Governor DeSantis Signs Tech Integrity Project Pledge

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TIP Policy Director joined Michael Sobolik on the American Foreign Policy Council’s Great Power Podcast to discuss the compromises American Big Tech companies have made to access China’s market, and why they’ve stayed despite the mounting security risks. The Motive “They have every reason to go work in China because China is a highly profitable market, and that means better dividends and better returns for shareholders.” “China has 1.2 billion potential users. If you're Microsoft and you want to get more people using Windows, that's 1.2 billion people potentially using PCs and tablets and so forth. And if you can get them on Microsoft software, that's an enormously profitable market. Same holds true for Amazon. Amazon Web Services, a cloud computing service, does a lot of work in China.” The Story “The story of American big tech in China is them trying to go there, thinking that if we go and open the checkbook and show them all this wonderful global technology, China will become a liberal democracy. Its authoritarian system will evolve as the middle class, the bourgeoisie class, rises and demands better rights. Sort of a textbook case of liberalization since the 1980s. That was a bill of goods that never happened. It was a bald lie that was sold by our elites in technology and business who wanted us to believe that this was a good idea. What actually happened is that big tech companies had to make concessions to China, and they had to take a vow of silence. So that's why Microsoft is doing all of this very questionable, shady activity in China. But they'll go before Congress and make statements that are very close to misrepresentations that just seem off based on what the body of evidence says out there. They're loyal equally to the Chinese flag and to the American flag. And that is a major conflict of interest.” You can listen to the podcast below or in full HERE . ### About Tech Integrity Project: The Tech Integrity Project works to protect the national security and economic competitiveness of the United States by preventing Big Tech companies from aiding America’s adversaries. The organization works to educate presidential candidates and the public about the problematic business activities of U.S. tech companies in China and other adversarial nations, including capital investment, overseas research, transfer of trade secrets, and selling access to sensitive technologies.

Washington, DC – Tech Integrity Project joined a coalition letter , urging the Department of Justice to hold Apple accountable for its abusive App Store practices, including how the tech giant caters to the Chinese Communist Party. The letter, addressed to Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Jonathan Kanter, notes that Apple applies a double standard in managing the App Store, ignoring the concerns of American app developers while enthusiastically complying with diktats from Beijing. As the letter highlights: [W]hile Apple has long discarded the concerns of American app developers, the company has been happy to modify its App Store policies to appease the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime. Last year, it was reported that Apple would acquiesce to China’s demands for apps on the App Store to list their Beijing-designated Internet Content Provider (ICP) filing number. In doing so, Apple closed one of Chinese citizens’ only avenues to access, through VPN, apps banned by the Communist regime. It’s worth noting that this came just three years after Apple removed some 39,000 apps on the App Store in China in a single day to appease the government. This only scrapes the surface of Apple’s advocacy on behalf of Beijing: in 2020, the company tried to wield its lobbying might in D.C. to weaken legislation to stop forced labor in the Xinjiang region. " It’s fitting that just as this lawsuit dropped, Tim Cook had been in Shanghai touting more investment in China and boasting Apple’s supply chain there as its most important," said Geoffrey Cain, Policy Director at Tech Integrity Project. "As a company that was founded in America and saw monumental growth because of our free system, it is shameful how Apple bends to the demands of the CCP. The hypocrisy is stark. Apple fights virtually every request from an American app developer, citing security and other concerns to maintain its walled garden. But the walls come crumbling down as soon as Beijing calls. Apple simply cannot have it both ways—preaching the virtues of cybersecurity while letting the CCP exert control over its products. To the extent that Apple’s market position enables or exacerbates this behavior, we support the DOJ investigating the company.” You can read the full letter by clicking HERE . ### About Tech Integrity Project: The Tech Integrity Project works to protect the national security and economic competitiveness of the United States by preventing Big Tech companies from aiding America’s adversaries. The organization works to educate presidential candidates and the public about the problematic business activities of U.S. tech companies in China and other adversarial nations, including capital investment, overseas research, transfer of trade secrets, and selling access to sensitive technologies. We’re calling on elected officials and candidates to sign our pledge . To stay updated and join our cause, click HERE .

TIP Policy Director Geoffrey Cain joined KMZQ's Kevin Wall Radio Show to call on U.S. companies end their love affairs with China. Host Kevin Wall: "Do you trust big tech to do the right thing?" Geoffrey Cain: "Big Tech has shown that it will pursue it's own interests. It will throw America under the bus if it needs to. We need to do more to get big tech under the flag of America. The fact of the matter is if you are company founded and operating here in America, your allegiance should be to American principles, American democracy, and the American way of life. I think these private tech companies going to these overseas authoritarian regimes and trying to set up shop in China compromises them and they need to stay true to their values. They can't work for both sides when both sides are moving apart. They have to chose their allegiance and have to chose their flag. And the authoritarian Chinese government must not be their allegiance. That is dangerous." Geoffrey Cain also discussed how the issue is impacting presidential campaigns Host Kevin Wall: "You mentioned presidential candidates, are they talking enough about China at this point?" Geoffrey Cain: "There has been a lot of good talk about China, the threats of China. I think we have seen more and more candidates get on with this particular topic because they are realizing more and more that China does pose a major threat and there are major US companies helping the Chinese Communist Party. So we do have a pledge that we've asked candidates to sign. So far Governor Ron DeSantis has been the first to sign." "We have been on the campaign trail, talking to campaigns, and people seem receptive. This has become an election issue, our polling shows voters are deeply concerned about this." You can listen to the full interview by clicking HERE , beginning at 8:29 ###

