Facebook sets lobbying record

Company lobbied on issues including federal privacy legislation and online advertising

Facebook Inc set a lobbying record in the first three months, just as an uproar flared up the leak of data on millions of users’ without their permission.

The company spent $3.3 million (Dh12.12 million), according to disclosures filed with the government on Friday, up from the $3.21 million it spent in the same period a year earlier, which represented the company’s prior high.

The world’s largest socialmedia company lobbied on issues including federal privacy legislation, online advertising, internet privacy and security, the filing said. It also referred to “general discussions on data breach,” without providing further details. A company representative didn’t immediately respond to a request for clarification about what the data breach lobbying referred to.

Toward the end of the first quarter, Facebook was hit by revelations that data on millions of users had been improperly obtained by Cambridge Analytica, a firm that worked on President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg was grilled on the issue by Congress in April and some members of both parties are considering privacy legislation.

Tech companies including Alphabet Inc’s Google, Facebook and Amazon.com Inc are being scrutinised in Washington over their responsibility for online content, potential market dominance, and competition for government contracts. Some on Capitol Hill are calling for more regulation of the sector.

Among the tech giants, Google spent $5.02 million on lobbying in the first quarter, up 43 per cent from a year earlier and 14 per cent from the last quarter of 2017, according to its filing. Firms representing its subsidiaries had yet to report as of Friday evening. The company, which is routinely the top spender in the tech sector, set a company record of $5.93 million in the second quarter of 2017.