Ocasio-Cortez dings tech for ‘implicit’ support of climate change denial

Carlos Barria | Reuters

Democratic Representative-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York talks to reporters as she arrives for a class photo with incoming newly elected members of the U.S. House of Representatives on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., November 14, 2018.

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is dinging Facebook, Microsoft and Google for “implicit” support of climate change denial in a letter addressed to the CEOs of the three tech companies.

Facebook, Microsoft and Google were “high-level” sponsors of the LibertyCon conference in Washington, D.C., earlier this month that hosted a session “denying established science on climate change,” Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Chellie Pingree, a Democratic Representative from Maine, said in the joint letter.

“The example you have set promoting sustainability and evidence-based science is compromised by your implicit support of the session organized at LibertyCon,” the congresswomen wrote. “Given the magnitude and urgency of the climate crisis that we are now facing, we find it imperative to ensure that the climate-related views espoused at LibertyCon do not reflect the values of your companies going forward.”

Ocasio-Cortez and Pingree also note the tech companies have installed sustainable practices in their respective businesses, and concede that conference sponsorship is commonplace. The congresswomen are asking Facebook, Microsoft and Google to reaffirm their commitment to a “more sustainable future.”

Ocasio-Cortez and Pingree’s letter appear to be in response to a Mother Jones article from last week that noted Google, Facebook and Microsoft were sponsors of the convention along with a group called the C02 Coalition, which denies climate change and attempts to promote the supposed benefits of CO2 emissions.

The three tech companies told Mother Jones in statements last week that they often sponsor events involving technology policy from across the political spectrum.

Facebook, Google and Microsoft were not immediately available to comment on Ocasio-Cortez and Pingree’s letter Monday.

Read the full letter here.

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