Former Lieutenant Governor Andre Bauer and TIP Policy Director Geoffrey Cain appeared on WTKN's Saturday Morning Coffee, hosted by Reese Boyd, to explain the threat of sharing technological expertise with China. "The Chinese Communist Party wants to end democracy, it is their goal. And American companies are actively helping the CCP achieve their goals. In one example, a recent investigation found that Microsoft engaged in a partnership with Chinese state media companies to develop software that spreads their message." said TIP Policy Director Geoffrey Cain. "We don't know the full ramifications of AI, but make no mistake, all of our lives will be affected by it. Our gains in this technology can not be shared with an adversary" Said fmr. Governor Andre Bauer. You can listen to the full interview by clicking HERE , starting at 22:13. ###

Des Moines, IA – Presidential candidate Nikki Haley, former Ambassador to the United Nations, has signed the Tech Integrity Project’s pledge to stop American Big Tech companies from helping our adversaries advance their critical technologies and deploy them against us. The pledge reads: “If elected to office, I pledge to prevent foreign investments of U.S. tech companies from aiding our adversaries , like the Chinese Communist Party, and harming America’s economic competitiveness and national security. Specifically, I will do everything in my power to block adversaries from benefitting from U.S.-made next-gen technologies , such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and quantum computing.” We are grateful to Ambassador Haley for pledging to ensure that U.S.-based companies put America first. Our polling shows that voters care deeply about the threat. 90% of South Carolina primary voters are concerned with Big Tech’s involvement in China. The next president must eliminate these threats and keep the United States the leader in next-gen technology. To learn more about the Tech Integrity Project’s mission, click here . ### About Tech Integrity Project: The Tech Integrity Project works to protect the national security and economic competitiveness of the United States by preventing Big Tech companies from aiding America’s adversaries. The organization works to educate presidential candidates and the public about the problematic business activities of U.S. tech companies in China and other adversarial nations, including capital investment, overseas research, transfer of trade secrets, and selling access to sensitive technologies. We’re calling on presidential candidates to sign our pledge . To stay updated and join our cause, click HERE .The body content of your post goes here. To edit this text, click on it and delete this default text and start typing your own or paste your own from a different source.

TIP Policy Director Geoffrey Cain joined the Federalist Radio Hour podcast to discuss how American tech companies have enabled the CCP's surveillance state through cooperation and investment with Chinese enterprises. "The surveillance state that China created was also an American problem. American Big Tech companies are the ones that are working there, that are selling them these technologies, that are helping the state do what it wants to do. It really is a horrific situation and we haven't done enough to address it." "China wants to export this [surveillance state] too. This is not something that is limited only to China anymore. We've seen in the past five years with the expansion of AI, the expansion of facial recognition, new advances in semiconductor technology. We've seen how far the CCP wants to go to export this tech and what they want to do with the tech as well." "China is making more and more in-roads, and there are more and more of these companies coming here but also American companies still going over there and opening up shop and helping the CCP obtain these goals." American companies should never be an accomplice to the authoritarian objectives of foreign countries, especially when those objectives include threatening the economic and national security of the United States. You can listen to the full interview below or by clicking HERE .

Des Moines, IA – Today, Tech Integrity Project announced that Governor Ron DeSantis, candidate for President of the United States, has signed the organization’s pledge to stop American Big Tech companies from aiding our foreign adversaries: “ If elected to office, I pledge to prevent foreign investments of U.S. tech companies from aiding our adversaries , like the Chinese Communist Party, and harming America’s economic competitiveness and national security. Specifically, I will do everything in my power to block adversaries from benefiting from U.S.-made next-gen technologies , such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and quantum computing. ” We welcome this news and look forward to other candidates signing the pledge. This is an issue that voters care about. It is critical that the next president take action to prevent our homegrown tech companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple from helping adversaries develop critical and sensitive technologies. Our national security, and economic competitiveness, depend on it. To learn more about the Tech Integrity Project, click here . ### About Tech Integrity Project: The Tech Integrity Project works to protect the national security and economic competitiveness of the United States by preventing Big Tech companies from aiding America’s adversaries. The organization works to educate presidential candidates and the public about the problematic business activities of U.S. tech companies in China and other adversarial nations, including capital investment, overseas research, transfer of trade secrets, and selling access to sensitive technologies. We’re calling on presidential candidates to sign our pledge . To stay updated and join our cause, click HERE .

TIP Policy Director Geoff Cain appeared in a recent story published by the Washington Free Beacon detailing how Microsoft helped Chinese state-run media outlets disseminate propaganda as part of previously unreported partnership agreements. The nation’s second largest corporation signed collaboration deals with state-run Chinese media outlets including China Daily and People’s Daily, the latter of which is the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese government. Summaries of the deal state Microsoft would provide China Daily with technology that lets the paper target potential readers and gave the People’s Daily access to an artificial intelligence bot specially designed to be controlled and censored by the Chinese Communist Party. These deals have not been widely reported outside of China, nor have the financial terms been disclosed. A spokeswoman for Microsoft said both agreements "expired years ago and were not renewed." But experts say the fact that Microsoft inked the deals at all is a major win for the Chinese Communist Party.