Seven House Republicans vow to reject donations from Big Tech

Seven House Republicans on Wednesday pledged to reject donations from some of the top tech companies in the U.S. amid mounting scrutiny over the market power the tech giants hold. 

Rep. Ken Buck (Colo.), the top Republican on the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee, led the pledge to reject campaign donations from Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple and Twitter. 

Buck was joined by Reps. Chip Roy (Texas), Greg Steube (Fla.), Ralph Norman (S.C.), Dan Bishop (N.C.), Burgess Owens (Utah) and Andy Biggs (Ariz.) in signing onto the pledge.

In a letter outlining the pledge, the Republicans cite accusations of the tech companies’ “unprecedented actions to silence” conservative speech. 

They noted Twitter and Facebook’s decisions to ban and suspend former President Trump’s accounts, as well as Google, Apple and Amazon’s action taken against the fringe social network Parler after the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6. 

“These monopolies have shown that personal liberty can be threatened by corporate tyranny just as much as by government tyranny. They have demonstrated that they are willing to relegate those who do not agree with their worldview to the status of a second-class citizen by cutting dissenters’ access to the infrastructures of business and public discourse,” the Republicans wrote. 

Buck announced last month he would stop accepting donations from Google, Facebook and Amazon, as reported by Axios.

Five of the Republicans who signed onto the pledge accepted donations from some of the tech companies in the last election cycle, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records. 

Bishop and Owners appear to not have accepted donations from the companies, according to the FEC records. 

The pledge to reject the donations comes after some of the tech companies have paused their political spending. 

Facebook was among a lengthy list of companies that said it would suspend all PAC contributions after the insurrection at the Capitol, while Amazon and Google said they would pause donations to lawmakers who voted against certifying the election results. 

Steube, Norman, Bishop, Owens and Biggs all supported challenges to the certification of votes.