美国国家公共电台 NPR Democratic Candidates Target Tech Giants, Who Are Major Party Donors

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

The first full week of South by Southwest is underway with a big focus on the 2020 election. More than half a dozen candidates showed up in Austin, Texas, over the weekend for the annual music, arts and technology convention. And Democrats¹ seem to be competing with one another to be the tough-on-tech candidate. Here's more from NPR's Aarti Shahani.

(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)

ELIZABETH WARREN: Thank you very much. Thank you.

AARTI SHAHANI, BYLINE²: Hundreds of fans in the Moody³ Theater cheered as Senator Elizabeth Warren hopped⁴ on stage. She'd just rallied in Queens, N.Y., where Amazon pulled its plan to build a new headquarters in the face of protest. And now, at a conference full of tech workers, she came with the same message - big tech is killing⁵ competition, and that's bad.

(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)

WARREN: We want to keep that marketplace competitive, not let a giant who has an incredible information advantage and a manipulative advantage be able to snuff you out.

SHAHANI: Her new policy position - break up the tech giants. Amazon is exhibit one. It's the popular site for shopping. And it also makes bed frames, yoga mats - a growing list. Warren says you can't run the marketplace and make the goods. That's too much power in too few hands. While consumers benefit from low prices, she says small businesses are losing. If she's president, the losers will change.

(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)

WARREN: The monopolist will make fewer monopoly profits. Boo hoo.

(LAUGHTER)

SHAHANI: After years of scandal - privacy violations⁶, election interference, mega hacks⁷ - Silicon⁸ Valley has emerged, early on, as a presidential campaign issue. Warren's call is pushing her party to the left, a place where many Democrats aren't ready to go given the party's reliance on tech donors⁹.

In the 2018 midterms, tech companies clearly favored Democrats over the GOP. Sixty-nine percent of Amazon money went to Democratic federal campaigns, 79 percent of Facebook money, 83 percent of Alphabet - Google money.

SHEILA KRUMHOLZ: It's going to be awkward. They're doing a dance.

SHAHANI: Sheila Krumholz directs the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign finance. The dance is this - use populist messages to raise money online, but don't burn bridges with top executives. Senator Kamala Harris, for example, has spent years advocating for stronger data privacy. But her home base is California, and, as strategists say, Silicon Valley is the ATM machine. According to Krumholz, Harris and other candidates are waiting to see whether the leftist message pays off...

KRUMHOLZ: Or whether they take a more moderated approach and that allows them access to money from Silicon Valley.

SHAHANI: Another presidential candidate, Senator Amy Klobuchar, wants to stand out for her track record taking on Silicon Valley. In 2018, she got checks from powerful tech donors - former Google chairman Eric Schmidt; Facebook chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg; and Amazon's top lawyer, David Zapolsky. But she's also led efforts in the Senate, introducing and sponsoring several bills to regulate the industry. And she came to South By with another bold new idea, which she shared with NPR shortly before jumping on stage.

AMY KLOBUCHAR: When they do use your data, there should be some kind of a tax on it.

SHAHANI: In other words, every time Facebook or Google makes ad money by selling access to your eyeballs, make the tech titan pay.

KLOBUCHAR: They're going to scream when they hear this.

SHAHANI: The problem Klobuchar faced here was that her message - to create a new tax and unleash¹⁰ investigations¹¹ - didn't excite people as much as Warren's blunter call. The Warren speech ended in a mob.

JASON: Hi, Senator. I'm Jason. I work in tech, and I think you hit the nail right on the head with all of it.

SHAHANI: Adoring fans, including a few tech workers, surrounded her to pledge their support and money and ask for selfies. For the Democratic candidates, the challenge will be to galvanize their supporters in tech while taking on the industry.

Aarti Shahani, NPR News, Austin.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAKEY INSPIRED'S "STREET DREAMS")

1 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 moody   

adj.心情不稳的，易怒的，喜怒无常的

参考例句：

• He relapsed into a moody silence.他又重新陷于忧郁的沉默中。
• I'd never marry that girl.She's so moody.我决不会和那女孩结婚的。她太易怒了。

4 hopped   

跳上[下]( hop的过去式和过去分词 )； 单足蹦跳； 齐足（或双足）跳行； 摘葎草花

参考例句：

• He hopped onto a car and wanted to drive to town. 他跳上汽车想开向市区。
• He hopped into a car and drove to town. 他跳进汽车，向市区开去。

5 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

6 violations   

违反( violation的名词复数 )； 冒犯； 违反（行为、事例）； 强奸

参考例句：

• This is one of the commonest traffic violations. 这是常见的违反交通规则之例。
• These violations of the code must cease forthwith. 这些违犯法规的行为必须立即停止。

7 hacks   

黑客

参考例句：

• But there are hacks who take advantage of people like Teddy. 但有些无赖会占类似泰迪的人的便宜。 来自电影对白
• I want those two hacks back here, right now. 我要那两个雇工回到这儿，现在就回。 来自互联网

8 silicon   

n.硅(旧名矽)

参考例句：

• This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。
• A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。

9 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 unleash   

vt.发泄，发出；解带子放开

参考例句：

• They hope to create allies to unleash against diseases,pests,and invasive species.他们希望创造出一些新群体来对付疾病、害虫和一些有侵害性的物种。
• Changing water levels now at times unleash a miasma of disease from exposed sewage.如今，大坝不时地改变水位，从暴露的污水释放出了疾病瘴气。

11 investigations   

（正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究

参考例句：

• His investigations were intensive and thorough but revealed nothing. 他进行了深入彻底的调查，但没有发现什么。
• He often sent them out to make investigations. 他常常派他们出去作调查。