Apr 21, 2018 - Technology

Facebook sets new lobbying record

David McCabe

Mark Zuckerberg stands with his hand on a chair — Mark Zuckerberg with his global policy chief, Joel Kaplan, behind him. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Facebook spent $3.3 million on lobbying in the first three months of 2018, according to its disclosure form, setting a new quarterly record for the social network by a hair.

The big picture: Big Tech lobbying has soared in the Trump era as criticism mounts about its practices.

Yes, but: Facebook's spending was only 3% higher than its previous quarterly record — set in the same period in 2017 — despite the fact that political winds have turned against the company in the last year. The first quarter of 2018 also only covered part of the backlash over Cambridge Analytica's harvesting of Facebook user data.

What everyone else spent in the first quarter:

🔍 Google spent $5.02 million. That's up 43% from the same period in 2017 but only 14% from the previous quarter.
📦 Amazon spent $3.38 million. That represents a 17% increase year-over-year and a 2% change from the fourth quarter of 2017.
📱 Apple spent $2.14 million. Its spending jumped 53% from the first quarter of last year and a 29% rise from the final quarter in 2017.
💻 Microsoft spent $2.3 million. It spent exactly what it did in the first quarter of 2017 and 6% more than in the previous quarter.

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Facebook sets new lobbying record

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