{"id":156547,"date":"2026-01-30T13:28:47","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T13:28:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/156547\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T13:28:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T13:28:47","slug":"silicon-valley-cant-be-neutral-any-longer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/156547\/","title":{"rendered":"Silicon Valley can\u2019t be neutral any longer"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the year since President Donald Trump took office, too many Silicon Valley leaders have divested themselves of the responsibility to speak out against the administration\u2019s excesses. They\u2019ve spent the last year telling themselves, \u201cWe need to work with whoever\u2019s in power\u201d or, \u201cGetting political risks alienating people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

January\u2019s tragic events in Minneapolis should end that posture. We leaders in tech and business have power \u2014 economic, social, platform power \u2014 and sitting on that power right now is not good business. It\u2019s also not neutrality. It\u2019s a choice.<\/p>\n

This is not normal.<\/p>\n

Minneapolis has become a national alarm. In incidents just days apart, federal immigration agents killed two U.S. citizens \u2014 Renee Good and Alex Pretti \u2014 and assaulted and terrorized thousands more. Trump and many of his top officials immediately and falsely vilified the murder victims, even when those lies were eminently disprovable. (Just watch the videos.)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not only Minneapolis. In 2026, nationwide, at least six people have died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody (opens in new tab)<\/a>. This follows at least 30 such deaths in 2025. And since Trump regained office, federal immigration agents have jailed hundreds of U.S. citizens.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be clear: These are the fruits of Trump\u2019s second term. He promised safer streets and neighborhoods \u2014 and, to be fair, homicide rates have continued their decades-long decline (opens in new tab)<\/a>. But the civic reality of his policies has meant more death at government hands, more fear, and a widening belief that the federal government is using force not as a last resort but as an affirmative choice \u2014 a lethal tactic that American communities must simply endure.<\/p>\n

Whichever candidates you may have supported in the past \u2014 or even if (like many of my friends in Silicon Valley) you don\u2019t usually do politics \u2014 you almost surely did not want this.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AA Border Patrol agent shoots pepper spray at a person protesting the Jan. 7 killing of Renee Good. | Source: Alex Kormann\/Star Tribune\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Certainly most Americans don\u2019t. Not judging by the plummeting national support for ICE (opens in new tab)<\/a>. A large and fast-growing majority of us disapprove of the Trump regime\u2019s performative brutality.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Americans want stability and safety, at the border and in our cities. They want affordable food, transportation, and healthcare. They want a future of hope and opportunity. We can and should debate how to build that kind of future. That\u2019s what politics is supposed to be for.<\/p>\n

But however you think that future should look, surely we can all agree: Heavily armed, poorly trained, masked federal troops wreaking havoc in our towns, in our schools and community centers and homes, have no part in it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been encouraged in recent days that more Silicon Valley leaders have spoken out to condemn the Minneapolis killings and the policy choices that led to them. It\u2019s a good start to something America needs much more of right now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The America we love will survive the current authoritarian push (not to say putsch) only if enough of us \u2014 especially those of us fortunate enough to be in positions of leadership and influence \u2014 choose to condemn it, and loudly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We in Silicon Valley can\u2019t bend the knee to Trump. We can\u2019t shrink away and just hope the crisis will fade. We know now that hope without action is not a strategy \u2014 it\u2019s an invitation for Trump to trample whatever he can see, including our own business and security interests.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And to whatever extent he has stepped back from further escalations in the past couple of days, it\u2019s only because of action and pressure from more people \u2014 and more business leaders.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AMarchers flood downtown Minneapolis amid sub-zero temperatures Friday. | Source: Alex Kormann\/Star Tribune\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

When 250 years ago the founders launched history\u2019s greatest experiment in self-government, they didn\u2019t guarantee Americans freedoms. But they did bequeath us structures we could use to earn those freedoms for ourselves, generation after generation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s our turn. We can pledge: America will not become the less democratic, less free, more dangerous country Trump so clearly wants \u2014 not if we can help it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The good news is \u2014 we can help it. We all can.<\/p>\n

Call your political leaders and tell them what you think. Tell your friends, your family, and your colleagues too. Donate money and time. Learn from January\u2019s brave Minnesotans about organizing, protesting, protecting one another, and insisting on right over wrong.<\/p>\n

Most urgent: More of us must stop treating the Trumpian chaos as political theater that can be sat out. It\u2019s time for all of us to do and say more.<\/p>\n

Reid Hoffman is the cofounder of LinkedIn, Inflection AI, and Manas AI and a partner at Greylock.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the year since President Donald Trump took office, too many Silicon Valley leaders have divested themselves of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[536,7028,14,2806,7361,101,103,102,104,106,105,2280],"class_list":["post-156547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-donald-trump","tag-federal","tag-immigration","tag-national-guard","tag-protests","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-silicon-valley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}