Sept. 19, 2019, file photo, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos speaks during his news conference at the National Press Club in Washington. Amazon said Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021, that Bezos is stepping down as CEO later in the year, a role he's had since he founded the …
Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo
3:03

An Amazon vice president reportedly attempted to encourage third-party merchants to reject landmark legislation challenging the power of big tech giants but was promptly rejected by many sellers who say they support the legislation.

CNBC reports that Amazon is becoming increasingly worried about big tech antitrust reforms being discussed in Congress. As a result, one senior Amazon executive reached out to third-party sellers on an online forum that many used to discuss the issues they face as Amazon sellers. But the attempt backfired, with many of the sellers saying they support the legislation.

An employee places packed goods tons container at the distribution center of US online retail giant Amazon in Moenchengladbach, on December 17, 2019. (Photo by INA FASSBENDER / AFP) (Photo by INA FASSBENDER/AFP via Getty Images)

 (INA FASSBENDER/AFP via Getty Images)

Amazon delivery driver

Amazon delivery driver ( PATRICK T. FALLON /Getty)

Amazon VP of Worldwide Selling Partner Services Dharmesh Mehta, published a post on Thursday in Amazon’s Seller Central Forum. In the post, he encouraged merchants to contact their local senators to oppose the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (S.2992) which was passed by a Senate committee in January.

“As we have noted in previous communications to you throughout the past year, Congress is considering legislation, including S.2992, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, that could jeopardize Amazon’s ability to operate a marketplace service and, as a result, your business’s ability to sell in our store,” Mehta wrote. “Recent public comments from Senate leadership indicate that they intend to vote on S.2992 later this month. I want to ensure that you are aware of this legislation and what you can do to try and stop it from harming you.”

Mehta directed the sellers to a website including a form they could use to contact their senators. Hundreds of Amazon sellers replied to Mehta’s post, with many seeming unconvinced by Amazon’s reasoning for having them oppose the legislation.

“Yes, I’m going to oppose that Amazon will be prohibited from undercutting, manipulating the buybox, and instituting restrictions on certain listings that unfairly bar me from selling an item,” one commenter sarcastically wrote. “Yup, writing to my senator right now.”

Another added that, “Any informed seller is going to support massive action taken against Amazon in the antitrust arena. I am personally sick of the condescending posts by Amazon management directed at us. We are not morons and know how to read and think for ourselves.”

Amazon has been vocal in its opposition to the bill which would prevent it and other tech companies from giving preferential treatment to their own products. Amazon published a blog post last week arguing that the legislation would threaten “two of the things American consumers love most about Amazon: the vast selection and low prices,” as well as the company’s Prime two-day delivery service.

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