The Tech Oversight Project is a United States nonprofit advocacy organization that campaigns for legislation and enforcement against large technology companies. It describes itself as "dedicated to reining in Big Tech for the damages they've caused by urging lawmakers to support comprehensive legislation on antitrust, online safety, privacy, and artificial intelligence," and as a watchdog focused on "research, rapid response, and aggressive media tactics" in Washington, D.C. and state capitals. Its executive director is Sacha Haworth (Source: techoversight.org).
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Type | Nonprofit advocacy organization |
| Launched | January 2022 |
| Executive director | Sacha Haworth |
| Focus | Antitrust, online safety, privacy, artificial intelligence |
| Funding | Philanthropic; the group names Omidyar Network and Economic Security Project Action |
History and funding
The organization launched in January 2022 with a plan to bring what the Washington Post described as "campaign-style" tactics to pushing Congress to pass competition legislation aimed at the largest technology companies. The Post reported that organizations with ties to eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes were its primary funders (Source: washingtonpost.com). The group states that it receives "100% of its funding from like-minded philanthropic organizations, like Omidyar Network and Economic Security Project Action" (Source: techoversight.org). It names Google, Apple, Meta and Amazon as the companies whose power it seeks to check (Source: techoversight.org).
Activities on AI
The OpenAI Files. With The Midas Project, the Tech Oversight Project published The OpenAI Files on June 18, 2025, a compendium of documented concerns about OpenAI's restructuring, leadership, safety culture and conflicts of interest. The publishers stated that they took no funding from xAI or Elon Musk, Anthropic, Meta, Google or Microsoft (The OpenAI Files).
Coalition letters (September 2026). The organization signed the September 9, 2026 letter led by Americans for Responsible Innovation asking President Trump to publish the White House frontier-AI review framework, one of 28 signatories (Coalition letter to President Trump on public release of the White House frontier-AI review framework (September 2026)). It also signed ARI's September 16, 2026 Senate letter setting minimum requirements for any federal AI governance framework, one of seven organizations to sign both (Senate coalition letter on redlines for AI safety legislation (Americans for Responsible Innovation, September 2026)).
State chatbot legislation. Commenting on Colorado's chatbot law, HB 26-1263, the group's communications director Marjorie Connolly said that "Big Tech lobbied heavily on Colorado's chatbot bill. The final law carves out twelve categories," and that "Parents are being asked to accept a chatbot law that exempts chatbots"; she argued that ChatGPT, Copilot and Claude could claim the exemption for products designed and marketed for developers or researchers, and that Gemini could fall under the exemption for chatbots within search engines (Source: npr.org).
The group also runs a weekly newsletter, The Dispatch, and a project following evidence from the social-media addiction trials (Source: techoversight.org).
Relationships
- related: The OpenAI Files — co-publisher, with The Midas Project
- related: Americans for Responsible Innovation (ARI) — co-signatory of ARI's September 2026 coalition letters
- related: Colorado HB 26-1263 (Chatbot Safety Act) — criticized the enacted law's exclusions
- related: AI and Children — online-safety advocacy extends to AI companion chatbots
- related: OpenAI — subject of The OpenAI Files