Zuckerberg and Bezos left giants ExxonMobil and Philip Morris in the dust in 2020 with their corporate lobbying investments in the US government. According to a report According to consumer rights group Public Citizen, Facebook and Amazon funneled through their lobbyists twice as much money to American politicians as Big Oil and Big Tobacco last year.

Amazon invested $18,7 million and FB, $19,6 million in lobbyists

Based on data from the Center for Responsive Politics, Public Citizen highlighted that between 2018 and 2020, Amazon invested $18,7 million in lobbying, a 30% increase over the previous years. In the same period, Facebook invested $19,6 million in its lobbying efforts in the US government, representing a 56% increase.

Meanwhile, ExxonMobil spent “just” $8,69 million on lobbying, and Philip Morris spent $6,5 million, according to data from the Lobbying Disclosure Act e Center for Responsive Politics respectively.

The report seeks to analyze the influence of major big tech names, such as Amazon, Facebook and their lobbyists, through campaign contributions, on the decisions of elected American politicians. But the analysis also extends to Google and Apple. As Public Citizen says in the report: “The foundation of Big Tech companies’ influence is their teams of lobbyists, who use campaign contributions, pre-existing relationships, and past experience to tilt American politics in their favor.”

The destination of the invested money

According to Public Citizen, 94% of the money invested in lobbying by big tech went to lawmakers from the House Judiciary Committee; the House Energy and Commerce Committee; the Senate Committee on the Judiciary; and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Technology.

It's no surprise that Amazon and Facebook invest so much in their lobbyists. Facebook currently faces a series of processes for anticompetitive conduct by attorneys general in several US states, as well as the Federal Trade Commission. In New York, Amazon faces a process opened by the attorney general's office for failing to protect its employees during the pandemic.

With Business Insider

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