Comment by smoldesu

My guess is that the government realized that FAANG makes for better bedfellows than sworn enemies. They can wave economic incentives in front of their face in exchange for international power beyond what other countries can offer. Having Google, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft under your thumb gives you control over ~80% of the internet and <95% of all PII. There is obviously a domestic interest in controlling that, so it would make sense that our intelligence agencies trade surveillance capabilities for SEC mulligans. That also explains our bipartisan indifference towards real data regulation and privacy legislation.