Close Menu
TechCentralTechCentral

    Subscribe to the newsletter

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    Facebook X (Twitter) YouTube LinkedIn
    WhatsApp Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentralTechCentral
    • News

      World Bank set to back South Africa’s big energy grid roll-out

      20 June 2025

      The algorithm will sing now: why musicians should be worried about AI

      20 June 2025

      Sita hits back at critics, promises faster, automated procurement

      20 June 2025

      The transatlantic race to create the first television

      20 June 2025

      Listed: All the MVNOs in South Africa – 2025 edition

      19 June 2025
    • World

      Watch | Starship rocket explodes in setback to Musk’s Mars mission

      19 June 2025

      Trump Mobile dials into politics, profit and patriarchy

      17 June 2025

      Samsung plots health data hub to link users and doctors in real time

      17 June 2025

      Beijing’s chip champions blacklisted by Taiwan

      16 June 2025

      China is behind in AI chips – but for how much longer?

      13 June 2025
    • In-depth

      Meta bets $72-billion on AI – and investors love it

      17 June 2025

      MultiChoice may unbundle SuperSport from DStv

      12 June 2025

      Grok promised bias-free chat. Then came the edits

      2 June 2025

      Digital fortress: We go inside JB5, Teraco’s giant new AI-ready data centre

      30 May 2025

      Sam Altman and Jony Ive’s big bet to out-Apple Apple

      22 May 2025
    • TCS

      TCS+ | AfriGIS’s Helen Hulett on how tech can help resolve South Africa’s water crisis

      18 June 2025

      TechCentral Nexus S0E2: South Africa’s digital battlefield

      16 June 2025

      TechCentral Nexus S0E1: Starlink, BEE and a new leader at Vodacom

      8 June 2025

      TCS+ | The future of mobile money, with MTN’s Kagiso Mothibi

      6 June 2025

      TCS+ | AI is more than hype: Workday execs unpack real human impact

      4 June 2025
    • Opinion

      South Africa pioneered drone laws a decade ago – now it must catch up

      17 June 2025

      AI and the future of ICT distribution

      16 June 2025

      Singapore soared – why can’t we? Lessons South Africa refuses to learn

      13 June 2025

      Beyond the box: why IT distribution depends on real partnerships

      2 June 2025

      South Africa’s next crisis? Being offline in an AI-driven world

      2 June 2025
    • Company Hubs
      • Africa Data Centres
      • AfriGIS
      • Altron Digital Business
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Altron Group
      • Arctic Wolf
      • AvertITD
      • Braintree
      • CallMiner
      • CYBER1 Solutions
      • Digicloud Africa
      • Digimune
      • Domains.co.za
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • Incredible Business
      • iONLINE
      • Iris Network Systems
      • LSD Open
      • NEC XON
      • Network Platforms
      • Next DLP
      • Ovations
      • Paracon
      • Paratus
      • Q-KON
      • SevenC
      • SkyWire
      • Solid8 Technologies
      • Telit Cinterion
      • Tenable
      • Vertiv
      • Videri Digital
      • Wipro
      • Workday
    • Sections
      • AI and machine learning
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud services
      • Contact centres and CX
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Electronics and hardware
      • Energy and sustainability
      • Enterprise software
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Lifestyle
      • Motoring
      • Public sector
      • Retail and e-commerce
      • Science
      • SMEs and start-ups
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Events
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home » Top » Trump win: tech industry reacts with dismay

    Trump win: tech industry reacts with dismay

    By Agency Staff9 November 2016
    Twitter LinkedIn Facebook WhatsApp Email Telegram Copy Link
    News Alerts
    WhatsApp
    Donald Trump
    Donald Trump

    The 2016 presidential race was a powerful illustration of the influence that Internet services have to shape the national political conversation. Yet in the end, many of the people involved in technology didn’t get what they wanted: a Hillary Clinton presidency. Instead, Donald Trump pulled off a stunning upset to become the 45th US president.

