Outgoing President Biden delivered a farewell address Wednesday night filled with pointed criticism, focusing on what he described as a growing “tech-industrial complex.” He claimed that “an oligarchy is taking shape in America,” directly criticizing prominent business figures like Elon Musk and others who have been eager to align with President-elect Donald Trump.
Biden, now 82, took aim at tech leaders such as Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos—figures he believes played a role in his 2020 victory over Trump by supporting censorship of unfavorable content.
“In my farewell address tonight, I want to warn the country of some things that give me great concern. And that’s a dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra-wealthy people and the dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked,” Biden declared.
“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America, of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.”
Although Biden refrained from naming individuals directly, his comments clearly pointed to specific figures in the tech world.
He drew a historical parallel to President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s famous warning about the “military-industrial complex,” saying, “In his farewell address, President Eisenhower spoke of the dangers of the military-industrial complex. He warned us then about, ‘the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power.’”
“Six decades later, I’m equally concerned about the potential rise of a tech-industrial complex that could pose real dangers for our country as well,” Biden continued.
“Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation, enabling the abuse of power. The free press is crumbling. Editors are disappearing. Social media is giving up on fact checking. The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit. We must hold the social platforms accountable to protect our children, our families and our very democracy from the abuse of power.”
The jab about platforms “giving up on fact-checking” was a thinly veiled critique of Zuckerberg’s decision to transition Facebook away from its third-party fact-checking initiative to a community-driven “notes” system, similar to one employed by Musk’s X platform.
Biden criticized the spread of misinformation even though he has faced scrutiny for repeating questionable or unverified stories himself. Recently, he faced backlash for his remarks about dry fire hydrants in Los Angeles, which local utility companies disputed, as he attempted to shift blame from Democratic officials.
Previously, Meta’s system allowed employees at partner organizations to write opinionated fact-checks, sometimes penalizing true content that cast Biden in a negative light. This included criticisms of his past legislative record, such as his role in the mass incarceration of Black Americans due to tough-on-crime laws from the 1980s and 1990s.
Under the new system, fact-checks are subject to community voting and appended to disputed posts, a concept Musk adopted after purchasing X, formerly Twitter, in October 2022. Musk had openly opposed earlier censorship efforts, including the pre-2020 election suppression of The Post’s reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop, which implicated Joe Biden in business dealings with Chinese and Ukrainian entities.
Meanwhile, Zuckerberg, the third-richest person globally, has been actively engaging with Trump as the inauguration approaches. Bezos, the second-richest, reportedly suppressed a Washington Post editorial endorsing Biden’s chosen successor. Musk, the wealthiest individual, supported Trump’s campaign while continuing to lead innovative companies like Tesla and SpaceX.
Biden, whose approval ratings remain among the lowest for a modern president, advocated for tax reforms to ensure the wealthy “pay their fair share” and called for stricter regulations on “dark money” in political campaigns. However, critics note that such funding has often benefited Democrats.
He also highlighted the potential dangers and benefits of artificial intelligence, stating, “Nothing offers more profound possibilities and risk for our economy and our security, our society, and very often, for humanity.”
“Artificial intelligence even has the potential to help us answer my call to end cancer as we know it,” he said, referencing one of his unfulfilled goals. “But unless safeguards are in place, AI could spawn new threats to our rights, our way of life, to our privacy, how we work and how we protect our nation. We must make sure AI is safe and trustworthy and good for all humankind.”
Opening his speech, Biden referenced the cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas announced earlier that day, though he stopped short of crediting Trump, whose diplomatic pressure is widely seen as a contributing factor.
Biden also proposed a constitutional amendment to ensure that presidents could not evade accountability for crimes committed while in office. “We need to amend the Constitution make clear that no president is immune from crimes that he or she commits while in office,” he said, a clear rebuke of his successor.
Despite his critiques, Biden closed on a conciliatory note, stating, “I wish the incoming administration success because I want America to succeed.”
{Matzav.com}