Name: Tech companies worry about becoming targets after the Capitol attack
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Tech companies worry about becoming targets after the Capitol attack

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Illustration: Aïda Amer/AxiosTech employees are on high alert about their own personal safety as their employers roll out policies to ban or limit the reach of far-right extremists angry over former President Donald Trump's defeat.Why it matters: As tech companies impose aggressive policies after the Capitol riot, employees will be the target of vitriol from aggrieved people who think tech and the media are conspiring to silence Trump and conservatives more broadly.What's happening: Facebook told its employees shortly after the Capitol riot not to wear company-branded gear or carry company-branded accessories, The Information .Companies were reluctant to share details about the security measures they put in place.Meanwhile: In pro-Trump online communities, vague threats about a reckoning coming for Big Tech companies are circulating widely, as they have been for some time.Still, the concern over the possibility of an attack is very real. And there's precedent for tech employees being in put in danger as a result of company policy decisions.Flashback: In 2018, a woman opened fire at YouTube's headquarters in San Bruno, Calif., wounding three people before fatally shooting herself.The big picture: Tech platforms have this month, worried over the risk of Trump and others inciting more violence following the Capitol attack.What's next: As the Biden presidency kicks off and the public hears from Trump via other mediums, the vitriol against employees may subside, at least from public view.The online far right is about to face a cold reality it long denied was a possibility: the post-Trump era.What's happening: Fringe-right internet users are broadly poised to enter the Biden era in one of three states: Denial, disenchantment or determination to use the moment to their advantage.Domestic terrorism has proven to be more difficult for Big Tech companies to police online than foreign terrorism.The big picture: That's largely because the politics are harder. There's more unity around the need to go after foreign extremists than domestic ones — and less danger of overreaching and provoking a backlash.Amazon's worldwide consumer CEO Dave Clark has offered to help the Biden administration with its coronavirus vaccination goals by mobilizing efforts to inoculate its employees, according to a letter sent to President Biden on Wednesday.Why it matters: As demand for the coronavirus vaccine is , Amazon has about 800,000 employees, many of whom are essential workers. The Biden administration wants to vaccinate 100 million Americans in 100 days.

Illustration: Aïda Amer/AxiosTech employees are on high alert about their own personal safety as their employers roll out policies to ban or limit the reach of far-right extremists angry over former President Donald Trump's defeat.Why it matters: As tech companies impose aggressive policies after the Capitol riot, employees will be the target of vitriol from aggrieved people who think tech and the media are conspiring to silence Trump and conservatives more broadly.What's happening: Facebook told its employees shortly after the Capitol riot not to wear company-branded gear or carry...

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Tech policy reporter @Axios. Pittsburgh native. formerly: @POLITICO, @theinformation, @bbcnews. ashley.gold@axios.com

Ashley Gold

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Tech companies worry about becoming targets after the Capitol attack

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