FACT BRIEF

Is there a busy 'revolving door' between big technology companies and Washington?

Thursday, October 29, 2020

By Esther Tsvayg

Copy link

Copy featured image

YES

As the scale and influence of technology companies has grown, there has been a steady two-way flow of talent between government and the industry. Notably, Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's no. 2 executive, was chief of staff for Bill Clinton's Treasury Secretary. Facebook's head of public policy worked eight years in the Bush Administration. Between 2008 and 2016, 55 former Google employees took jobs in the Obama administration, and 197 former Obama officials revolved out to Google, according to a researcher at a Washington think tank. The Trump administration has also sought tech talent.

The Biden transition team, so far, includes at least a few recruits from major tech companies: Carlos Monje, who was a policy officer at Twitter; Jessica Hertz, previously a lawyer at Facebook, and Cynthia Hogan, a public-affairs vice-president at Apple. All three have extensive political experience.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

Washington Monthly: How big tech is preparing for a Biden presidency

Facebook: Sheryl Sandberg's page

George W. Bush Presidential Center: Joel Kaplan

San Francisco Business Journals: Governmental officials and Bay Area big tech

Washington Post: White House wooing tech workers

Democracy in Action: Biden transition team

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR

Gigafact

Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.

FACT BRIEF BY

Latest fact briefs

About fact briefs published on Gigafact

Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.