Microsoft, Google and Facebook have all said that they will pause some political contributions following the deadly siege of the U.S. Capitol.
A spokesperson for Microsoft has said that the tech giant is pausing its political spending until after it considers the implications of the attack.
“The PAC (political action committee) regularly pauses its donations in the first quarter of a new Congress, but it will take additional steps this year to consider these recent events and consult with employees,” the spokesperson told The Verge.
Further, Facebook has said that it’s halting its PAC contributions at least through the first quarter of the year. It’s worth noting that the freeze only impacts PAC contributions and not all of the social media giant’s political spending.
“Following last week’s awful violence in DC, we are pausing all of our PAC contributions for at least the current quarter, while we review our policies,” a Facebook spokesperson stated.
Google has also announced that it’s pausing all campaign donations from its PAC committee. “We have frozen all NetPAC political contributions while we review and reassess its policies following last week’s deeply troubling events,” a Google spokesperson said.
Tech companies have been taking action following the attack that took place on January 6th. Last week, Twitter and Facebook both placed restrictions on U.S. President Donald Trump’s account.
Twitter banned his account permanently altogether, while Facebook has banned him for at least two weeks. It’s worth noting that Twitter closed its PAC in November 2020.
Source: The Verge
