As we see more online legislation being presented to Congress such as CISPA, PIPA and PIPA, internet giants are going to want more of a say on these matters. And how do you influence policy? With money of course!
And Facebook now clearly wants to be heard in Washington, D.C., as they have increased their lobbying budget some 75% over the fourth quarter of 2012. Based on their lobby disclosure form, Facebook shelled out $2.45 million to lobbying costs in the first quarter of 2013.
Yikes.
That’s on par with what companies like Microsoft and Google spend. We know that Mark Zuckerberg wants to literally share everything he possibly can on his social network (even stuff that most of us don’t want shared), so it looks like he wants to make sure that he has a seat at the table for when any of these debates come up in Congress.