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YOUR FRIENDS' ACTIVITY

    Facebook Spent More than $1 Million on Lobbying in 2011 [REPORT]

    By Joann Pan | Mashable – Mon, Jan 23, 2012

    Facebook Inc. contributed $1.35 million to lobby various tech-related efforts last year, breaking the $1 million mark for the first time.

    During the last quarter of 2011, Facebook donated $440,000, targeting issues including international regulation of software companies and restrictions on Internet access by foreign governments.

    [More from Mashable: Most Video Conferencing Systems Are Vulnerable to Hackers [VIDEO]]

    Facebook continually lobbies for online security measures for private industry, data storage, online safety for Internet users, the Do Not Track Kids Act, proposed amendment to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 to protect personal information of children, the Video Privacy Protection Act and various patent legislation.

    SEE ALSO: ‘We The Lobby’ Crowdsources Funds for an Anti-SOPA Lobby

    [More from Mashable: Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman Team up to Fight Famine]

    This is the largest amount Facebook has ever contributed in a quarter -- nearly double the $230,000 set aside for Congress in the first quarter (along with the $320,000 in the second quarter and $360,000 in third quarter), according to AllFacebook.com, whose report added up the public lobbying amounts filed by the social media giant.

    This immense lobbying effort follows Facebook's expansion of the Public Policy Facebook team based in Washington, D.C. last year. The company hired former George W. Bush Deputy Chief of Staff Joel Kaplan as its vice president of U.S. public policy in June, and former White House employee Myriah Jordan as Facebook's congressional relations policy manager soon after.

    Facebook's competitor Google remains on the top of the list of tech companies that have contributed the most to lobbyists. Google spent $9.98 million in federal lobbying in 2011, according to reports. Microsoft spent $7.34 million. Hewlett-Packard, Oracle Corp and IBM close out the top five tech companies with the highest lobbying expenditures, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

    Tell us what you think of this trend -- the world's biggest tech companies contributing huge amounts of money to interests that would affect Internet and social media use.

    Image Courtesy of Flickr, Ken Lund

    This story originally published on Mashable here.

     

    1 comment

    • Matroshka
      Matroshka  •  Peoria, Illinois  •  4 mths ago
      Here's the part where the Government and the entertainment industry encourage the news media to tell you how much Internet companies have spent on lobbying to take the spotlight of the millions they've thrown to get their stifling, creativity crushing, nazi bills pushed into effect in order to paint them in a negative light. They fail to tell you that most lobbying money spent by online companies isn't for negative use like the MPAA and IRAA are trying to attain with censoring the internet, but for the development of newer technology and more creative ways to use the internet outside illegal fronts. This article is just a blatant "Hey! Look at what these guys are doing! Don't pay attention to the Government and Corporate America trying to strip you of the rights! The freedom fighters are actually the bad guys!"
     Post a comment
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