Okay, Mark, we get it, you've given the government indirect access.

Interestingly, Twitter, unlike many of the other big tech players, simply refused to make it easier for the government to get Tweets. (I'm not sure how world-historical most Tweets are, but still ...) Twitter's successful recalcitrance suggests that the tech firms that did play along did so less because the government was holding a gun to their heads, than because they figured it would be worth their while in the long run to play ball with Washington.

One obvious question is whether the big increase in H1-B visas in The Eight Banditos' immigration bill is a quasi-quid pro quo payoff to the National Association for the Advancement of Billionaire People for their cooperation in spying on their customers (or whatever it is you call what, say, Facebook has).

It kind of makes sense, but the fact that it makes sense probably means this theory is less likely.  A simpler explanation is that the Gang of Eight wants to drive down the standard of living of American engineers merely because they hate Americans.