Big Tech Chose a Side. Here’s What’s Next.

Nicole Gill is co-founder and executive director of Accountable Tech.

On Monday, January 20, the world got an up-close look at a bromance that’s been years in the making: the newly public (and stunningly dangerous) alliance between Big Tech and the far right. In addition to cheering on President Donald Trump from the dias of his inauguration, tech leaders, including Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, have made it blindingly clear they are part of the MAGA administration – from gutting DEI programs and ending fact-checking to traveling to Mar-a-Lago and giving millions to Trump’s inaugural fund.

There is little reason for surprise. Civil society groups have been sounding the alarm for years about the tech industry’s hostility to truth and democracy. Some policymakers listened and tried to design guardrails – not only to limit misinformation and prevent offline harms, but to ensure the fair playing field required of a functioning democracy. Others did not, arguing that regulation wasn’t necessary in a Silicon Valley driven by values of pluralism and civic concern.

To be fair, tech defenders had some evidence to offer. Tech CEOs have historically defended abortion and LGBTQ rights, and many (including Zuckerberg himself) took action to deplatform Trump after he incited the January 6th insurrection.

But the recent actions of Big Tech CEOs have made their alliances clear: Despite installing some pro-democracy window dressing in recent years, tech companies have steadily and systematically captured our means of communication and surrendered them to the MAGA universe. In the US, the question now is whether Democrats and others who oppose MAGA politics will recognize the alliance between the far right and Big Tech – and take steps to rein in this dangerous turn toward extremism before we lose our democracy altogether.

Like any alliance, the union between MAGA and Big Tech offers immediate benefits for both sides. Extremism is foundational to a Big Tech business model that relies on engagement to drive advertising revenue. Meta earns over 95% of its revenue from advertising, and removing restrictions on hate speech will lead to more outrage, engagement, and ad revenue.

For MAGA Republicans, disinformation isn’t just a byproduct of unregulated tech. It’s the goal. In 2024, voters whose worldview was warped by disinformation to reflect far-right talking points – including that inflation was going up (it wasn’t) or that migration across the US southern border was at record highs (not true) –broke overwhelmingly for Trump over former Vice President Kamala Harris. Fringe conspiracy theories went viral on everything from Harris blocking post-Hurricane relief aid to Haitian immigrants eating cats. Post-election polling from Navigator Research showed that a majority of ‘New Trump’ voters in 2024 cited social media as their main source of news.

Of course, this isn’t the first time the right has formed a strategic alliance with an industry. From the fossil fuel industry to the gun lobby, Republicans have a long history of siding with corporations in exchange for campaign contributions. But what makes this partnership particularly insidious is that it’s not just one policy issue at stake -- it’s every policy issue. From climate change to gun safety to public health, the MAGA-fication of America’s information ecosystem threatens progress on every challenge we face.

This partnership also gives right-wing actors more than just a megaphone. Big Tech companies track our political preferences, who we talk to, how we shop, what news we consume, and where we travel. This information is an incredibly powerful weapon – particularly when leveraged for an authoritarian agenda.

Big Tech’s massive data troves are already being used as evidence to support the prosecution of abortion seekers and to locate, arrest, and deport immigrants. What’s to stop Trump from using Big Tech data to surveil outspoken journalists, crack down on political opponents, or track women seeking an abortion? Can we really expect the now-groveling tech CEOs to protect our data if and when the Trump administration asks for it?

Recognizing the MAGA-Big Tech alliance isn’t just about serving Democrats’ policy priorities. It’s also about the political survival of an opposition to MAGA – and the survival of our democracy as a whole. If we learned anything in 2024, it’s that candidates’ policy positions and achievements mean nothing if they cannot be communicated to (and believed by) voters. If Democrats and their independent allies don’t act quickly to regulate Big Tech, they will continue to run for office on sound policies and real accomplishments – and in the face of rampant disinformation and algorithmic deprioritization, they will lose every time.

When one party has structural advantages that allow it to win elections over and over again – no matter who they are? That’s no longer a democracy. It’s a dictatorship.

There is still time to act. But defeating the MAGA-Big Tech alliance will require Democrats, in particular, to break with the kid-gloves approach to Silicon Valley and make tech reform a central tenet of the party platform. At the state level, the fifteen states with Democratic trifectas should immediately erect a firewall between government and Big Tech – not only to highlight the dangers of a MAGA-aligned surveillance state but to protect our personal data from being used for abortion prosecution or mass deportations.

And at the federal level, Democrats can no longer welcome candidates or officials that would block tech accountability on behalf of their tech industry donors or keep legislation from reaching the Capitol floor.

Last week’s inauguration festivities may have been the most obvious evidence of tech billionaires' alliance with Trump, but it certainly won’t be the last. The marriage of MAGA and Big Tech is an existential threat to democracy – one that will only grow. Those who oppose the far-right political agenda must act now to fight back, or forever hold their peace.