The Heritage Foundation reportedly rejected hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions from Facebook and Google, the latest example of a trend of conservative institutions and lawmakers escalating conflict with Big Tech companies.
Outgoing Heritage President Kay Coles James sent letters to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Sundar Pichai in October rejecting Google’s $225,000 contribution and returning Facebook’s $150,000 contribution, according to Axios.
“We cannot in good conscience take money from a company that repeatedly, and blatantly, suppresses conservative speech on your platforms,” James said in the letter to Pichai. The letter to Zuckerberg used similar language.
Heritage claimed Facebook blocked traffic to the think tank’s website and that Google censored its YouTube videos.
ZUCKERBERG TO CALL FOR MORE CONTENT MODERATION, WHICH COULD BENEFIT FACEBOOK
The letter to Zuckerberg also mentioned Facebook’s choice temporarily to limit the reach of a New York Post article that described the controversial contents of Hunter Biden’s computer just weeks before the 2020 election.
Facebook and Google have not responded to Heritage’s allegations.
In the past, Heritage had accepted $1.55 million in donations from Google and $275,000 from Facebook, a Heritage spokesperson told Axios.
Prominent Republican Reps. Ken Buck of Colorado, Matt Gaetz, and Greg Steube of Florida have also said in recent months that they will no longer accept donations from Big Tech companies or their political action committees, citing what they claim are monopolistic behaviors and online censorship on the firms’ parts. The leaders are on congressional committees that oversee the technology giants.
“As the lead Republican on the antitrust subcommittee working to hold Big Tech accountable for their anti-competitive and monopolistic behavior, I cannot continue to accept campaign donations from Facebook, Google, or Amazon,” Buck announced on Wednesday. He is the ranking member of the House antitrust panel.
Gaetz and Steube, who are also both on the House antitrust panel, announced last October that they would not accept donations from Big Tech companies or their PACs.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Nevertheless, most members of Congress, 94%, who have jurisdiction over privacy and antitrust issues, have received money from a Big Tech corporate PAC or lobbyist, according to a report released on Wednesday by Public Citizen, a left-leaning public advocacy group.
