Heritage Foundation vows to refuse Big Tech money over conservative bias

The Heritage Foundation in an announcement Tuesday vowed to not accept funds from large technology companies over what it said was a bias against conservative views from such players as Facebook and Google. 

The Heritage Foundation shared a press release on Tuesday in which its president, Kay James, said she was signing a pledge with other conservative leaders that calls out Big Tech companies for censorship and refuses to accept contributions from them. 

“The Heritage Foundation will not in good conscience accept money from companies that repeatedly and blatantly attempt to silence conservative speech they don’t agree with,” James said in the statement. “Every time a new case of censorship comes to light, these companies trot out excuses and promises to do better. Enough is enough. I stand united with other conservative leaders against Big Tech’s censorship of conservative voices.”

We rejected six-figure donations from Facebook and Google last year.

Today we’re pledging to no longer accept financial support from Big Tech companies as long as they continue to suppress conservative viewpoints. https://t.co/5bEOk9Ne6G

— Heritage Foundation (@Heritage) May 4, 2021

There is little evidence of a bias against conservatives on social media platforms such as Facebook, where some of the most popular pages are right-leaning.

The three top-performing U.S. Facebook posts on Monday and Tuesday were from Fox News and conservative commentators Dan Bongino and Ben Shapiro.

Criticism of tech companies on the right has been rising, however, especially since Twitter banned former President Trump. 

The Heritage Foundation turned down a pair of six-figure contributions from tech giants Google and Facebook in March, Axios reported.