The Guardian reports: Facebook is set to become the latest tech company to end its support for a controversial rightwing lobby group that works against climate change legislation. The social media company has been a funder of American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec), which shapes legislation at state level across the US. But late on Tuesday the company confirmed to the Guardian it was quitting, following Google, which cut ties this week, and Microsoft, which left in August. Yelp, the consumer review website, also said that quit Alec. News of Facebook’s decision was first reported in the San Francisco Chronicle. Facebook said: “We reevaluate our memberships on an annual basis, and are in that process now. While we have tried to work within ALEC to bring that organization closer to our view on some key issues, it seems unlikely that we will make sufficient progress so we are not likely to renew our membership in 2015.” Luther Lowe, public policy director of Yelp, said that its membership of Alec had expired and had not been renewed. “Yelp is not a member of Alec,” he said. Alec has attracted global criticism for its opposition to legislation that would curb carbon emissions, anti-union policies and championing of extreme rightwing policies at the state level. Google’s chairman Eric Schmidt said this week the company could no longer be aligned with people who deny climate change.
Posted on: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 16:07:19 +0000
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