US Vice President Harris’ views on business issues

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is potentially positioned to become the Democratic presidential nominee in the November election. Here are his views and actions related to some important business topics.

TECHNOLOGICAL REGULATION

As California’s attorney general, Harris sued eBay in 2012, alleging anticompetitive hiring practices surrounding a no-poaching deal with Intuit that led to a nearly $4 million settlement in 2014.

In 2015, she forced startup Houzz to hire a chief privacy officer following allegations that the home design app had recorded sales calls without proper notice and consent.

One of its main problems was restricting the distribution of pornography on social media, especially “revenge porn”, a practice that involves publishing explicit photos without the subject’s consent. She was credited with a pressure campaign that prompted Facebook, Alphabet’s Google, Microsoft and others to take action to remove certain explicit images.

“I can’t emphasize enough how technology leaders have advanced,” Harris said at a news conference at the time. “I’m not suggesting that any of them were happy to get a call from the attorney general saying, ‘Come in, we want to talk to you.’ But they all did. They did.”

GREAT TECHNOLOGY

As a candidate for California attorney general, Harris reportedly assured potential donors that she was “a capitalist.” She has generally been seen as welcoming to prominent technology executives and investors, the local industry in her home area, the Bay Area. She attended the wedding of Sean Parker, one of Facebook’s first executives. Her brother-in-law, Tony West, is Uber’s chief legal officer.

She has also accepted donations from Reid Hoffman, a prominent venture capitalist and co-founder of Linkedin, as well as billionaire John Doerr and venture capitalist Ron Conway. Top tech executives also backed her, including Sheryl Sandberg, then Facebook’s chief operating officer, and Marc Benioff, the billionaire CEO of Salesforce.

CLIMATE AND ENERGY

Harris’ climate and energy positions are similar to Biden’s. But throughout her career she has made it clear that clean energy and environmental justice are priorities.

When Biden announced Harris as his running mate in the 2020 race, he emphasized her tough stance against Big Oil when she held senior positions in California, noting lawsuits she had initiated as San Francisco district attorney from 2004 to 2011 and after as state prosecutor. attorney general until January 2017, when she became a U.S. senator.

Last year, Harris made her debut at international climate negotiations, announcing a $3 billion commitment to the Green Climate Fund and delivering her first major international climate-focused speech.

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As vice president, Harris was also involved in implementing Environmental Protection Agency policies that addressed long-standing environmental justice issues, such as a multibillion-dollar program to replace lead pipes and lead paint across the country.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

As vice president, Harris has been particularly outspoken about artificial intelligence. She warned against the “existential” threat of AI and said it could “endanger the very existence of humanity” in a November 2023 speech.

In a meeting with technology executives such as Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai, Harris warned that they have a “moral” obligation to protect themselves against the possible dangers of AI.

She supported a Biden AI executive order that seeks stronger protections for consumers, highlighting AI-generated scam calls and the impacts of unlabeled AI-generated content.

(Reporting by Greg Bensinger in San Francisco and Valerie Volcovici in Washington; Editing by Chris Sanders and Leslie Adler)