The Mercury News

MARK ZUCKERBERG FOR PRESIDENT: NEW SUPER PAC IS TAKING DONATIONS

- — Levi Sumagaysay

Mark Zuckerberg has said it before and he’ll probably say it again: He’s not running for president.

But a new super PAC dedicated to “convincing the American people to convince Mark Zuckerberg to consider a Presidenti­al run in 2020, or at least join the conversati­on” is not taking no for answer.

Disrupt for America is collecting money for the effort to get the king of social media to expand his kingdom — wait, that’s probably not the right word. After all, the political action committee is inspired by the marches and protests that sprang up after the election of Donald Trump, and on its website lauds “organic grassroots activism.”

For his part, Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post last week amid his listening tour of America (that doesn’t sound presidenti­al at all) that he is doing it for the good of the Facebook people — which by the way number 1.9 billion worldwide.

So who’s behind this effort to replace a president with no political experience with another one? It’s hard to say.

The group is very new — its Twitter account was started this month. The Federal Election Commission’s website has no financial data for the group yet, although it does come up in a search and has an ID number. The group’s FEC filing shows a Houston P.O. box and lists its treasurer as Rodney Giles. Giles’ LinkedIn bio describes him as a serial entreprene­ur who’s president of Hosting Holdings, which is in the business of web hosting.

The Donate section of Disrupt for America’s website says it is paid for by ActBlue, a PAC that was establishe­d in 2004 to let people raise money for Democratic candidates.

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