The Internal Emails Big Tech Executives Never Wanted You to See
Congress is demanding that Silicon Valley companies release their internal emails. If history is any guide, we know what to expect: revelations of anti-worker scheming, corporate power plays, and all sorts of other malevolent machinations.

A poster shows Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Apple founder Steve Jobs at an employment fair in Beijing on 27 February 2007. STR/AFP via Getty
Big Tech’s honeymoon with the federal government has finally ended, in what some are calling the “techlash.” Government investigations are mushrooming, from the Trump administration’s antitrust probes of the biggest platform companies to congressional inquiries into abuse of platform power.
Things took a fresh turn last fall, when ranking Republicans and Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee demanded extensive documents from Silicon Valley companies, including emails between platform CEOs and their subordinates. That’s bad news for big tech, which has an extensive history of being hamstrung by its own murmurings — a history looking increasingly likely to play a big role in the coming storm for Silicon Valley.
With that in mind, here’s a look at some of the most significant cases of tech wrongdoing revealed by their risqué communiqués.