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Big Tech firms spent $61.5 million on lobbying in 2024
webRelevant to AI governance discussions as it documents how major AI-adjacent tech firms are actively shaping their regulatory environment through lobbying, potentially influencing the legislative landscape for future AI safety and oversight policy.
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Importance: 35/100news articleanalysis
Summary
Issue One analysis reveals that six major tech companies (Meta, Alphabet, Microsoft, ByteDance, X, and Snap) spent a record $61.5 million on lobbying in 2024, a 13% increase from 2023, while simultaneously cultivating relationships with the incoming Trump administration through inaugural donations. These companies deployed roughly 300 lobbyists as Congress debated child safety, data privacy, and foreign adversary legislation. The report highlights how concentrated corporate influence shapes the regulatory environment for AI and technology governance.
Key Points
- •Six major tech companies collectively spent $61.5M on lobbying in 2024, a ~13% increase over 2023, with Meta, ByteDance, and Snap each setting company records.
- •Meta alone spent $24.4M—a 27% increase and its highest-ever lobbying expenditure—deploying 65 lobbyists (1 per 8 members of Congress).
- •Nearly 300 lobbyists were employed across these six companies, approximately one for every two members of Congress.
- •Lobbying intensified alongside political relationship-building: Amazon, Meta, Google, and Microsoft each donated $1M to Trump's inaugural committee.
- •Key legislative issues being lobbied included child online safety, data privacy protections, and restrictions on foreign adversary influence (e.g., TikTok/ByteDance divestiture).
Cited by 1 page
| Page | Type | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| Failed and Stalled AI Proposals | Analysis | 63.0 |
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Big Tech Cozies Up to New Administration After Spending Record Sums on Lobbying Last Year - Issue One
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The influence of Big Tech was visible from every angle during inauguration activities in the nation’s capital early this week.
While the tech industry has long favored Democrats , Big Tech companies including Amazon, Meta, Google, and Microsoft demonstrated their allegiance to the new administration well before Inauguration Day, each giving $1 million to President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee. All the while Elon Musk, the executive chairman and chief technology officer of X, contributed more than $250 million to pro-Trump groups during the 2024 election cycle.
As Trump was sworn into a second term as president, he was joined not only by Cabinet members and other political allies, but also by tech executives including Musk, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, TikTok’s Shou Zi Chew, and Google’s Sundar Pichai.
As Big Tech cozies up to the new administration, its influence on Capitol Hill has never been stronger. A new Issue One analysis of recently filed federal lobbying reports found that several major tech companies spent record-breaking amounts on their lobbying operations in 2024, as Congress debated new legislation designed to protect kids online , create data privacy safeguards , and guard against undue influence of foreign adversaries .
Meta (the parent company of Facebook and Instagram), Alphabet (the parent company of Google and YouTube), Microsoft , ByteDance (the parent company of TikTok), X (formerly known as Twitter), and Snap (the parent company of Snapchat) combined to spend a staggering $61.5 million on lobbying in 2024 — an increase of nearly 13% compared to spending in 2023. And half of these companies — Meta, ByteDance, and Snap — spent record sums.
Together, these six companies employed nearly 300 lobbyists in 2024 — or one for every two members of Congress.
The Big Tech Oligarchy
Social media giants Meta and ByteDance together spent more than $240,000 on lobbying per day that Congress was in session in 2024. The two companies’ influence operations collectively included more than 120 lobbyists, or one lobbyist for every five members of Congress.
Meta alone spent a record $24.4 million on lobbying in 2024 — a 27% increase from what it spent on lobbying in 2023, and the most the company has spent on lobbying in any year since it first started federal lobbying in 2009. This included $5.6 million between October and December. Meta’s 2024 lobbying efforts were powered by 65 lobbyists — one for every eight members of Congress.
ByteDance spent a record $10.4 million on lobbying in 2024 — an approximately 19% increase from what it spent on lobbying in 2023. This marked the most the company has
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