Facebook and Amazon have become the US’s two biggest corporate lobbying spenders, investing almost twice as much as oil giant ExxonMobil and tobacco company Philip Morris in 2020, according to a new report.
Amazon increased its spending on lobbying efforts by 30% during the period from 2018 to 2020 to reach US$18.7 million, according to a report published by Public Citizen, a progressive consumer rights advocacy group, and based on data by the Center for Responsive Politics. Facebook spent 56% more in the same period to reach around US$19.6 million, the report found.
ExxonMobil spent US$8.69 million on lobbying efforts in 2020, according to its public Lobbying Disclosure Act filings. While Philip Morris spent US$6.95 million in lobbying in 2020 according to data published by the Center for Responsive Politics.
The Public Citizen report evaluated the influence of the four tech giants—Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple— on regulators and lawmakers through lobbying and contributions.
“The foundation of the Big Tech companies’ influence are their lobbying teams, which use campaign contributions, existing relationships, and past experience to swing policy in their favor,” Public Citizen stated in the report.
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