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by fnordsensei 505 days ago
To give more context:

Andy, or someone else, posted what can be read as an endorsement[1].

> Until corporate Dems are thrown out, the reality is that Republicans remain more likely to tackle Big Tech abuses.

Putting aside that this was a divisive statement, the problem emerged when this was posted by the official company account.

For the duration of time that this was the official response, it's not unreasonable for the public to assume that Andy, or someone else, endorsed a political party using the official company account.

This is the core of what caused the incident to escalate.

It was later retracted, and followed up with a statement[2] on the incident.

[1]: https://archive.ph/2yWGz

[2]: https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonMail/comments/1i2nz9v/on_poli...
1 comments
n4r9 505 days ago
The irony is that this was already changing: anti-trust has been massively empowered under Biden and Lina Khan. Trump is certainly attempting to bandwagon this tide, but the appearance of so many Big Tech leaders in VIP seats at his inauguration does not lend a favourable hindsight view to Andy Yen's statement.
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blackeyeblitzar 503 days ago
Is that really true? What did Lina Khan do to thwart big tech and enforce antitrust laws to a greater extent? I feel like there was mostly blockers for M&A that allowed startups to exit, but little real impact on big tech.
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DroidPort 503 days ago
The most vocal supporter of Lina Khan's work over the last few years has been JD Vance... while I can't remember a single democrat voicing even close to the same support.
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bayarearefugee 503 days ago
JD Vance vocally supported her, then the administration he is part of fired her as soon as it was able.

By contrast, Democrats nominated her to be commissioner, officially it was Biden who did so but Elizabeth Warren, another Democrat, is the one who really pushed for it.

Words don't mean shit compared to action.

With your kind of reasoning its pretty obvious why America is currently driving itself off a cliff.

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n4r9 503 days ago
She led the FTC to bring lawsuits against Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft. Although two of the cases have been blocked in the courts, this alone was unthinkable in previous administrations. She's also helped enforce policies like right-to-repair and click-to-cancel which threaten big tech's market share. Like it or not she's played a massive part in shifting the narrative on antitrust. Trump's dismissal of her along with Big Tech's front-row seats at his inauguration and general sycophantism are not good signs for antitrust.
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