14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook is set to become the next big company to cut its ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) after Microsoft and Google have already taken such steps.
The social media company has already expressed an interest in this matter, especially as other Internet giants are fleeing the boat due to the extreme views ALEC has on certain key issues. For instance, the group has lobbied against net neutrality and claims that climate change is good for the world, while also trying to push legislation to force schools to teach skepticism when it comes to climate change rather than accept scientific proof.
“We reevaluate our memberships on an annual basis, and we are in that process now. While we have tried to work within ALEC to bring that organization closer to our views on some key issues, it seems unlikely that we will make sufficient progress so we are not likely to renew our membership in 2015,” Facebook told the San Francisco Chronicle.
Google and Microsoft are already out the door
Facebook is one of the many companies that are part of the Technology Task Force of ALEC, which also includes Yahoo and Google, although the latter has, as mentioned, already announced its decision to leave.
Google’s chairman Eric Schmidt has said on the Diane Rehm Show that people who deny climate change is real are hurting our children and grandchildren and making the world a much worse place. “We should not be aligned with such people. They are just literally lying,” Schmidt said.
He has also explained that the only reason they’ve funded ALEC up until now was as part of a political campaign on something unrelated. Schmidt adds that there’s a consensus in the company that the move was a mistake, which is why they’re going to try not to do that in the future.
Measures written by ALEC have not only attempted to block legislation meant to counter climate change, but also to roll back existing protections on laws related to environmental change, labor, civil right and even public health.
It’s not just tech companies that are fleeing the group, but others as well, including Coca-Cola, Kraft, General Motors, General Electric and more.
This past weekend, there have been rallies all over the globe to demand measures to protect the planet, to prevent climate change from accelerating any more than it already has and to try to save the world from even bigger issues.