Tech Leaders and VCs on January 6th
A year later, many are silent exactly when they should be speaking out
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.
— Martin Niemoller
Yesterday, many Americans stopped what they were doing to commemorate the deadly anniversary of the January 6th attack on Congress. President Biden gave a powerful speech, calling out former President Trump directly for creating and spreading “a web of lies about the 2020 election.” Biden spoke early yesterday morning, allowing plenty of time for his words to circulate and ultimately dominate news coverage for the day. For once, Democrats chose to actively make the political weather instead of constantly responding to the storms whipped up by the right.
How did tech respond? Sadly, many of the leading lights of the tech sector were silent yesterday.
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla who occasionally mixes it up with politicians on Twitter (especially if it comes to topics like tax policy), paid January 6th no attention.
Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, who has 119 million followers on Facebook, said not a word.
Susan Wojcicki, the longtime CEO of YouTube, who bears a large share of responsibility for the radicalizing effects of its recommendation engine, was silent.
Jack Dorsey, the former head of Twitter, who was once spotted at the Ferguson protests, was silent.
A year ago, Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, was moved to speak out against “a sad and shameful chapter in our nation’s history,” but yesterday he was AWOL.
Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft , was also silent. He could have retweeted his colleague Brad Smith, the way he did a year ago, but no. (More on Smith below.)
