A representative for social media giant Facebook said Wednesday that the company would likely end its relationship with the American Legislative Exchange Council next year.
The expected move follows Google and Microsoft, two other name-brand technology companies that have dropped their ALEC ties in the last month. The conservative advocacy group’s position on climate change led to those departures, with Google chairman Eric Schmidt saying that ALEC was “literally lying” about the issue.
A Facebook representative didn’t specify an issue in its message to the San Francisco Chronicle, but said they would likely end their membership in 2015.
“We re-evaluate our memberships on an annual basis and are in that process now,” a company representative wrote in an e-mail to the newspaper. “While we have tried to work within ALEC to bring that organization closer to our view on some key issues, it seems unlikely that we will make sufficient progress so we are not likely to renew our membership in 2015.”
Numerous top-tier companies have departed from ALEC since it gained renewed prominence after Republicans swept to victory in state legislatures in 2010 and its model legislation became the subject of widespread controversy.
