US Vice President Kamala Harris is poised to become the Democratic presidential nominee in the November election. Here are her views and actions related to some key business topics.
Technical Regulation
As California attorney general, Harris sued eBay in 2012, alleging anti-competitive hiring practices surrounding a no-poaching agreement with Intuit, resulting in a nearly $4 million settlement in 2014.
In 2015, he forced startup Houzz to hire a chief privacy officer after facing allegations that the home design app recorded sales calls without proper notice and consent.
One of his key issues was reducing the distribution of pornography on social media, particularly “revenge porn,” which involves posting explicit photos without the subject’s consent. He took credit for a pressure campaign that led Facebook, Alphabet’s Google, Microsoft and others to take steps to remove some explicit images.
“I can’t emphasize enough how the leaders in technology have stepped up,” Harris said at a news conference then. “I’m not saying any of them were happy to get a call from the AG saying, ‘Come on in, we want to talk to you.’ But they all came. They did.”
Big Tech
As a candidate for California attorney general, Harris reportedly assured potential donors that she was “a capitalist.” She is typically seen as close to prominent tech executives and investors, a local industry staple in her home Bay Area. She attended the wedding of early Facebook executive Sean Parker. Her brother-in-law, Tony West, is Uber’s chief legal officer.
He also accepted donations from LinkedIn co-founder and prominent venture capitalist Reid Hoffman, as well as billionaire John Doerr and venture capitalist Ron Conway. Big tech executives also supported him, including Facebook’s then-chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg and Salesforce’s billionaire CEO Marc Benioff.
Climate and energy
Harris has similar climate and energy positions to Biden. But throughout her career she has made it clear that clean energy and environmental justice are her priorities.
When Biden announced Harris as his vice president in the 2020 race, he emphasized her tough stance against big oil while serving in key roles in California, citing the lawsuits she filed as San Francisco’s district attorney from 2004 to 2011 and then as the state’s attorney general until January 2017, when she became a U.S. senator.
Last year, Harris participated in international climate talks for the first time, announcing a $3 billion commitment to the Green Climate Fund and delivering her first major international speech focused on climate.
As vice president, Harris has also been involved in the Environmental Protection Agency’s policy implementation, tackling long-standing environmental justice issues, such as a multibillion-dollar program to replace lead pipes and lead paint across the country.
artificial intelligence
As vice president, Harris has been particularly vocal about artificial intelligence. In her November 2023 speech, she warned against the “existential” threat of AI and said it could “endanger the very existence of humanity.”
In a meeting with technology executives including Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai, Harris warned that they have a “moral” obligation to protect against the potential dangers of AI.
He supported Biden’s AI executive order, which calls for stronger protections for consumers, and highlights the impacts of AI-generated scam calls and unlabeled AI-generated content.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
