Mo problems, mo money for tech

As controversies have piled up for top tech companies, so have their lobbying bills. Tech firms continued to pour record sums of money into federal lobbying during the second quarter, new disclosures show, reflecting their defensive maneuvering on matters like consumer privacy, market competition and the treatment of political speech on social media. Facebook spent its largest single-quarter sum ever, $3.67 million, during a period that included CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s grilling in Congress over the company’s privacy lapses and the Cambridge Analytica data scandal. Like Facebook, Google battled questions this spring over its user privacy protections and perceived bias against conservatives on its YouTube platform. Its lobbying bill: a record $5.83 million. Amazon’s quarterly spending also ticked up to a record $3.47 million as the company faced scrutiny over its market power and, more recently, its sale of facial recognition software to law enforcement. President Donald Trump also has the company’s shipping contract with the U.S. Postal Service under the microscope as part of his postal reform task force. 

More big spenders: Microsoft, whose presence in Washington goes back further than most other tech firms, paid out $2.64 million, its largest quarterly sum since late 2013. In recent months the company has come under fire for its contracting arrangements with U.S. immigration authorities amid uproar over the Trump administration’s highly criticized practice of family separation along the U.S.-Mexico border. Twitter, which continues to grapple with criticism over the spread of misinformation as well as its content moderation approach, doubled its typical quarterly sum at $320,000. The Internet Association, a trade group representing more than 40 of the industry’s players, shelled out $660,000, also more than double the amount it usually spends.

Merger land: T-Mobile and Sprint formally unveiled plans to combine in late April and immediately began selling their merger to both Capitol Hill and federal agencies. T-Mobile also tapped several lobbying shops in the first half of the year to help bolster its case. But all that hustle didn’t translate into more lobbying dollars in the second quarter, records show. T-Mobile spent $2.09 million and Sprint paid $800,000, figures consistent with their recent filings.

Other spenders: AT&T, which in June gained approval from a federal judge for its merger with Time Warner but is now battling an appeal from the Justice Department, spent $4.58 million. Comcast, which sought federal approval for its bid for the bulk of 21st Century Fox before ultimately waving the white flag, tallied $3.54 million. Other tech and telecom lobbying tallies included: Apple, $1.62 million; Charter Communications, $2.39 million; CTIA, $2.39 million; Entertainment Software Association, $1.64 million; IBM, $1.59 million; National Association of Broadcasters, $3.57 million; NCTA, $3.29 million; Oracle, $1.81 million; Qualcomm, $2 million; and Verizon, $2.95 million.