Vice President JD Vance says Big Tech companies are “on notice”
Vice President JD Vance said during an interview on Sunday that Big Tech was still “on notice” when pressed on the various tech CEOs’ presence at President Trump’s inauguration, as well as the million dollar donations the group collectively gave to the inaugural events.
“The richest men in the world were at that Capitol on Inauguration Day. Heads of Amazon, Google, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook. In August, you told us Google and Facebook are too big. ‘We ought to take the Teddy Roosevelt approach. Break ’em up. Don’t let them control what people are allowed to say.’ They’ve now donated to the Trump inauguration. Are you still going to break up Big Tech?” CBS News’ Margaret Brennan asked Vance, before noting the seating arrangements on Inauguration Day.
Brennan’s question comes as the presence of major tech CEOs stirred up reaction from several in the media, such as MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. These CEOs included Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Apple’s Tim Cook, Google’s Sundar Pichai and X’s Elon Musk.
“We believe fundamentally that Big Tech does have too much power, and there are two ways they can go about this. They can either respect Americans’ constitutional rights — they can stop engaging in censorship, and if they don’t, you can be absolutely sure that Donald Trump’s leadership is not going to look too kindly on them,” Vance said.
Vice President JD Vance said Sudnay that Big Tech was “still on notice,” despite their donations to President Trump’s inaugural festivities. (Screenshot/CBS)
Brennan followed up by asking if the CEOs were still on notice.
“They’re very much on notice,” Vance responded.
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The major donations and presence at Trump’s inauguration marked a major departure for Big Tech, which largely imposed a temporary ban on Trump’s public profiles in 2020 via their social media platforms. These companies have also become more critical of the Biden administration, voicing displeasure with the White House’s attempts at oversight.
Zuckerberg specifically announced that Facebook and Instagram would be ending their fact-checking mechanism and using a community notes system going forward.
Mark Zuckerberg, Lauren Sanchez, Jeff Bezos and Sundar Pichai stand before the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times via AP, Pool)
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The group’s presence at Trump’s inauguration was seen as important, as CNN’s Jake Tapper lamented on Monday that the U.S. was about to “enter an era of deepfakes, and all sorts of misinformation and the degree to which those five gentlemen play a role or do not play a role, will be pivotal in terms of where the American people are four years from now, in terms of understanding what is true and what is false.”
Vance also seemed to argue that the tech CEOs’ presence at Trump’s inauguration was not all that relevant, noting that many people in attendance did not donate to the inaugural festivities.
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“They got pretty good seating,” CBS’ Brennan argued.
“They didn’t have as good of seating as my mom and a lot of other people who were there to support us,” Vance said.
