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Elizabeth Warren says she won't take major donations from big-tech executives

The presidential candidate swears off donations of more than $200 from executives in tech and finance.

Queenie Wong Former Senior Writer
Queenie Wong was a senior writer for CNET News, focusing on social media companies including Facebook's parent company Meta, Twitter and TikTok. Before joining CNET, she worked for The Mercury News in San Jose and the Statesman Journal in Salem, Oregon. A native of Southern California, she took her first journalism class in middle school.
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Queenie Wong
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren's pledge to break up big tech companies has been a large part of her presidential campaign. 

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who's vowed to break up big tech companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon if she becomes president, said Tuesday that she won't accept major donations from executives in large tech and finance firms.

"Money slithers through every part of our political system, corrupting democracy and taking power away from the people," Warren wrote in a post on her website. "Big companies and billionaires spend millions to push Congress to adopt or block legislation."

The Massachusetts Democrat said she'd swear off contributions of more than $200 from executives at big tech companies, big banks, private equity firms or hedge funds. She doesn't mention specific banks or tech companies by name in the post.

Warren has made breaking up tech companies a big part of her campaign, arguing that Facebook, Google and Amazon have too much power, stifle competition and innovation and hurt small businesses. Facebook has pushed back against the idea of splitting Instagram and WhatsApp away from the company, saying regulation and not a breakup will help hold the social network more accountable for its actions. 

Tensions between Warren and Facebook have escalated this month. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees in an internal meeting that he was ready to "go to the mat" and fight if Warren became president and tried to break up the company. 

Warren also criticized Facebook last week for not fact-checking ads by politicians. The company told Joe Biden's presidential campaign that it wasn't going to remove a false ad by President Donald Trump's reelection campaign because the company considers it direct speech from a politician. Over the weekend, to prove a point about the company's policy, Warren ran an ad with the false claim that Zuckerberg endorsed Trump. The ad pointed out that it included a falsehood. 

Facebook and Amazon declined to comment. Google didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Originally published Oct. 15, 11:26 a.m. PT.
Update, 12:43 p.m. PT: Adds response from Amazon.