Google has
announced that it is suspending its political action committee’s donations to members of Congress who voted against certifying the legitimate election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as president
and vice president of the United States.
After Trump supporters illegally invaded the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, Google paused all political contributions, saying it wanted to
reevaluate its contribution policies.
“Following that review, the NetPAC board has decided that it will not be making any contributions this cycle to any member of Congress who voted
against certification of the election results,” Google said in a statement.
Google’s PAC donated to the 2017 and 2018 campaigns of Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, one of the most
vocal GOP election results deniers.
GOP senators who voted to sustain the objections to Pennsylvania electors’ votes included Cruz, Josh Hawley (Mo.), Tommy Tuberville (Ala.), Cindy
Hyde-Smith (Miss.), Roger Marshall (Kan.), Cynthia Lummis (Wy.) and Rick Scott (Fla.).
Six GOP senators voted to sustain objections to Arizona electors’ votes: Cruz, Hawley, Tuberville,
Hyde-Smith, Marshall and John Kennedy (La.).
More than 100 Republican House members voted for the objections to both states’ electors.
After the insurrection attempt by Trump
supporters at the Capitol, corporations including Marriott, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and Triple-S Management announced they were suspending donations specifically to U.S. lawmakers
who had voted against certifying the election results.
Others — including AT&T, Comcast, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Verizon, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Walmart and Boston
Scientific, as well as Google — said they were suspending all political contributions.
PAC contributions play a major role in funding politicians’ advertising campaigns. Last year,
political advertising hit a record $8.2 billion, according to AdImpact.
While other major platforms suspended or blocked Trump by the day after the Capitol riot, Google’s Alphabet-owned
sibling company, YouTube, took six days to suspend him, for a period of seven days. On Jan. 19, YouTube extended the suspension for another seven days.
Trump’s YouTube home page
continues to automatically play his 46-minute video, described by CNBC as “rife with false allegations of voter fraud,” which has drawn some 6 million views. YouTube said it has not
removed the video because it was uploaded prior to its “safe harbor” deadline.