But Mr. Tan’s passion, as for a growing number of tech industry leaders, is San Francisco politics. He’s one of those love-or-hate-them tech executives and investors with multiple views of the city and endless stacks of cash to, as they say in the tech industry, move fast and break things. (Their critics would say it’s more like they’re trying to buy City Hall.)
To some in San Francisco’s political establishment, Mr. Tan, 43, has become the most annoying in a parade of wealthy tech executives. He’s built a bombastic online persona while spending about $400,000 on local politics in recent years — with probably a lot more to come. And on social media site X, where he has 425,000 followers, Mr. Tan doesn’t just rub some people the wrong way, he infuriates them.
Just after midnight on Jan. 27, he posted on X, formerly Twitter, that seven left-wing members of the city’s Board of Supervisors, listed by name, should “die a slow death,” punctuated by a verbatim expression. It was a subtle reference to rap legend Tupac Shakur’s famous track “Hit ‘Em Up,” released 28 years ago as an insult to his rivals in music. But to some people, it sounded like a threat.
Mr. Tan was, he admitted when asked by an X follower, drunk.
A few hours after his post was uploaded, Mr Tan deleted it and apologised. But a lot of people had already seen it.
A few days later, some supervisors received anonymous letters at their homes with Mr. Tan’s face and the words: “Gary Tan is right! I wish a slow and painful death for you and your loved ones.” Aaron Peskin, a supervisor who is considering challenging London Breed, the mayor of San Francisco, in the November election, was one of the few supervisors who filed police reports based on Mr. Tan’s position.
