Microsoft announced Friday that the company will suspend contributions to Republican members that objected to the certification of the 2020 election results.
Microsoft became the latest big tech company to suspend its donations to Republicans who objected to the certification of the 2020 presidential election. Microsoft will suspend its donations for the rest of the 2022 cycle.
Fred Humphries, the vice president of government affairs for Microsoft, said in a statement Friday:
We believe these steps are appropriate given the importance of these issues for the stability and future of American democracy. They were also broadly supported in the listening sessions and other employee feedback. We do realize that these steps, while significant, will be too much or too little for some employees. There were several other good ideas that arose from our recent meetings, and we will continue to consider other ways we can strengthen the MSVPAC.
Microsoft also said that some employees do not want Microsoft to donate to politicians and instead focus on advancing democracy. Humphry wrote:
To address this, we will create a new Democracy Forward Initiative to support organizations that promote public transparency, campaign finance reform, and voting rights. We will have more details to share in coming weeks on the creation of this fund and how employees can contribute to it.
Other big tech companies have suspended donations to Republicans who have objected to the 2020 election.
Google spokesperson José Castañeda told the Hill, “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 the certification of the election results.”
Facebook said that it would suspend its contributions to candidates for the first quarter of 2021.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), who objected to the certification of Pennsylvania’s electoral votes, said in January that corporate giants and big tech companies had created a “social credit system” to stifle free speech and push their leftist agenda on the country.
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.