Google's money may have gone a little too far out of the tech spectrum with this one.
The Washington Post is reporting that Google gave money to Heritage Action, a big time conservative group that helped push for the government shutdown of a few weeks ago. The nonprofit Center for Media and Democracy, in Madison, Wisc., listed the group as one of dozens of organizations who have received grants from Google since 2012. The company is open about the groups it gives funds to, but not about the amount of funds they give, so we don't know how much Heritage Action got from your favorite search engine provider—but the Post is reporting that it was "substantial." On Google's website, they say that they send money to "a number of independent third-party organizations whose federally-focused work intersects in some way with technology and Internet policy."
This is not to say that Google is straight up aligning themselves with the GOP, though, since there are some traditionally liberal groups that are listed as receiving grants from Google along with Heritage Action (and some more conservative groups, too.) The tech giant also gave money to conservative groups American Action Network, Americans for Tax Reform and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and liberal groups such as the NAACP, the Urban League and the Center for American Progress Action Fund. But we're sure that Google knows what it's doing with its money, for better or worse.
[via Washington Post]
