Democratic Institutions

In 60 Minutes interview, Amodei stated: 'I think I'm deeply uncomfortable with these decisions being made by a few companies, by a few people. And this is one reason why I've always advocated for responsible and thoughtful regulation of the technology.' When asked 'who elected you and Sam Altman?' responded 'No one, no one.'

In a Times Radio interview, Wales criticized President Trump's repeated 'fake news' claims, saying they mirror tactics used by strongmen around the world. He noted it was 'an astonishing situation' when a President 'clearly contradicts himself, or denies that he said things that we can all play tapes of him saying.'

Under DOGE's direction, USAID was effectively eliminated by July 2025. The agency's workforce was cut by 92% (from 4,800 to 378 employees), and 90% of contracts and grants were canceled. Cuts included $1.1 billion in malaria prevention, $171.7 million in food and clean water programs, and $435.2 million in education abroad. A federal judge ruled the dismantling was likely unconstitutional. Senator Schatz reported that over 360,000 people had already died as a result of not having food and medication in the wake of the funding cuts.

In April 2025, acting US Attorney Edward R. Martin Jr. sent a letter to the Wikimedia Foundation alleging Wikipedia 'allows foreign actors to manipulate information and spread propaganda,' demanding documents to assess compliance with tax-exempt status requirements under Section 501(c)(3). The letter requested materials from January 2021 onward covering content moderation practices, editor misconduct handling, and interactions with search engines and AI companies. Separately, in May 2025, a bipartisan group of 23 US Representatives led by Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Don Bacon sent a letter expressing concern about antisemitism and anti-Israel bias on Wikipedia. These actions represented escalating political pressure on the Foundation's editorial independence.

On January 20, 2025, DHH published a blog post praising Trump's return to the presidency, writing that 'the majority of Americans are optimistic about the prospect' and describing the moment as 'exhilarating.' He contrasted American confidence favorably with European pessimism. This followed earlier anti-DEI blog posts in 2023 that led Duke University Libraries to drop Basecamp.

Lyft notably did not donate to Trump's 2025 inauguration fund, while competitor Uber donated $2 million. Lyft also maintained its pledge not to fund members of Congress who supported election denial claims after January 6, 2021.

In early 2025, Musk launched a social media campaign against UK's Labour government, publishing over 100 posts (100+ million views) falsely accusing PM Starmer of allowing grooming gangs to avoid prosecution for votes. Posts targeting UK increased 5.6-fold in January 2025. He explicitly called for votes for Germany's far-right AfD party before their February 2025 election. In August 2024, he posted 'Civil war is inevitable' in the UK during riots, prompting government rebuke. The EU's EDMO documented how his 'powerful disinformation machine works' across European politics.

In 2024, Pierre Omidyar donated $16.4 million to 501(c)(4) 'social welfare' electoral-advocacy and lobbying organizations. The Democracy Voice Fund received over $13 million from Omidyar in 2024. He also gave $500,000 to Governors Safeguarding Democracy, which opposes Trump administration policies, and $750,000 to a fund associated with Democratic lawyer Marc Elias.

Throughout 2024, Elon Musk posted at least 87 claims about US elections that fact-checkers rated as false or misleading, amassing over 2 billion views. None received Community Notes fact-checks. He promoted the 'Great Replacement' conspiracy theory claiming Democrats were 'importing voters' (747 million views across 42 posts), spread voting machine fraud conspiracies, and shared an AI deepfake of Kamala Harris (133 million views). The Center for Countering Digital Hate estimated his political reach would have cost a campaign $24 million in ads.

Graham gave a lukewarm endorsement of Kamala Harris over Donald Trump, stating 'Harris is a typical politician. But Trump is a crook. You can't have that sort of person as president.' He cited Trump's refusal to concede the 2020 election as 'banana republic stuff.'

In October 2024, Musk pledged through America PAC to give away $1 million per day to a registered voter in swing states who signed his petition supporting the First and Second Amendments. Legal experts and election law scholars raised concerns the sweepstakes could violate federal law prohibiting paying people to register to vote. Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner filed a lawsuit alleging the program was an illegal lottery. A judge allowed the sweepstakes to continue. The program ran primarily in battleground states including Pennsylvania, a key swing state.

Tan organized the 'Reboot 2024' conference in San Francisco which featured Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts discussing Project 2025. The conference brought together tech leaders with conservative policy advocates.

Oracle reportedly began working with the Heritage Foundation to compile a database of potential Trump appointees willing to implement Project 2025, a radically conservative policy agenda. Oracle's public-facing financial disclosures do not mention this contract.

John Collison has donated approximately $233,000 to Democratic candidates and organizations as of August 2024, including contributions to Kamala Harris and the Democratic National Committee. This represents personal political giving, not company contributions.

At the Sun Valley Conference in July 2024, Reid Hoffman reportedly responded to Peter Thiel's comment about making Trump a martyr by saying he wished he had made Trump an 'actual martyr.' The comment came just before the attempted assassination of Trump. Hoffman later clarified he 'meant nothing about any sort of physical harm or violence.'

On January 27, 2024, Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan posted on X/Twitter at 12:25 AM wishing seven San Francisco Board of Supervisors members would 'die slow motherfuckers,' targeting progressive supervisors Dean Preston, Connie Chan, Aaron Peskin, Shamann Walton, Myrna Melgar, Hillary Ronen, and Ahsha Safai. The post led to threatening letters sent to supervisors' homes, multiple police reports filed, and widespread condemnation. Tan later apologized, claiming the post referenced a Tupac Shakur song 'Hit Em Up,' but acknowledged it 'wasn't a good call.'

From 2023-2024, Musk used his X account (the most-followed on the platform) to systematically amplify conspiracy theories and far-right disinformation. He endorsed the antisemitic 'great replacement' conspiracy theory, boosted anti-immigrant conspiracy theories about Haitian immigrants, amplified accounts like @EndWokeness and @libsoftiktok (which inspired bomb threats at a children's hospital), and shared election fraud conspiracies. A 2023 Science Feedback analysis found 'super-spreader' disinformation accounts saw a 42% increase in engagement, with Musk personally interacting with their top posts.

In June 2023, YouTube reversed its policy of removing content making false claims about the 2020 US presidential election being stolen. The platform had previously removed 'tens of thousands' of such videos since December 2020. YouTube stated the reversal was because 'removing this content does curb some misinformation' but 'could also have the unintended effect of curtailing political speech.' Critics argued this enabled continued spread of election denialism.

Wales criticized Musk for Twitter censoring posts at Turkey's request during elections, contrasting it with Wikipedia's successful legal battle in Turkey. He stated 'We do not bend to the will of governments, anywhere' and questioned whether Musk was saying 'we don't care about freedom of expression if it interferes with making money.'

The Wikimedia Foundation pursued a years-long legal challenge against the NSA's Upstream surveillance program, arguing it violated the First and Fourth Amendment rights of Wikipedia users and editors. Research had documented a measurable chilling effect on Wikipedia traffic to sensitive topics following the 2013 Snowden revelations about NSA surveillance. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case on February 21, 2023, ending the legal challenge. Despite the loss, the Foundation's sustained effort demonstrated commitment to defending user privacy against government surveillance.