An illustrated image taken in London on December 18, 2020 shows the logos of Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft displayed on a mobile phone. – Accelerating the transition to an increasingly digital life, the coronavirus pandemic has tightened the grip of technology giants on billions of customer lives. (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP) (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP via Getty Images)
TO Newsroom
UPDATED 17:45 PT – Friday, January 22, 2021
The tech giants reveal that they spent a total of $ 61 million on lobbying last year.
On Thursday, Big Tech companies released their lobbying spending numbers for the fourth quarter of 2020, revealing Facebook and Amazon spent record amounts.
(COMBO) This combination of images created on July 7, 2020 shows (LR) Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in Paris on May 23, 2018, Google CEO Sundar Pichai Berlin on January 22, 2019, Apple CEO , Tim Cook, on October 28, 2019 in New York and Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos in Las Vegas, Nevada on June 6, 2019. (Photo by BERTRAND GUAY, TOBIAS SCHWARZ, ANGELA WEISS, MARK RALSTON / AFP via Getty Images)
Facebook spent the most on the lobby at almost $ 19.7 million for the full year of 2020, an increase of 17.8% over the previous year. Amazon came in second with $ 17.9 million, followed by Google, Microsoft and Apple.
+++ New figures for US lobbying spending have just been released. +++ GAFAM spent $ 61 million together in 2020. Slightly less than last year. But still at a high level. Two numbers stand out: Facebook has increased its spending again, while Google has seen a significant decrease. pic.twitter.com/RjWjcH863k
– LobbyControl Tech (@lobbyctrl_tech) January 22, 2021
Google spent $ 7.5 million, a sharp drop from $ 11.8 million in 2019.
Moreover, the lobby of technology giant Microsoft totaled $ 9.4 million in 2020 compared to $ 10.2 million in 2019. Apple’s spending also fell slightly to a total of $ 6.7 million. dollars in 2020, but $ 7.4 million in 2019.