Joe Lonsdale, 8VC Managing Partner and Palantir Co-Founder, spoke to Brian Kilmeade about Brazil targeting Elon Musk and calling for social media platforms to be regulated. Lonsdale believes this is the biggest story of the week and calls the people running the tech companies “wimps” for going along with the Brazilian directive – with the exception of Musk who is the only one fighting back.
On the importance of AI and our economy, Lonsdale said that there are so many areas where AI is really good for the economy and the big question is, are we going to be like Europe and regulate ourselves and not allow it to create more wealth or are we going to decelerate or will America allow it to accelerate? Lonsdale asked, “Do we want to be a free country or do we want to overregulate ourselves and everything?”
Lonsdale also discussed the need to have TikTok taken out of China’s hands, saying it’s insane to have the CCP control TikTok. Lonsdale believes there is nothing wrong with working with others around the world but we do not need to offer anything up to China’s control. Lonsdale also took issue with “Project Texas” which would allow TikTok to remain owned by ByteDance. Lonsdale believes it is such a fake thing they are doing because it does not matter if the date is there, China controls the algorithm and get to decide what is banned which will include anything against China, while things that are against the U.S. will be spread more quickly. Lonsdale strongly believes this move by “Project Texas” and others to keep TikTok in the control of China is fake free speech allowing an adversary to have control.
