It’s Time for Tech Workers to Get Political
How Khashoggi’s murder can spark action and lead to big change
Jamal Khashoggi’s horrific murder should be a wake-up call. It may be the nth such canary in the global coal mine—the Committee to Protect Journalists reports that 28 journalists have been murdered in 2018—but Khashoggi’s brutal slaying in the Turkish consulate seems to have caught the nation’s attention. Because of Saudi Arabia’s deep ties to the Silicon Valley investment architecture, even the typically aloof captains of technology industry have been forced to respond.
Saudi Arabia, a perennial oil-economy powerhouse, has been reading the writing on the wall. Alternative, renewable, and less environmentally damaging energy sources become cheaper and more efficient with each passing year. Simultaneously, consumer aversion to oil-based products continues to rise. The kingdom’s plan to diversify their assets involves huge investments in the technology world, and Bloomberg reported that the Saudis hope to invest $2 trillion into the tech sector—much of that in Silicon Valley startups.
The Saudi government has invested $3.5 billion into Uber, and they’ve invested more than $45 billion into a fund owned by SoftBank called the Vision Fund. Between the princes, the government-run Public Investment Fund, and their…
