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Andrew Yang on Technology

Democratic Presidential Challenger & Tech CEO

 


Preserve our data rights and our data dignity

Q: How will you as president protect American citizens' privacy in the digital age?

YANG: This is one of the foremost issues of our time. Our data is getting sold and resold over and over again. And we're none the wiser, and we're not seeing a dime of it. We have to say, "that our data is ours." And if we choose to share it with a technology company, that is fine, but it is still ours, and we should a bill of rights around our data:

  1. You have to tell us every time you do something with it. There needs to be an audit trail. You need to say, "look, I sold it to them; I resold it to them."
  2. We need to share in any value you're receiving for our data. If you're going to get money from our data, then we deserve a cut.
  3. We can change our preferences and turn this off whenever we want, because, again, it's our information, and just because we decided to share it on your platform for a certain period of time should not be some kind of lifelong commitment that we can't undo.
Source: CNN N. H. Town Hall on eve of 2020 N. H. primary , Feb 5, 2020

Hold Facebook accountable and invest in local news

I would hold Facebook to the same standard as cable news networks where they have verify the truth of a political ad on their network. It's unfathomable that they don't realize that they are the largest disseminator of information to the American people. We need to rebuild local journalism. Almost 2,000 local papers have gone out of business over the last number of years because all of their advertising revenue went up to the cloud and you can't run a newspaper on that.
Source: CNN Town Hall 2020: Presidential/NYC Mayoral race , Feb 5, 2020

Press misrepresents how Trump got elected

Q: What argument can you make to persuade more Americans that impeachment is the right thing?

Yang: It's clear why Americans can't agree on impeachment. We're getting our news from different sources, and it's making it hard for us even to agree on basic facts. Americans don't trust the media networks to tell them the truth. If you turn on cable network news today, you would think Donald Trump's our president because of some combination of Russia, racism, Facebook, Hillary Clinton, and e-mails all mixed together. What we have to do is we have to stop being obsessed over impeachment, which unfortunately strikes many Americans like a ballgame where you know what the score is going to be, and start actually digging in and solving the problems that got Donald Trump elected in the first place. We have to take every opportunity to present a new positive vision for the country, a new way forward to help beat him in 2020, because make no mistake, he'll be there at the ballot box for us to defeat.

Source: December Democratic primary debate on impeaching Trump , Dec 19, 2019

Internet users should have property rights to their data

Yang's views on regulating the tech industry are also vastly different from those of his 2020 rivals. He is the only candidate who thinks that internet users should have property rights to their data, meaning that people should be able to opt out of data collection from websites and have exclusive ownership over their personal information.
Source: Alexandra Hutzler in Newsweek on 2019 Democratic primary , Dec 19, 2019

Allow people to cast ballots through mobile apps

As for election security, Yang advocates allowing people to cast ballots through mobile apps. Those apps would be protected by blockchain, the technology that records transactions for cybercurrencies such as bitcoin. Again, no other candidate has made such a proposal, and the idea is generally frowned upon by election security experts.
Source: Alexandra Hutzler in Newsweek on 2019 Democratic primary , Dec 19, 2019

Russian hacking of our elections is a hostile act

Q: Your response to Putin and Russia?

Andrew Yang: We have to let Russia know, "Look, we get it. We've tampered with other elections. You've tampered with our elections. And now it has to stop. And if it does not stop, we will take this as an act of hostility against the American people." I believe most Americans would support me on this. But Russian hacking of our democracy is an illustration of the 21st century threats: artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, climate change, loose nuclear material, military drones and non-state actors. These are the threats that are going to require our administration to catch up in terms of technology. We all know we are decades behind the curve on technology. As Commander in Chief, I will help pull us forward, and that's going to be a huge responsibility of the next president.

Source: October Democratic CNN/NYTimes Primary debate , Oct 15, 2019

Concerned about how tech affects children

As the parent of two young children, I'm particularly concerned about screen use and its effect on our children. Studies clearly show that we're seeing record levels of anxiety and depression coincident with smartphone adoption and social media use. Breaking up the tech companies does nothing to make our kids healthier. What we have to do is we have to home in on the specific problems we're trying to solve and use 21st century solutions for 21st century problems.
Source: October Democratic CNN/NYTimes Primary debate , Oct 15, 2019

Users should own their personal data, get paid for its use

The best way we can fight back against big tech companies is to say our data is our property. Right now our data is worth more than oil. How many of you remember getting your data check in the mail? It got lost. It went to Facebook, Amazon, Google. If we say this is our property and we share in the gains that's the best way we can balance the scales against the big tech companies.
Source: October Democratic CNN/NYTimes Primary debate , Oct 15, 2019

Apply geoengineering fixes, but ALSO reduce carbon emissions

Q: Your platform relies on geoengineering, including carbon removal technology?

YANG: Geoengineering is not the primary approach at all; we have to reduce emissions first and foremost. And if you look at my plan, of the $5 trillion, like a fraction of one of the trillions is looking at geoengineering. We have to get the best of emissions as the primary driver of climate change. Geoengineering, I just want us to think a very, very big picture of what's happening. Imagine a country like China 25 years from now who is going to be bearing the brunt of climate change. They're not very consultative, so you can imagine them doing something that affects us and the rest of the world, spraying sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere. So, we need to face facts about the scope of the challenge and lead globally. So, I would convene a geoengineering summit and get countries from around the world to make sure that we don't have rogue actors just going off on their own.

