Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is raking in donations from Big Tech companies in Silicon Valley, despite her new billboard calling for the breakup of Big Tech.
The 2020 Democratic presidential candidate received $30,000 from Alphabet, one of her highest donors, and nearly $22,000 from Apple, Yelp, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, owned by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The billboard, located in the heart of Silicon Valley, is next to a Caltrain stop frequented by tech employees and close to the Lyft and Dropbox headquarters, according to the Verge.
It shows a large side profile of Warren and reads “Break up Big Tech.”
Warren holds one of the strongest stances among the Democratic field against Big Tech companies such as Amazon, Facebook, and Google.
“To restore the balance of power in our democracy, to promote competition, and to ensure that the next generation of technology innovation is as vibrant as the last, it’s time to break up our biggest tech companies,” Warren said in a statement.
Her proposals to do so include separating large tech platforms from any other companies and designating them as “platform utilities,” hiring regulators to reverse tech mergers, and reforming the Internet.
Warren said the tech companies have used the Internet and social media to “squash” smaller businesses for their own fiscal interests.
But she isn’t the only Democratic presidential candidate getting support from the industry.
Other candidates have also held fundraisers in the California Bay Area, including South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sens. Kamala Harris of California, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, and Cory Booker of New Jersey. Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke also collected his largest donations from Alphabet and Facebook in the 2018 election cycle.
[Opinion: Big tech is more competitive than Elizabeth Warren thinks]
