Anti-tech protesters target Kevin Rose's neighborhood
The Digg founder and Google Ventures partner reports that protesters carried a banner and distributed leaflets that described Rose as a "parasite."
The anti-tech industry sentiment appears to be taking a more personal turn, targeting the home of prominent tech figure Kevin Rose.
The Digg founder and Google Ventures partner reported on Instagram on Sunday that protesters demonstrated outside his San Francisco home earlier in the day, carrying a large banner and distributing fliers that referred to Rose as a "parasite."
"As a partner venture capitalist at Google Ventures, Kevin directs the flow of capital into the tech startup bubble that is destroying San Francisco," according to the flier, a photo of which Rose posted to Instagram. "The start-ups that he funds bring the swarm of young entrepreneurs that have ravaged the landscapes of San Francisco and Oakland."
Emblazoned with a '70s-era happy face, the flier goes on to say that "techies...on average earn four times more than the normal service worker" and closes with a bit of profane language.
As part of the protest, a group calling itself the Counterforce demanded that Google pay $3 billion to an anarchistic group for the creation of "autonomous, anti-capitalist, and anti-racist communities throughout the Bay Area and Northern California."
"With this three billion from Google, we will solve the housing crisis in the Bay Area and prove to the world that an anarchist world is not only possible but in fact irrepressible," the group wrote in a blog post.
The tech industry has become a flashpoint for wealth disparity and gentrification in the San Francisco Bay Area. Protesters, who have targeted the commuter buses for many Silicon Valley tech giants, blame high-paid tech employees moving from Silicon Valley to San Francisco and Oakland with driving up rents and home prices in the area.
Rose said in a tweet that he agreed that cultural and economic changes needed to be addressed.
"We need to solve rising rents, keep the SF culture, and crack down on landlords booting folks out," Rose wrote. "SF is such a great place, definitely need to figure out a way to keep the diversity," he wrote in another tweet.
San Francisco's Board of Supervisors met last week to discuss a pilot program that would let tech buses pay the city $1 to stop at several bus stops designated for public transportation. After a nearly seven-hour public hearing, the board voted 8-2 to let the program go ahead as planned and start in July.
Updated at 2 p.m. with information about group's payment demands.