Google, Facebook, Amazon, ebay will join forces form political lobby
Web giants Google, Amazon, eBay and Facebook will form a lobbying organization with other online companies to shape political and regulatory issues in Washington DC, according to the Reuters news agency.
The Internet Association, will open its doors in September and will act as a unified voice for major Internet companies, Michael Beckerman, the association’s president, said on Wednesday
Beckerman is a former adviser to the chairman of the US House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce Committee.
Internet companies have been lobbying recently on issues as disparate as easing visa restrictions to hire overseas
engineers, revenue repatriation, privacy, cybersecurity and sales taxes for Internet companies.
“We want to educate [legislators] about the impact of the Internet in their congressional districts,” said Beckerman. “In September, we’ll do a full rollout and announce companies and announce policy positions.”
Google and Facebook have been steadily ramping up federal lobbying spending.
Google, the web’s most popular search engine, has increased federal lobbying spending by 90 per cent, spending $3.92m in the second quarter to lobby the Congress, White House and various federal agencies, according to regulatory filings. Facebook boosted its spending on federal lobbying by 200 per cent in the second quarter, spending $960,000 on issues including online privacy and immigration reform.
Google is being investigated by antitrust regulators in the United States and Europe, lobbied officials at the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Commerce. Facebook said it lobbied lawmakers on market structure and initial public offering issues during the quarter.
eBay spent $400,600 on lobbying in the second quarter, up about 10 per cent from the same quarter in 2011. Its lobbying efforts focused on piracy and counterfeiting, air pollution and revenue repatriation, according to disclosure filings. Amazon spent $690,000 in the second quarter, up about 25 per cent from the second quarter of 2011. Its lobbyists worked on issues including sales tax, privacy and advertising.
