Tech Lobby
Critical Analysis
How much more did facebook spend on lobbying in 2020 than they did in 2010?
Identify one trend in spending from the chart above.
What do lobbyists do?
What is the main impact lobbying has on the U.S. government?
Explain whether, in general, lobbying make American more or less democratic?
Faced with one of the largest antitrust lawsuits in history, Facebook has ramped up its lobbying expenditure in 2020. According to official filings with the Senate Office of Public Records, the social media giant spent $19.7 million to make its voice heard in Washington D.C. last year, up 18 percent from its 2019 total. According to an analysis by the Wall Street Journal, that makes Facebook the biggest corporate lobbying spender in the United States, ahead of fellow tech giant Amazon and telecom conglomerate Comcast. What does Facebook want from the U.S. Government that causes them to spend all that money?
Do you think that this massive outpouring of tech spending will work and will diminish government regulation of tech?
There’s an old saying in Washington, “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.” This means that companies and groups whose voices and interests go unheard by legislators and rule-makers often miss out on opportunities that their better-connected competitors may snap up, or may end up being adversely impacted by new laws or regulations. Are you at the table or are you on the menu?
How much money did you spend in 2020 to get your voice heard in Washington D.C.? Imagine that you spent almost $20 million on U.S. government lobbying last year. How much do you think that would impact your political power?
Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple spent a combined total of $51.7 million on D.C. lobbying over the past twelve months. Is that good or bad news for these tech giants? Is that good or bad news for you?
Based on the information from the chart below, do you think Biden will be less susceptible to lobbying than Trump was?*
Make a claim about whether facebook and Twitter should have deplatformed Trump.
Learning Extension
Action Extension
Contact the BGR Group Lobbying firm and ask them how much you would have to pay them to lobby the U.S. government to ban lobbying.
