Facebook Spent $3.3 Million On Lobbying in The United States This Year

• Social media platform Facebook has spent $3.3 million lobbying in the United States in 2018.
• The disclosure was filed with the government on Friday by the company.
• The revealed figure is the highest in the company’s history in a single quarter.

According to documents submitted by Facebook to the US government, the social media company has spent $3.3 million on lobbying in the first quarter of 2018. A major chunk of the expenditure was spent on lobbying the White House, the House of Representatives and members of the Senate. There were also a few government agencies involved including the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission.

The social media company has covered a wide range of topics, and they made their opinion heard on topics that relate to the company’s business as well as the tech industry. The social network firm discussed reforms on the immigration system, special temporary visas for high-tech workers and employment-based permanent residency. The move was in response to the current administration’s decision to suspend H-1B visas temporarily which are routinely used by tech companies to hire foreign employees.

Image Courtesy of 9to5 Google

Facebook also communicated its position on DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). CEO Mark Zuckerberg and a large number of tech CEOs have publicly spoken out against the decision to end DACA, which was proposed by the Trump administration.

Facebook also had several discussions on data breach with lawmakers after the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The company has gone to great lengths to not refer to the incident as a data breach. Gizmodo reached out to Facebook for comments on the incident but received no response.

The increased spending on lobbying has become a trend for the social media giant with the company spending $30 million to influence lawmakers since 2015. The company also doubled its lobbying efforts in Europe in 2017. The lobbying efforts have contributed to conversations on the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act and other sensitive issues that concern the state of affairs of tech companies in the United States. These efforts at lobbying seldom produce results because, with the amount of spending such big companies afford, lawmakers can be shut down easily with the kind of money Facebook has access to.