    As votes were tallied on Tuesday night, the mood among prominent figures in Silicon Valley turned grim. “This feels like the worst thing to happen in my life. I assume we’ll get through it, but it sure doesn’t feel that way right now,” Sam Altman, president of start-up incubator Y Combinator, tweeted.

    At an election watch party hosted by Brigade, a voter-movement start-up in San Francisco, dozens of people left before the election was called, many in tears. Those who stayed seemed more intoxicated than upset.

    “Is this what it felt like when people first realised Hitler could actually take power?” tweeted Zynga co-founder Mark Pincus. Shervin Pishevar, the co-founder of Hyperloop One, suggested that California secede.

    Trump’s victory is the final twist in a surreal race that had drawn the technology hub into an increasingly assertive political role. His most vocal critics weren’t talking about their businesses — their worries were more existential — but his presidency would leave the US tech industry in an uncomfortably uncertain position.

    Total contributions to the Clinton campaign from the Internet industry came in at 114 times the level they did for Trump, according to statistics compiled by the Centre for Responsive Politics. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg gave a strongly worded rebuke to Trump’s views on immigration at the company’s developers conference in April, although he never called him out by name.

    Later, Dustin Moskovitz, who made his fortune as a Facebook co-founder, pledged US$20m to Democratic groups opposing Trump. Other high-profile figures in Silicon Valley such as Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and Reid Hoffman, chairman of LinkedIn, also took unusually public anti-Trump stances.

    The notable exception was Peter Thiel, the billionaire PayPal backer and the valley’s resident contrarian.

    “Congratulations to president-elect Donald Trump,” Thiel said in a statement to Business Insider. “He has an awesomely difficult task, since it is long past time for us to face up to our country’s problems. We’re going to need all hands on deck.”

    As voting took place on Tuesday, people within the industry were feeling relatively confident, and were privately discussing what the early days of a Clinton presidency would look like. Given the harsh turn the discussion on trade had taken on the campaign trail, strategists were preparing to push President Barack Obama to complete the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement before he left office. Clinton had said she planned to advocate for sweeping immigration reform in the early days of her presidency.

    If nothing else, Clinton was a known quantity. In June, she published a detailed agenda for her approach to technology policy. The 7 000-word document laid out plans for targeted tax credits, pledged to carry on Obama’s policies towards net neutrality, and a national commission on digital security and encryption. It was met with wide approval from an industry that thrived during the Obama years.

    Those attempting to divine Trump’s stance still don’t have such an easy guide. They’ve had to learn what they can from a series of offhand remarks. On one of the most contentious issues, encryption, he has brushed aside calls for a balanced approach. In February, he attacked Apple for refusing to help the FBI unlock the cellphone of one of the suspects in the San Bernadino shootings. “Who do they think they are? No, we have to open it,” he said in an interview on Fox & Friends

    Trump has also called for shutting down the Web, and once jokingly asked Russia to carry out cyberattacks against the US to find e-mails related to Clinton’s private server.

    After perhaps the most contentious presidential campaign in modern history, Silicon Valley is anxious to hear a more coherent policy vision.  — (c) 2016 Bloomberg LP



    Donald Trump Mark Pincus Peter Thiel Sam Altman Zynga
    Subscribe to TechCentral Subscribe to TechCentral
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email Copy Link
    Previous ArticleConfusion over state broadband tender
    Next Article New protector must probe Thuli: ANC

    Related Posts

    Major rift opens between Microsoft and OpenAI

    17 June 2025

    Trump Mobile dials into politics, profit and patriarchy

    17 June 2025

    Coal to cash: South Africa gets major boost for energy shift

    13 June 2025
    Company News

    Making IT happen: how Trade Link gears up to enable SA retail strategies

    20 June 2025

    Why parents choose CambriLearn for online education

    19 June 2025

    Disrupt first, ask questions later – the uncomfortable truth about incident response

    18 June 2025
    Opinion

    South Africa pioneered drone laws a decade ago – now it must catch up

    17 June 2025

    AI and the future of ICT distribution

    16 June 2025

    Singapore soared – why can’t we? Lessons South Africa refuses to learn

    13 June 2025

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2025 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.