Source: CNN Climate Crisis Town Hall marathon (10 Democrats) , Sep 4, 2019

Automation of our jobs the central challenge we face

If you've heard anything about me and my campaign, you've heard that someone is running for president who wants to give every American $1,000 a month. Why do we need to do it? We already automated away millions of manufacturing jobs, and chances are your job can be next. The automation of our jobs is the central challenge facing us today. Any politician not addressing it is failing the American people.
Source: July Democratic Primary debate (second night in Detroit) , Jul 31, 2019

Prepare for artificial intelligence displacing thousands

A study just came out that projected the average African American median net worth will be zero by 2053. How is that possible? We're in the midst of the greatest economic transformation in our history. Artificial intelligence is coming. It's going to displace hundreds of thousands of call center workers, truck drivers -- the most common job in 29 states. What are we going to do about it? We should go to the writings of Martin Luther King, who in his book "Chaos or Community," said "We need a guaranteed minimum income in the United States of America."
Source: July Democratic Primary debate (second night in Detroit) , Jul 31, 2019

Users should have property rights to their data

Andrew Yang on Online Privacy: Users should have property rights to their data. No candidates have similar views.

Some public figures have called for data to be treated akin to property, affording users ownership over their personal information and extensive rights over just how that information can be collected, shared and used. Andrew Yang, the former tech entrepreneur who has reached cult-hero status in certain corners of the web, backs this idea. For him, that means users should have the right to opt out of any data collection, to be told if a website has information on them, to have all of their data deleted from a site upon request and to move all their information to another site if desired.

Source: Politico "2020Dems on the Issues" , Jul 17, 2019

Culture wars are proxy for automation-shattered economy

If there is a revolution, it is likely to be born of race and identity with automation-driven economics as the underlying force. A highly disproportionate amount of people at the top will be educated whites, Jews, and Asians. America is projected to become a majority minority by 2045. African Americans and Latinos will almost certainly make up a disproportionate number of the less privileged in the wake of automation. Racial inequality will become all the more jarring as the new majority remains on the outside. Gender inequality, too, will become more stark, with women comprising the clear majority of college graduates yet still underrepresented in many environments. Less privileged whites may be more likely to blame people of color, immigrants, or shifting cultural norms for their diminishing stature and shattered communities than they will automation and the capitalist system. Culture wars will be proxy wars for the economic backdrop. This is already happening.
Source: The War on Normal People, by Andrew Yang, p.156 , Apr 2, 2019

Culture wars are proxy for automation-shattered economy

If there is a revolution, it is likely to be born of race and identity with automation-driven economics as the underlying force. A highly disproportionate amount of people at the top will be educated whites, Jews, and Asians. America is projected to become a majority minority by 2045. African Americans and Latinos will almost certainly make up a disproportionate number of the less privileged in the wake of automation, as they currently enjoy lower levels of wealth and education. Racial inequality will become all the more jarring as the new majority remains on the outside. Gender inequality, too, will become more stark, with women underrepresented in many environments. Less privileged whites may be more likely to blame people of color, immigrants, or shifting cultural norms for their diminishing stature and shattered communities than they will automation and the capitalist system. Culture wars will be proxy wars for the economic backdrop. This is already happening.
Source: The War on Normal People, by Andrew Yang, p.156 , Apr 2, 2019

$1 trillion infrastructure investment; it's dangerous

Our infrastructure is a dangerous embarrassment and a symbol of how weak our state has become. We are still living off of the investments of past generations in the 1960s. We need to own the future, which includes building a world-class infrastructure befitting the world's most advanced society in 2020. When our infrastructure works better we'll all work better. This will also help put millions of Americans back to work.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website Yang2020.com , Mar 29, 2019

Tax tech giants to share in gains from growth

Andrew Yang, a candidate virtually unknown outside tech circles, packed his room at SXSW. While he described Warren's anti-monopoly position as "unimaginative" & "retrograde," he too believes in taxing tech. Yang says because artificial intelligence is destroying jobs, the tech industry should pay for a universal basic income.

"We have to devise a system that helps more Americans share in the gains from growth in companies like Amazon, instead of just being able to access cheap goods," he said.

Source: NPR.org on 2019 SXSW conference , Mar 9, 2019

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Other big-city mayors on Technology: Andrew Yang on other issues:

Tom Barrett (D,Milwaukee)
Bill de Blasio (D,NYC)
Rahm Emanuel (D,Chicago)
Bob Filner (D,San Diego)
Steven Fulop (D,Jersey City)
Eric Garcetti (D,Los Angeles)
Mike Rawlings (D,Dallas)
Marty Walsh (D,Boston)

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Tom Barrett (D,Milwaukee,WI)
Mike Bloomberg (I,New York City)
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Jerry Brown (D,Oakland,CA)
Julian Castro (D,San Antonio,TX)
Rudy Giuliani (R,New York City)
Phil Gordon (D,Phoenix)
Tom Menino (D,Boston)
Dennis Kucinch (D,Cleveland,OH)
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Page last updated: Mar 07, 2022