Can Silicon Valley Really Do Anything to Stop Police Violence?

[Commentary] Many critics of Silicon Valley question whether the industry is really doing all it can to influence policy on this issue of [police violence]. “We know what it looks like when tech cares, and it doesn’t look like peace signs in the Uber app,” said Anil Dash, a tech entrepreneur and activist. Dash cited the example of FWD.us, the initiative for immigration reform led by tech executives like Zuckerberg. He also cited a colossal joint effort among websites like Tumblr and YouTube to stop two anti­piracy bills in 2011. The latter effort was able to persuade 10 million people to ask their representatives to protest the bills, which were ultimately killed. The tech industry knows how to lobby Washington on issues that affect its bottom line, but it limits its engagement with other issues to grandstanding. Or as Dash puts it, more bluntly: “Tech only cares about black people as consumers.”

Ultimately, what the tech industry really cares about is ushering in the future, but it conflates technological progress with societal progress. And perhaps all of us have come to rely too deeply on machinery and software to be our allies without wondering about the cost, the way technology doesn’t fix problems without creating new ones.