Facebook and friends run into serious liberal boycott

Mark Zuckerberg’s political advocacy group, FWD.us, devised a crafty plan to pass an immigration reform bill that would allow more skilled worker visas and help firms like Facebook hire more foreign technical workers. They would support conservatives who might be likely to vote for the pro-business measure, as well as liberals who favor a more general relaxation of immigration restrictions.

But in the process, FWD.us wound up supporting conservative causes, such as the Keystone XL Pipeline, opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration, and attacking the Affordable Care Plan. FWD.us claims that its strategy is simply bipartisan, but many progressives don’t see it that way.

As a result, a coalition of nine liberal groups began pulling their ads from Facebook. Josh Orton, communication director of Progressives United, told Adweek that he understood that Facebook’s ad base is too diverse to be financially harmed. “We're under no delusion that we'll bankrupt Facebook,” he said, “We wanted to send a political message. We know we're not sending anyone to the bread lines.”

Wunderkind Zuckerberg may quickly find out that taking over the online world is easy compared to negotiating the political minefield.

FWD.us (website)

Liberal Groups Launch Ad Boycott of Facebook: FWD.us bankrolls conservative causes to win immigration votes (Adweek, May 7, 2013)