Facebook sets lobbying record amid Cambridge Analytica fallout

washington — Facebook set a company record for lobbying spending in the second quarter, the period during which chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress and the social media giant faced ongoing fallout from the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

The company spent almost $3.7 million on influencing federal policy from April to June, according to filings released on Friday. That’s an increase of more than $1 million from a year earlier, and up slightly from $3.3 million in the first quarter, when the company set its previous high. Facebook lobbied on data security and privacy, as well as issues including trade, immigration of highly-skilled workers and an online election-ad disclosure bill, the filings show.

Technology companies are under pressure from policy makers and the public over growing concern about privacy. Zuckerberg testified for two days before Congress in April after the revelation that the British political consultancy Cambridge Analytica had obtained the data of as many as 87 million Facebook users without their consent.

While Zuckerberg performed better than many expected, and several lawmakers received criticism for ill-informed questions that let him answer in generalities, the hearings made clear that key representatives and senators on both sides of the aisle might be willing to regulate tech companies.

Soon after the hearings, Facebook also named a new head of US public policy, former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin, a Republican.

Its woes still weren’t over: In June, Facebook faced a renewed round of scorn on Capitol Hill after it disclosed that it had data-sharing partnerships with four Chinese consumer-device makers, including Huawei Technologies Co. The Chinese smartphone giant spent $50,000 as it pushed back against a proposed ban by the FCC and found itself caught by the Trump administration’s increasing pressure on China over trade and national security.

Another Chinese firm, ZTE, also spent a company record of almost $1.4 million, according to filings, more than five times its previous record of $260,000 as it contended with US moves that had choked off the company’s revenue and pushed it to suspend major operations.

Spending by other tech companies wasn’t as robust as Facebook’s increase compared to a year earlier. Alphabet’s Google spent more than $5.8 million, down slightly from the second quarter of 2017, and Microsoft Corp spent $2.6 million, up from $2.1 million.

In telecom lobbying, AT&T spent nearly $4.6 million, up from almost $4.2 million. In June, a judge cleared the company to take over Time Warner in an $85 billion deal that would help the mobile-phone giant evolve into a media powerhouse. The Justice Department is appealing that decision.