With the 2020 elections behind us, people thought Biden’s inauguration was going to be the last thing they ever hear. To drop the bomb, Microsoft has recently announced that it will hold off on the donations being received for the 2022 election for members of Congress, state officials and organizations that voted to object the certification of electors during the 2020 election or support the attempt of those who wanted to rescind the election results.
The tech company has also temporarily suspended all the political contributions after the January 6th attack on the Capitol as previously Microsoft took the time to come up with a decision on “whether to suspend further donations to individuals who voted against the certification of the Electoral College.” So, their latest announcement makes for a permanent decision with regards to the election cycle for next year, but only for those who supported this malicious endeavor. Other politicians are still eligible for Microsoft’s donations.
Microsoft has also announced that they have a new company program called the “Democracy Forward Initiative.” Its mission is to make it easier for employees to donate to organizations that look to establish a campaign finance reform and protect their rights to vote instead of supporting politicians per se.
Lastly, the company has also announced that it’s changing the name of its PAC, which was previously called the Microsoft Political Action Committee (MSPAC). Moving forward, it will now be called the Microsoft Corporation Stakeholders Voluntary PAC (MSVPAC) to better embody that the group is “funded exclusively by voluntary donations of Microsoft stakeholders.”
But this isn’t the first time that any major tech company has decided to stop funding members of Congress who attempted to overturn the 2020 election. Google had made a similar announcement at the end of January that its NetPAC “will not be making any contributions this cycle to any member of Congress who voted against the certification of the election results.”
Other tech companies such as AT&T, Amazon, Verizon, Comcast, Dell and Intel have all suspended any kind of donation to the electoral objectors.