Meta launched what’s set to be the largest push to back political candidates in its history, a move that just so happens to come as the social media company faces a wave of negative press and arguably its most precarious legal fights to date.
The New York Times reported that Meta kicked off a $65 million effort ahead of this year’s midterm elections to “boost state politicians who are friendly to the artificial intelligence industry, beginning this week in Texas and Illinois.”
The Times noted that “the sum is the biggest election investment by Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp” and reported that company representatives said the investment is “driven by concerns over the regulatory threat to the artificial intelligence industry as it aims to beat back legislation in states that it fears could inhibit A.I. development.”
The report says Meta will back Democrats and Republicans alike, using two different super PACs:
One group, Forge the Future Project, is backing Republicans. Another, Making Our Tomorrow, is backing Democrats. The new PACs join two others already started by Meta, one of which is focused on California while the other is an umbrella organization that finances the company’s spending in other states.
Meta and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, have basically spent years bending the knee to President Donald Trump, who in return has pushed to ban states from regulating companies that invest in artificial intelligence tools. So, on some level, what Meta is doing with this new spending spree is akin to the brazenly oligarchic behavior we’ve seen out of other tech bros who are using their money to influence the midterms and the political system more broadly.
What’s different, in my view, is the level of public acrimony toward Meta and its platforms, evidenced by numerous lawsuits and public condemnations from former employees. In recent years, the company has had to navigate various scandals in which its algorithm-based platforms have been used to subvert democracy, fuel child predation and foment violence, including in the run-up to Jan. 6, 2021.
Meta is now fighting multiple lawsuits, including potentially landmark cases, that accuse its executives of knowingly making products with addictive qualities that have been particularly harmful to children, which the company has denied. Meta also is looking to expand its number of data centers, the resource-sapping facilities that have sparked outcry in communities nationwide.
With all of that in mind, Meta’s backing of candidates this cycle poses an interesting question to voters: whether, and if so, to what degree, they support a candidate backed by a company that operates some of the world’s most widely criticized platforms, ones that have fueled mass delusion and dissension by helping promote misinformation, spreading extremist propaganda and enabling harm toward children. (Meta has called the former workers’ allegations “nonsense” and has defended its child safety measures.)
Even if no one at Meta is found civilly or criminally liable for these things, which could very well happen, voters might do well to ask: Is this truly the kind of company that I, or the person I vote for, want to protect from regulations?
