To take the pulse of where tech employees across the country stand on key issues facing the industry, Protocol has introduced the outlet’s first “Tech Employee Survey” of 1,504 employees nationwide, from C-suite level executives to associates, mostly from large tech companies (almost 40% of respondents work at companies with annual revenue over $500 million and more than 1,000 employees). Nearly 1 in 8 of the tech employees surveyed agreed that the tech industry is too powerful.
Emily Birnbaum and Issie Lapowsky for Protocol:
A whopping 78% of the tech employees we surveyed agreed that the tech industry is too powerful, with just 11% disagreeing. The same goes for Facebook, Amazon, Alphabet and Apple. Over 77% of respondents said those companies have too much power, and just over 8% disagreed.
Not only did the majority say that the industry is too powerful, but around 40% also said that tech does more harm than good. Only about 45% of tech employees disagreed, signaling that even within the industry, tech workers worry about the negative impact technology is having on the world.
And yet, remedies are in short supply… Just over 40% think that Facebook, Amazon, Alphabet and Apple should be broken up. Despite their concerns about tech’s power and negative influence, tech employees don’t see antitrust enforcement as the solution.
Even people within the tech industry agree it’s high time to reform Section 230, the law underpinning the modern internet — that is, if they know what it is. Only 62% of respondents said they know what Section 230 is (the rest said they either don’t know or are neutral). But of that 62%, nearly three quarters — 71% — said they agree the law needs to be reformed.
MacDailyNews Take: 80% on any issue is overwhelming and likely signals notable changes lie ahead.
[Attribution: 9to5Mac. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]