Twitter Forms Political Action Committee, Will They Lobby 140 Characters at a Time?

Twitter has growing influence is a lot of areas including tech, entertainment, and ways to find out what Mr. T is doing. They’d like a little more clout in the political arena, so the company has formed the Twitter#PAC political action committee, and registered their first congressional lobbyist. #Politics

What Twitter#PAC hopes to accomplish is to take part in government policy decisions relevant to the company’s interests. Spokesman Jim Prosser said:

We expect to continue to play an active role in speaking up on issues related to Internet freedom, government access to user data, patent reform and freedom of expression.

These are all topics Twitter and its community have been vocal about in the past, and the company has been politically active for Internet causes for years. They’ve fought for less government secrecy about programs that monitor online data, and have repeatedly refused to turn over user data to authorities.

By forming a political action committee, Twitter will be able to pool donated money to put towards their political efforts. How influential the Twitter#PAC is will most likely come down to how much money they can raise.

(The Washington Post via The Verge, image via Scott Beale)

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