Explainer-Harris' business views: friendly to Big Tech, aggressive in climate fight

WASHINGTON - U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is potentially poised to become the Democratic presidential nominee in the November election. Here are her views and actions related to some key business topics.

TECH REGULATION

As California attorney general, Harris sued eBay in 2012, alleging anticompetitive hiring practices surrounding a no-poaching agreement with Intuit that led to a nearly $4 million settlement in 2014.

In 2015, she compelled startup Houzz to hire a chief privacy officer after allegations that the home design app had recorded sales calls without proper notification and consent.

One of her signature issues was curtailing the distribution of pornography on social media, particularly “revenge porn,” a practice involving the posting of explicit photos without the subject’s consent. She took credit for a pressure campaign that led to Facebook, Alphabet's Google, Microsoft and others taking measures to remove certain explicit images.

“I cannot emphasize enough how leaders in technology have stepped up,” said Harris at a news conference then. “I’m not suggesting any of them were happy to get a call from the AG saying, ‘Come in, we want to talk with you.‘ But they all did. They did.”

BIG TECH

As a candidate for California attorney general, Harris reportedly assured potential donors that she was “a capitalist.” She has generally been seen as cozy with prominent tech executives and investors, the local industry in her home Bay Area. She attended the wedding of Sean Parker, an early Facebook executive. Her brother-in-law, Tony West, is the chief legal officer for Uber.

She also accepted donations from Reid Hoffman, a prominent venture capitalist and co-founder of Linkedin, as well as billionaire John Doerr and venture capitalist Ron Conway. Big tech executives also supported her, including Sheryl Sandberg, then chief operating officer of Facebook, and Marc Benioff, the billionaire CEO of Salesforce.

CLIMATE AND ENERGY

Harris’ climate and energy positions are similar to Biden’s. But throughout her career she has made clear that clean energy and environmental justice are priorities.

When Biden announced Harris as his running mate in the 2020 race, he emphasized her tough stance against big oil when she served in key roles in California, noting lawsuits she had launched both 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 made her debut at international climate negotiations, announcing a $3 billion commitment to the Green Climate Fund and making her first major international speech focused on climate.

As vice president, Harris has also been involved in Environmental Protection Agency policy rollouts that tackled long-standing environmental justice issues, such as a multibillion-dollar program to replace lead pipes and lead paint around the country.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

As vice president, Harris has been particularly outspoken on artificial intelligence. She warned against the “existential” threat of AI and said it could “endanger the very existence of humanity,” in a November 2023 address.

In meeting with tech execs like Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai, Harris warned that they have a “moral” obligation to guard against AI’s possible dangers.

She backed an AI executive order from Biden that seeks stronger protections for consumers, singling out AI-generated scam calls and the impacts of unlabeled AI-generated content.

-(Reuters)