The far left hate campaign against Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is really quite a sight to behold. The guy clearly is not a conservative but the fact that a political group he founded spent money on a 1-week television ad campaign featuring two senators speaking positively about oil drilling and the Keystone XL pipeline has sent the self-proclaimed merchants of tolerance into a fit of rage.
Not content with manufacturing false allegations of censorship against Zuckerberg and Facebook, extremist groups have now organized a boycott of the social network where they are refusing to purchase ads from the company--for two whole weeks. The threat is pretty absurd on its face but the motivation behind it is no joke. As I wrote last week, the real motive behind the campaign is to intimidate Zuckerberg into bowing down to the jackbooted "progressive" power structure. The recent independence Zuckerberg has demonstrated must not be tolerated.
As mentioned above, the get-Zuck campaign began in response to a political lobbying group that Zuckerberg founded called FWD.us which is seeking to promote the immigration amnesty bill informally known as the "Gang of 8" legislation. The bill has heavy support in the technology industry, primarily because it seeks to expand the number of H1B work visas granted by the federal government to foreigners.
The primary opponents to the bill are union members and regular conservatives. Many Republican and Democrat politicians who support amnesty are afraid of losing their office should they vote for it. In an effort to protect two such politicians, senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Mark Begich (D-Alaska), FWD helped each of them cut television ads touting a popular stance among conservatives and union workers: expanding domestic oil production. The Graham ad also features him criticizing Obamacare.
Despite the fact that Zuckerberg is trying to get amnesty passed, the far left just cannot abide the fact that his group utilized some conservative arguments to help do so. As former Wisconsin Democratic senator Russ Feingold put it in a statement on behalf of his new group Progressives United:
"Leaders in the technology community have every right to talk about how immigration reform will benefit their businesses. But instead, FWD.us has chosen a strategy that’s condescending to voters and counterproductive to the cause of reform."
How exactly the Graham and Begich ads would make politicians not want to vote for amnesty is anyone's guess.
Several more extreme liberal groups have decided that this is the case though, as Andrew Restuccia of Politico reports:
A coalition of activist organizations — including MoveOn.org, the Sierra Club, the League of Conservation Voters and Progressives United — said Tuesday they will suspend their paid Facebook advertising for at least two weeks. [...]
Each organization has committed to pulling their existing ads or holding off on the purchase of new ads for at least two weeks, and some groups are considering doing so for longer, Progressives United spokesman Josh Orton said. [...]
“We’re not trying to bankrupt Facebook here,” he said, adding that the campaign is aimed at sending a message to Zuckerberg.[...]
The League of Conservation Voters said Monday that more than 70,000 people have signed a petition urging Zuckerberg to kill the FWD.us ads.
Beyond the lying about Facebook and the boycott, leftist groups have also bussed in protesters outside of Zuckerberg's residence to denounce his support of New Jersey Republican Chris Christie. The left is very clearly trying to "send a message" to the 28-year-old billionaire: nothing less than total obedience will be tolerated.
