(Photo: Getty Images)

Billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel sparked controversy in July when he appeared at the Republic National Convention to endorse Donald Trump. (Photo: Fortune Videos)

Silicon Valley has become more involved in politics than ever before.

Those in the tech industry once limited their political participation to quiet donations. But now, many in Silicon Valley are also weighing in heavily on social media, hosting fundraisers for candidates, and encouraging involvement in their community.

Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and his wife, for example, are making their first contribution toward Democratic election efforts by giving $20 million. In August, the venture capital firm Charles River Ventures posted a blog entitled simply, “F*** Trump,” which declared Trump’s stance on immigration to be “diametrically opposed to the core values of entrepreneurship.” Employees at more than 300 companies, including Square (SQ), Twilio (TWLO) and venture capital firm Homebrew all have Election Day off to cast their votes.

High-profile technorati, meanwhile, are voting on issues such as capital punishment with their wallets. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, Steve Jobs’ widow Laurene Powell Jobs, and Y Combinator CEO Paul Graham are all contributing sizable donations between $500,000 and $1 million toward Prop 62 and working to abolish the death penalty in their home state of California and throughout the U.S.

“Silicon Valley has traditionally shied away from the political world because we’ve wanted to avoid alienating customers, and because the world views presented in any election were at least defensibly rational,” explained Matt MacInnis, CEO of the startup Inkling, which creates tools for digital content distribution. “But this election isn’t presenting two rational worldviews, so those rules seem to have flown out the window. We’re terrified of electing a demagogue.”

MacInnis, of course, is referring to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has polarized the U.S. with his strong rhetoric against Hillary Clinton and his positions on issues such as the economy, immigration and foreign affairs.

“The sheer terror of electing Trump as our president has caused many of those donors and activists to be public with their views, regardless of the social or business consequences,” added MacInnis.

It’s somewhat easy to pinpoint when Silicon Valley became extremely vociferous on subject of politics to this July, when billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel appeared at the Republican National Convention to stump for Trump — a move that dumbfounded many of the technorati, including colleagues at Thiel’s own venture capital firm, Founders Fund, three sources told Yahoo Finance. Indeed, several of Thiel’s colleagues have distanced themselves politically from the investor, at least where social media is concerned.