Tech Companies Spent $65 Million Lobbying DC in 2020

Major technology companies, including Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft, spent a combined $65 million on lobbying Congress in 2020, according to The Washington Post.

Facebook spent the most, with about $19.7 million, followed by Amazon with about $17.9 million, Microsoft with $9.4 million, Google with $7.5 million, and Apple with $6.7 million. Facebook increased its spending on lobbying by about 17.8% from 2019, while Amazon upped its spending by 10.7%.

Most of Facebook’s lobbying in the fourth quarter of 2020 concerned copyright reform, election integrity, international tax policies, immigration, and content policy. Amazon’s lobbying was focused on intellectual property, postal reform, broadband, healthcare, and the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.

''There’s a lot of concern with how tech companies are handling disinformation, there’s a lot of concern about the ways tech companies are handling privacy,'' Michael Beckel, the research director for financial reform advocacy group Issue One, told the Post. ''There’s a lot of policymakers and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle [that] are giving the tech industry more scrutiny. And with that increased scrutiny comes a desire to spend more on lobbying and make sure your side of the story is heard.''

Google cut back on lobbying spending, which was down 36.2% in 2020 from the year before. The company previously slashed its lobbying spending by 44% between 2018 and 2019 by severing ties with multiple lobbying firms.

The Chinese company ByteDance, which owns TikTok, massively increased its lobbying spending, going from $300,000 in 2019 to $2.58 million in 2020 for an increase of 855.6%, according to CNBC. Lyft also drastically increased spending, upping its lobbying budget by 135.5% to $2.19 million last year.

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