Silicon Valley's Voice in Washington Dissolves (politico.com) 14
The Internet Association, once branded as Silicon Valley's most important trade group in Washington, is shutting down. From a report: The organization offered no specific reason for its decision to disband, which POLITICO had reported Tuesday night. But the group has struggled with financial woes after Microsoft pulled its support earlier this year, and it has fought to maintain relevance on Capitol Hill despite being torn by competing pressures from its huge and smaller member companies on issues like antitrust. The group also faced internal growing pains under new leadership, as POLITICO reported earlier this year.
"Our industry has undergone tremendous growth and change since the Internet Association was formed almost 10 years ago, and in line with this evolution, the Board has made the difficult decision to close the organization at the end of this year," the organization said in a statement Wednesday. It added: "IA has made great progress on its mission to foster innovation, promote economic growth, and empower people through a free and open internet." IA, a nine-year-old group that once called itself "the unified voice of the internet economy," was previously a powerhouse in Washington, even as member companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon fell out of favor on both sides of the aisle.
"Our industry has undergone tremendous growth and change since the Internet Association was formed almost 10 years ago, and in line with this evolution, the Board has made the difficult decision to close the organization at the end of this year," the organization said in a statement Wednesday. It added: "IA has made great progress on its mission to foster innovation, promote economic growth, and empower people through a free and open internet." IA, a nine-year-old group that once called itself "the unified voice of the internet economy," was previously a powerhouse in Washington, even as member companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon fell out of favor on both sides of the aisle.
Re: how to silence the voices of reason (Score:2)
Uh democracy? If Microsoft decides to no longer fund them and then they lose their voice, we can only blame democracy right?
Microsoft is free to find who they like... and if a group proposes policies against the interest of their share holders, why would they fund them?
This is all rather a logical conclusion of democratic capitalism... so what part of our system are we going to blame, much less attempt to fix.
Let me give you a quick hint, nothing is certain in America beyond 4 years, no so nothing significa
Re: (Score:1)
Sigh, democracy?? Clearly this is all now a plutocracy. See https://thediplomat.com/2020/0... [thediplomat.com]
Microsoft does what those on its board of directors tells it to do, of course. Capitalism? In a world where the vast majority of capital is hoarded and controlled by the upper class, that's not capitalism, that's economic stratification and classism. Sure, put the blame squarely where it belongs, on those using power. Money is power and money talks, just look at the message; it's written in the language of greed and
Re: how to silence the voices of reason (Score:2)
I agree with everything you said.
Google, MS... don't need to pool resources anymore (Score:5, Insightful)
The current internet oligopolies have tbe means to buy anybody on Capitol Hill at any price on their own now.
Re: (Score:2)
It's hugely speculative to sit here and try to explain why this happened without actually having any information from the inside. It may just boil down to the individuals who spearheaded this organization, and their shifting life circumstances and opportunities.
Tech is old school now. (Score:3)
Back in the 1990's we had Economy 2.0, young fresh wiz kids making companies by disregarding all those rules those stuffy MBA types had imposed. They were making millions, the trick was to undercut the competition sell at a lost, but sell a lot of them, make your money off of stock, not the products. The tech invented was meant to create buzz and traffic.
We got the likes of Jobs, Gates and Case with big presentations to show off how advanced and novel their consumer products were and how cheap you can get them.
Money + Popularity = Political Interest.
Now 30 years later, these Wiz Kids are retiring after a full career, they had picked up a lot of those stuffy MBA types, because Economy 2.0 never could last. So the remaining folks had to make sure they had a solid business model where they just kinda have to make profitable items and sell them for more.
No one really cares that you have a budget product or the top of the line premium any more. The stuff that is new and exciting is now old hat, we will upgrade when we need it, but not jump onto it just because we think it may be the next big fad.
So at this point the calculation is the following
(Money * 10) + (Popularity/2) = (Political Interest / 3)
While the politics is still influenced by the money, being that it is less popular if they decide to support a tech company or reject it, just won't be as big of relecting cause.
Lobbying by tech companies ... (Score:2)
Not meaningful (Score:4)
Lobbyists usually get money and power (Score:2)
for their clients. I'm not sad to see them go.
Largest companies in USA don't need a trade lobby (Score:3)
I'm pretty sure the largest companies can defend themselves in DC, no need to hire a trade group lobby to speak for them.
Here's a list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
The top three are Apple, Amazon, and Walmart, they are going to want to keep things going in favor of Silicon Valley. Number four is CVS, and they sell electronics too. Number five is Exxon Mobil, because of course one of the biggest companies in the USA will be a petroleum producer.
Further down the list in the top 500 companies in revenue are other companies in electronics, telecommunications, and retail. Not all of these electronics companies are in Silicon Valley but they will share interests. Telecommunications companies live and die on the electronic devices we put in our pockets, in our offices, and in our homes, so they are going to defend Silicon Valley. Retailers sell these electronics and so want to see Silicon Valley do well.
There are many industries that rely on Silicon Valley and so will also speak up for them. Industries like automotive, energy, healthcare, media, air/space/defense, rail/shipping/transport, and banking/finance. Even industries like agriculture got in on the lobby for Silicon Valley. I recall John Deere being very interested in how "right to repair" was going, just like Apple, Amazon, and so forth that were making or selling electronic gadgets. It turns out that John Deere doesn't like independent repair shops digging around and trying to fix a tractor cheaper than their "authorized" dealers were.
Silicon Valley isn't losing their voice in DC. Their individual voices just got loud enough they didn't need to consolidate their voices into one any more. Some smaller companies may have lost out on this but they will create a new lobby group or join in on some other existing lobby.
Even lobbyists die (Score:2)
Lobbyists need to die anyway.... (Score:2)
IMO, this would be a big step in the right direction if you want to try to stop the "Crony Capitalism" that plagues the USA.
The elected representatives of the people shouldn't be able to be swayed by special interests trying to buy undue influence of their decisions. The entire practice should just be made illegal.
I mean, even as a regular old "rank and file" employee? Most private businesses I've worked at have rules in H.R. against accepting gifts over a limited dollar amount because they're afraid it wi