Facebook and Amazon have reportedly become the top two U.S. government lobbying spenders, spending more than military giants and telecommunications carriers, according to a report released by a U.S. consumer advocacy group.
The report was released by Public Citizen, a U.S. organization that monitors corporate lobbying spending data from the Center for Responsible Politics, an organization dedicated to monitoring this information. The Center for Responsible Politics.
The report shows that Facebook spent $19.7 million on government lobbying in Washington, D.C., last year, an increase of 56 percent compared to 2018.
Amazon, on the other hand, spent $18.7 million, a 30 percent increase compared to 2018.
The two tech giants have far outpaced their “peers” in lobbying spending. For comparison, U.S. telecommunications and media giant Comcast spent $14.4 million on government lobbying last year, and defense contractor Lockheed Martin spent about $13 million.
“Jane Chung, who authored the report for Public Citizen, said the foundation of the U.S. tech giants’ enormous influence stems from the lobbying teams they employ. These lobbying teams use a variety of means to achieve government policies that benefit them, including contributions to U.S. elections and leveraging existing contacts and past work experience.
In 2017, Facebook and Amazon were not even in the top eight in government lobbying spending, but have grown exponentially in recent years and have become the top two U.S. lobbying spenders, according to Zhen Zhong.
The Big Antitrust Context
A major backdrop to the increased government lobbying spending by the tech giants is an anti-trust crackdown at all levels of the U.S. government. The U.S. government has launched an unprecedented antitrust crackdown on the four largest technology giants (Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Google).
The U.S. House of Representatives, the federal Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, and state prosecutors have launched one antitrust investigation and lawsuit after another against the four tech giants, and public opinion has called for the unbundling of tech giants like Facebook to prevent them from using their monopolistic platforms to make unreasonable profits and crack down on industry competitors.
Facebook has already been subject to an antitrust lawsuit by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, with regulation asking the court to cancel two social network mergers (Instagram and WhatsApp) that Facebook has completed in the past. However, Facebook recently asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that regulation had already approved the acquisitions in the past and there was no reason to “reverse” them now.
Amazon has been the subject of antitrust investigations in the past, with criticism focusing on Amazon’s use of data from third-party sellers on online stores to develop or sell its own products, which constitutes unfair competition.
In addition, Google has been subject to multiple antitrust lawsuits by the Department of Justice and multi-state prosecutors involving monopolies in the areas of web search and online advertising. Apple has also been subject to antitrust investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice and other agencies.
The U.S. House of Representatives completed an antitrust investigation against the four tech giants last year. The House was unable to file antitrust lawsuits in court, but the investigation report recommended changes to the U.S. Congress’ antiquated antitrust laws to strengthen restraints on the tech giants.
Hiring 40 Lobbyists
In response, the tech giants are also lobbying hard.
According to the Public Citizen report, 94 percent of all members of Congress involved in privacy and antitrust matters have received “donor” money from companies or lobbying organizations or individuals representing a technology giant. In 2020, members of Congress received as much as $3.2 million in “contributions.
It should be noted that the lobbying expenditures listed in the report relate to individual companies and do not include lobbying expenditures by industry groups or coalitions on behalf of technology giants.
According to the report, in the past two years, the four major U.S. technology giants have hired a total of 40 lobbyists.
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