The Room Where It Happened: How Silicon Valley (Mostly) Lined Up Behind Apple

On the day a few weeks ago when Apple publicly opposed the government’s order to help investigators in the San Bernardino (CA) attack, Silicon Valley was still choosing sides. It all played out on Feb. 26, in a dull conference room in an office building just blocks from the White House, where representatives of the biggest technology companies in the world wrestled with uncomfortable questions of how — or indeed whether — to weigh in on the emotionally charged case.

The tense two-hour-long session on a Friday afternoon attracted some of the industry’s most influential lobbyists — among them IBM’s Christopher Padilla, a former under secretary for international trade at the Commerce Department, and Microsoft’s veteran government affairs chief, Fred Humphries. For purposes of secrecy, there was no conference call number. “There was an initial discussion about whether to move forward on this particularly sensitive case,” said one of the meeting’s participants. “But everyone decided that the stakes were too high to sit this one out.” It wasn’t clear from the start of the Information Technology Industry Council meeting that they would act at all. The decision to file a supportive friend of the court brief wasn’t reached until the working group session was in its final 15 minutes, apparently.