Hilary Clinton is the largest beneficiary of donations from Facebook employees this election cycle, having received over $114,000, more than any other presidential candidate.
Republican contender Marco Rubio, with donations of $16,604, came in second to Clinton with nearly $100,000 less than her from Facebook employees before suspending his campaign in March.
The numbers are based on a report of itemized contributions provided to the Federal Electoral Commission, excluding donors (and potentially Facebook employees) who donated less than $200.
Just $66 million of Bernie Sanders’ campaign contributions includes information about the people who have donated, with the majority of donations being under $200.
The news will come as little surprise to conservatives who have long criticized Facebook for accusations of bias and suppressing conservative outlets, while amplifying progressive movements like Black Lives Matter.
The Hill found that roughly 78 employees who work on engineering, communications, public policy, strategy, marketing, human resources, and other areas have donated to Clinton.
The list included at least seven vice presidents at the company, including Tom Stocky, who manages Facebook’s trending feature. The company has about 13,600 employees.
On Tuesday, Stocky denied that Facebook suppressed conservative news outlets or topics: “Facebook does not allow or advise our reviewers to systematically discriminate against sources of any ideological origin and we’ve designed our tools to make that technically not feasible.”
As the election looms, social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter will come under greater scrutiny to avoid political bias. A petition launched by the Republican National Committee demanded that “Facebook Must Answer For Conservative Censorship.”
“With 167 million US Facebook users reading stories highlighted in the trending section, Facebook has the power to greatly influence the presidential election,” it read. The Hill also found that Sanders took at least $12,000 in donations from Facebook employees.
You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at ben@yiannopoulos.net
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