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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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Lawmakers With Bogus Election Claims Lose Google Dollars

No more Google money for you: The world’s most-used search engine delivered bad results Tuesday to lawmakers who objected to certifying the results of the 2020 election.

WASHINGTON (CN) — Alphabet’s Google said Tuesday that it will not make contributions to the 147 Republican lawmakers who voted against certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election. 

Following the pre-inauguration insurrection at the Capitol led by a pro-Trump mob, the tech giant paused all contributions from its political action committee, NetPAC, until it could reevaluate its policies toward political contributions.

"Following that review, the NetPAC board has decided that it will not be making any contributions this cycle to any member of Congress who voted against certification of the election results," a Google spokesperson said in a statement Tuesday.

Google’s actions fall in stride with those taken by other big tech companies like Facebook and Microsoft after the deadly events of Jan. 6. Microsoft said Friday that it was reviewing whether to suspend contributions to lawmakers who voted against confirming President Joe Biden’s lawful 2020 win and would have a decision by mid-February.

In a statement, Microsoft president Brad Smith shed insight into what is going on behind the scenes at the company regarding this decision.

“January 6, the attack on the Capitol was a horrific day for all of us, whether we’re in the United States or somewhere else,” Smith said. “I think it was even more difficult, say, for our Black and Jewish employees, given the hateful symbols that were on display. This has obvious implications for the future donations of the PAC.”

After taking stock of its donations over the last four years, he said Microsoft found that 80% of its donations had gone to members of Congress who voted to uphold the election results and 20% had gone to members who voted not to. 

“So, now there’s a process to decide what to do,” he said. “The questions that are being considered are exactly, I think, what you would expect. Should the PAC suspend donations to the members who voted against the Electoral College? If so, for how long? Should it even take stronger steps with respect to members who led that effort or who fed disinformation, in our view, to the American public?”

Other big-name companies that have suspended all or some of their political donations in response to the insurrection include AT&T, Comcast and Verizon.

President Donald Trump earned his second House impeachment for his role inciting the insurrection, having repeated the false claims that the 2020 election was stolen in a rally of supporters outside the White House hours before a congressional ceremony to certify the election results.

House leadership transferred the new article against Trump to the newly Democratic-controlled Senate on Monday. 

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Categories / Business, National, Politics, Technology

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