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Amazon, Google, Facebook and more. For those who support tech companies in the 2020 US presidential elections

Amazon, Google, Facebook and more. For those who support tech companies in the 2020 US presidential elections

Big techs like Amazon, Google and Facebook pay fair donations to Democratic and Republican electoral committees with a slight preponderance towards the latter in view of the 2020 US presidential election

Staying neutral between red and blue is a bit difficult for big techs. Ahead of the 2020 US presidential election, the comparison of last year's political contributions from Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft suggests that companies have attempted to remain bipartisan between Dems and Republicans. However, a propensity for the latter emerges.

The numbers of corporate donations through the Pacs are available on the OpenSecrets.org website, edited by the "Center for Responsive Politics", a non-profit think tank based in Washington that studies the effects of lobbying on elections and American public policies.

Today begins the convention of the Republican party that will officially invest the current tenant of the White House Donald Trump with the role of Republican candidate for president. In the November 3 elections he will challenge Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate for the presidency in ticket with Kamala Harris.

The result of the election will also affect the tech giants. In fact, the giants of Silicon Valley have recently been trying to reject new regulations or antitrust lawsuits. The Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission have spent more than a year investigating Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple for possible violations of competition law. During a House hearing last month , both Republican and Democratic lawmakers criticized CEOs of all four companies about big tech dominance to the detriment of consumers, rivals and small businesses.

WHAT ARE PACs

In the United States, companies can contribute to electoral committees through the CAP. These are Political Action Committees, promoted by organizations or associations to collect private resources for candidates. These bodies must register if they spend more than $ 2,600 with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), which is charged with enforcing the federal campaign financing law.

SPENDING 2020

Among tech companies, Amazon's CAP is the largest contributor to political campaigns this year. According to data from OpenSecrets, the e-commerce giant has split its corporate dollars (993,000) equally, with 49% going to Democrats and 50% to Republicans. In second place we find Google with 831 thousand dollars, of which 442 thousand for the Republicans and 389 thousand for the Democrats. In third place, to a lesser extent than the first two, is the group led by Mark Zuckerberg with only 236 thousand dollars. Even for Facebook, a slightly greater part is destined for Republicans ($ 126,500) compared to 110,000 for the Dems.

Also in the Communications / Electronics sector, but not in the “internet” category, we find Microsoft, classified in the “Electronics Mfg & Equip” list. The pac of the Redmond technology giant founded by Bill Gates is the first in its category with $ 642,500 paid up. It thus ranks behind Google and before Facebook.

Microsoft also paid more to the Republicans (about 55% with $ 353,000) compared to $ 289,500 to the Dems.

SPENDING 2019

As Protocol reported earlier this year, a review of all political contributions in 2019 from PACs from Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft suggests companies have made a deliberate effort to split their dollars between the red and blue lines.

THE GREAT ABSENT APPLE

Apple is missing from these lists. Unlike its rivals, the Cupertino giant doesn't have a Pac. Last year, CEO Tim Cook publicly stated that he doesn't believe the CAP should exist.

THE CAP EXPENDITURE NOTHING COMPARED WITH LOBBYING ACTIVITIES

According to Protocol, with the exception of Microsoft, technology companies' CAP spending has grown dramatically over the past 10 years. Spending on Amazon's Pac has increased 14 times in the past 10 years, while Google's spending has more than quintupled.

However, corporations' CAP spending is small compared to their traditional lobbying efforts. According to the Center for Responsive Politics , Amazon was ranked ninth for corporate lobbying spending , with an outlay of $ 16.8 million last year. Followed shortly after by Facebook with $ 16.7 million.

Big techs spent a total of $ 53.6 million on lobbying in 2019. So far this year, their total spending has been $ 27.6 million.

THE 2016 CAMPAIGN

Instead, let's go back four years. For the 2016 White House run, donations to presidential candidates from tech companies overwhelmingly went to Hillary Clinton. Employees of internet companies donated $ 6.3 million to candidate Dem and only $ 59,000 to rival Donald Trump. But with regard to the CAP, or the donations made directly by companies, the situation is different. Of the $ 3.6 million donated by Facebook, Google, Amazon and Microsoft, $ 2.1 million went to Republican candidates, and $ 1.5 million went to Democratic candidates.

Even in previous presidential elections, big techs paid more to Republican electoral committees.

"The myth of the immaculate and liberal Silicon Valley, however, falls at least in part if you look at the numbers" Eugenio Cau commented on the sheet in 2017. "Thomas B. Edsall did it for example in the New York Times , who put together all the electoral donations of the technological empires and noticed an unexpected fact: in the campaign for Congress, the CAPs linked to the big American technology companies donated much more money to Republican candidates than to Democrats ”.

THE ANTITRUST HEARINGS

As we said at the beginning, the number ones of Facebook, Google, Apple and Amazon have agreed to testify before Congress for an ongoing antitrust investigation into the technology industry.

Amazon is accused of abusing its role as both a reseller and a platform hosting third-party sellers on its marketplace. Apple has been accused of unfairly using its power over its App Store to block rivals and force apps to pay high fees. The accusation of monopoly on social networks is pending on Facebook. Alphabet, Google's parent company, is dealing with multiple antitrust charges due to Google's dominance in online advertising, search and smartphone software.

According to the New York Times , Democrats may also move away from the antitrust issue to focus on disinformation on social media. Some Republicans should instead sidetrack the discussion with fears of liberal prejudice from the Silicon Valley giants and accusations that conservative voices are censored on social platforms.


This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/amazon-google-e-facebook-e-non-solo-per-chi-tifano-le-tech-company-alle-presidenziali-usa-2020/ on Mon, 24 Aug 2020 12:17:32 +0000.