Amazon – Fb and Amazon set data in annual spending on Washington lobbying
Fb Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. spent document quantities on lobbying final yr, with Mark Zuckerberg’s social-media firm main the so-called FAANG firms in outlays aimed toward influencing Washington, in response to disclosures filed late Thursday.
Fb
FB,
shelled out $19.7 million final yr, effectively above its 2019 complete of $16.7 million, its disclosures present. Amazon
AMZN,
reported spending no less than $18.5 million in 2020 vs. $16.1 million a yr earlier than.
The opposite three FAANG firms — Apple Inc.
AAPL,
Alphabet Inc.’s
GOOG,
GOOGL,
Google enterprise and Netflix Inc.
NFLX,
— didn’t set data with their 2020 lobbying spending.
Apple mentioned it paid out $6.7 million final yr, under its document outlay of $7.four million in 2019. Google spent $8.7 million final yr, down sharply from its peak of $21.7 million again in 2018, earlier than the search big reorganized its lobbying efforts. Netflix disclosed spending simply $750,000 in 2020, down from its 2015 peak of $1.three million.
The spending has come as Massive Tech more and more finds itself in U.S. lawmakers’ and regulators’ cross hairs on a spread of points, with each Republicans and Democrats questioning the facility of Silicon Valley’s firms.
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However FAANG traders don’t look so frightened of Washington, because the 5 firms’ stocks all have outpaced the S&P 500’s rise of 16% over the previous 12 months. Fb’s stock has tacked on 23% over that interval, Amazon shares have soared 75%, and Apple is up 72%. Netflix has gained 78% and Alphabet 27%.
Fb’s disclosures present it lobbied on points similar to web privateness, election safety, employee visas and freedom of expression, whereas Amazon reported specializing in issues that ranged from postal reform to unmanned aerial automobiles, and from cost processing to autonomous automobiles and the annual protection invoice.
