Facebook Political Action Committee Archives

Late last month, I wrote about Facebook registering the domain names fbpac.org and fbpac.us and I was the first to speculate that the social networking giant was planning to form a political action committee.

It was a rumor that turned out to be true, as a spokesman for Facebook announced the company was starting its own political action committee called “FB PAC”.

Now this week, it appears as if development of the official FB PAC website is underway, after Facebook officially filed (Committee ID: C00502906) with the FEC on September 30.

When you type FBPAC.org or FBPAC.us into your web browser, you are taken to a login page located at https://www.fbpac.org/pac/wp-login.php.

Last week, neither address resolved to a web page.

According to the 5-page FEC filing, the committee’s official domain will be: FBPAC.org.

It appears Facebook will be using WordPress as its publishing platform.

While there isn’t much to report or see at the site yet, it’s a sign that it’s being built.

Facebook forming a political action committee? Registers fbpac.org, fbpac.us

Is Facebook officially forming a political action committee (PAC) in order to influence federal elections?

It looks like Facebook may be taking the first steps ahead of the 2012 elections, as the company has registered the domain names fbpac.org and fbpac.us.

Other software giants have formed PACs. In 2006, Google formed its own political action committee, while Microsoft created its PAC in 1998.

While it’s unknown whether Facebook has already filed the necessary federal paperwork to set up a political action committee, considering Facebook’s size and influence, it only makes sense that Facebook eventually forms a PAC.

It’s also very possible, these domain names could be nothing more than part of the company’s intellectual property strategy. Facebook owns hundreds, a large pecentage of which it doesn’t use.

Here’s a look at the Whois record for fbpac.org.

Domain Name:FBPAC.ORG
Created On:24-Sep-2011 16:57:52 UTC
Last Updated On:24-Sep-2011 16:57:53 UTC
Expiration Date:24-Sep-2013 16:57:52 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:MarkMonitor Inc. (R37-LROR)
Registrant ID:mmr-92157
Registrant Name:Domain Administrator
Registrant Organization:Facebook, Inc.
Registrant Street1:1601 S. California Ave
Registrant Street2:
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:Palo Alto
Registrant State/Province:CA
Registrant Postal Code:94304
Registrant Country:US

Discussion: Media Bistro, VentureBeat and All Facebook

(Photo of Barack Obama and Mark Zuckerberg talking before a private meeting via The White House’s Photostream)