Senior House Republicans signed a pledge this week to stop taking campaign donations from Big Tech companies in the hope of pressuring others to follow their lead and create a movement that will reduce anti-conservative censorship and anti-competitive behavior.
Rep. Ken Buck, the top Republican on the House antitrust panel, led seven House GOP members in the “Pledge for America” earlier this week not to take campaign donations from the likes of Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple, and Twitter.
“Thank you to my colleagues who joined me on this important effort to refuse campaign donations from Big Tech companies that act anticompetitively and censor conservatives,” Buck, a Colorado Republican, said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
The companies are among the biggest contributors to political campaigns and lobbying spenders in the country, according to a report by Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group.
Buck was joined by fellow Republican Reps. Chip Roy of Texas, Greg Steube of Florida, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Dan Bishop of North Carolina, Burgess Owens of Utah, and Andy Biggs of Arizona in signing on to the pledge.
“We're trying to get some kind of notoriety about it. I mean, first of all, it’s principled, but second of all, you got to get some notoriety and put it out there,” Biggs told the Washington Examiner.
“So we felt this is a way that appears merely symbolic at the beginning, but sometimes great movements begin with small symbolic movements.”
He added that despite the bipartisan agreement on reining in Big Tech companies power, “you need to keep throwing gas on the flame to keep it burning.”
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The seven GOP congressmen said in the pledge earlier this week that the five companies violate their convictions about “the free market and the free exchange of ideas.”
“The threat posed by these monopolies is a real and present danger to conservatives, libertarians and anyone who does not agree with these corporations’ ultra-liberal points-of-view,” the pledge says.
The group hopes that it can convince other lawmakers to follow in its footsteps and not be influenced into going easy on the tech giants due to their contributions.
“I think other members, frankly, other members of the Republican conference, should take a cue from it,” Bishop said. “You know, one reason, perhaps that big dominant companies like this spread a little money around is to kind of deter Republicans from taking them on."
Big Tech critics say the pledge sends a clear signal about how seriously House Republicans are taking the issue of anticompetitive behavior in the online marketplace.
“It sends a message to Big Tech that you can’t buy congressmen, and it sends a message to their colleagues and public that they find tech practices so repulsive that they won’t take a penny from them,” said Gigi Sohn, a fellow at the Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law and Policy who is one of the most prominent liberal advocates for breaking up and regulating the companies. “It’s a big step for congressmen, particularly Republicans, to give up these sums of money, so even though the practical element is limited, the signaling is significant."
One key area of disagreement between Democrats and Republicans is on the issue of anti-conservative bias and censorship, which is driving much of the GOP’s antitrust efforts.
Democrats, however, say there is little evidence behind the allegations of anti-conservative bias and instead point to studies that show that social media platforms boost right-leaning content.
Nevertheless, those who signed the pledge say that both sides agree on enough to proceed with taking action and passing legislation to curb the growing power of Big Tech.
“Maybe the censorship and bias is not something that we need to persuade them on. Regardless of motivations, it appears both sides tend to agree that there's too much power concentrated in those tech corporate entities,” said Bishop.
He added that he hopes both parties can work on antitrust bills that are tailored to just the certain actions that both sides agree on and nothing more in order to maintain “bipartisan agreement.”
Conservatives who are not in favor of aggressive antitrust actions say the pledge will only empower the competitors of the five Big Tech companies outlined, such as software giants Microsoft and Oracle or social media platforms Snapchat and TikTok.
“The pledge list is strangely limited. If the goal is to swear off the donations from all tech businesses, why include just these five? Now, only their competitors will have the ability to influence the congressmen,” said Carl Szabo, vice president and general counsel at NetChoice, an advocacy group that represents companies, including Amazon and Google, that oppose government regulation of online platforms.
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“They seem to want to address monopoly control, but it doesn’t complete that circle. If it increases Microsoft’s power, for example, then it’s dangerous by allowing taking money from some but not others.”
