The advocacy group Fwd.Us, created by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and others, has shocked some liberals with its tactics in a campaign to support immigration reform, Somini Sengupta and Eric Lipton report in The New York Times.
The uproar, some say, will be a lesson for Silicon Valley companies as they try to influence emotional political issues like immigration. But the group’s supporters brashly say they were ready for the reaction.
“Our advertising decisions are being made by a very smart team of political operatives who know that passing major reform will require some different and innovative tactics,” James W. Breyer, a venture capitalist with Accel Partners and a contributor to the cause, said in an e-mailed statement. “I’m proud to support Fwd.Us as they work to pass comprehensive immigration reform.”
The group has faced the most vocal criticism for television advertisements sponsored by its two subsidiaries, Americans for Conservative Action and Council for American Job Growth. One of those spots takes swipes at President Obama’s health policies. Another lauds the Keystone XL pipeline, fiercely opposed by many environmental groups.
Those TV spots, which ran in several states for a week, drew strong reaction from a coalition of liberal organizations that includes the Sierra Club, the League of Conservation Voters and MoveOn.org. They announced this week that they would suspend buying advertisements on Facebook, which they acknowledged was intended to send a message and would have little economic effect on the company.