The Heritage Foundation has stopped accepting donations from tech veterans amid growing battles with Silicon Valley over censorship, The Post revealed.
The influential conservative think tank – which became a Trump supporter after initial suspicions of his presidential candidacy, brokerage appointments of cabinet members including Mick Mulvaney, Jeff Sessions and Betsy DeVos – said it was one of more than 40 right-leaning research organizations The group will also include refusal to take money from big tech firms including Google, Twitter, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon, according to a memorandum obtained by The Post.
“As you know, Washington has a growing momentum to rein in Google and other technology companies, either through antitrust action or through changes you make to liability protection,” said Kei Coles, president of Heritage James has written in a memorandum to tech firms. “Legacy is in the midst of reviewing these proposals, and the last thing we need is to think that our findings are somehow influenced by your company’s relatively small donations.”
In October 2020, Heritage returned a $ 225,000 donation from Google and $ 150,000 it received from Facebook. According to a Heritage spokesperson, Google had donated a total of $ 1.55 million to Heritage and Facebook gave $ 275,000. A total of $ 87 million was donated to Heritage in 2019, according to a recent tax filing by the think tank.
Last month, dozens of conservative think tanks including the Family Research Council, the Media Research Center, the Center for Renewing America and Citizen United. Mortgage To discontinue donations from big technology. Other large right-leaning research nonprofits such as the American Enterprise Institute, Mercatus, Keto Institute, Manhattan Institute, Hoover Institution and the RAND Corporation have not announced positions on technical donations.
Tech companies are in the crosshairs of the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Justice’s retaliatory, and the attorneys of dozens of states as usual over their growing clout. In response, he has made a significant defense. In 2020, Facebook spent $ 19.7 million, Amazon spent $ 17.9 million, Google spent $ 7.5 million, Apple spent $ 7.4 million, and Twitter spent $ 1.5 million, according to public filings.
In the meantime, donations can be made privately to think tanks, which make it a more prudent way of influencing policy and shaping legislation. But a growing number of think tanks are concerned about a possible conflict of interest.
A Heritage spokesperson said the group – which mostly receives donations from big-name donors, despite big-name trustees – including Rebekah Mercer – has reduced prejudice from Big Tech over the past two years.
In early 2019, Google dissolved an advisory board on artificial intelligence, which Heritage James served after receiving a petition signed by 2,500 employees stating that it would be removed, calling it “virtually anti -Trans, called anti-LGBTQ, and anti-immigrant. ” James exploded in the move Washington Post Op-Ed To say that Google has “instilled the mindset of a raging mob” and the accusations against her is “a bizarre one, because I am a 69-year-old black woman fighting segregation.”
A few months later, Google’s YouTube deleted a video posted by Heritage, stating that comments made about transgender issues were “abusive language”. YouTube CEO Susan Wozicki met with James at the DC office of the think tank to resolve the conflict, but there was a video posted by The Daily Signal, a sticking point heritage site in which pediatrician Dr. Michelle Cratella says, “See, if you want to cut off one leg or one arm you’re mentally ill, but if you want to have healthy breasts or a penis, you’re transgender.”
When Heritage acknowledged that the comments were controversial, a spokesperson at the time said “YouTube should welcome more discussion rather than end the speech at the behest of the crowd.”
In 2019, Twitter temporarily banned a heritage employee who tweeted that he believes transgender women who are born men should not be allowed to participate in women’s sports competitions, tweeting Classified as hate speech. Heritage mediated the situation and the employee gained access to her account without deleting the tweet.
Earlier this year, Amazon hired former Heritage employee Ryan T. Removed a book on transgenderism from his site, “When Harry Bane Sealy”, written by Anderson. In February, the US censor. Marco Rubio, Josh Mansion, Mike Lee, and Mike Braun wrote a letter to Amazon seeking clarification to remove the book from its platform. Amazon responded by going one step further, stating that all books suggesting LGBTQ + identity had been removed.
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