Right-leaning billionaire Charles Koch and the left-leaning tech industry are allies on one policy issue — agreeing that innovation is most likely to flourish when government leaves it alone, Politico reported.
“I think people recognize that forward-thinking technologies can make strange bedfellows,” Evan Engstrom, executive director of a San Francisco-based startup advocacy group Engine, told Politico.
According to Politico, two Koch-funded organizations — one focused on education and another on grant-making — have been ramping up efforts to shape public debate on tech policy topics.
“We tend to think that there's a role for government, but it’s limited,” Jesse Blumenthal, who leads the Charles Koch Institute’s tech policy portfolio, told Politico — calling technology a prime example of how people can see their quality of life improved, and their existences less constrained, when the free market is allowed to work.
“There are not a lot of philanthropic foundations working in the tech policy space, particularly on forward-thinking tech issues,” Engstrom added. "I suspect we'll continue working together quite a bit.”
Nevertheless, some object to the alliance, Politico reported.
“At some point the tech community needs to realize that our work has a moral dimension,” said Catherine Bracy, executive director of TechEquity Collaborative.
“Taking money from people who are dedicating their lives to undermining American democratic values, like openness and inclusion, goes against everything the internet is supposed to stand for.”
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