The world’s largest social network is seeking to expand its political influence in America: Facebook is forming a political action committee (PAC), the company confirmed to The Hill on Monday.
The company also appeared to have registered the domain names FBPAC.us and FBPAC.org, but has yet to effectively secure FBPAC.com, FBPAC.net or FB.com, which are all claimed by the American Farm Bureau, according to Domain Name Wire.
“FB PAC will give our employees a way to make their voice heard in the political process by supporting candidates who share our goals of promoting the value of innovation to our economy while giving people the power to share and make the world more open and connected,” a Facebook spokesman told The Hill via email.
A spokesperson with The Federal Election Commission, which regulates the formation of PACs, told TPM’s Idea Lab in a phone call that the agency had not yet received a filing from Facebook, but that Facebook could have postmarked the filing today.
The FEC spokesperson said that it usually takes 48 hours after the agency receives a filing before it is posted online here.
Facebook would join other tech companies, including Google and Microsoft, in forming a special kind of PAC, a “separate segregated fund.” That’s because federal election law “prohibits corporations and labor unions from using their general treasury funds to make contributions or expenditures in connection with federal elections.” Instead, the laws permit them to up a separate fund and separate bank account into which employees may contribute toward specific candidates and other committees.
Facebook’s political ambitions are well known, with the company spending $550,000 on lobbying in 2011, a 36 percent increase over 2010, according to the Center for Response Politics.
That pales in comparison to Google, though, which has spent $3.5 million on lobbying this year, according to the Center (though that is so far down from a record $5.2 million in 2010).
But just this month, Facebook added added former Clinton White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles to its Board of Directors. The company also scooped up three other new politically-affiliated hires, including a legislative assistant to President Obama, for its lobbying efforts at home and abroad.
We’ve reached out to Facebook for more information and will update when we receive a response.
