FILE - In this Sept. 28, 2020 file photo, a view of the TikTok app logo, in Tokyo. Popular short-video Chinese app TikTok is cutting its workforce in India after with hundreds of millions of its users dropped it to comply with a government ban on dozens of Chinese apps amid a military standoff between the two countries.—AP
The big money guns of big tech
Technology companies are bracing for a new administration and new scrutiny of their businesses with a time-tested strategy: opening their pocketbooks. Facebook and Amazon topped all other US companies in federal lobbying expenditures last year. IT was the second straight year they outspent all other companies, including stalwarts such as AT&T and Boeing. Facebook, facing federal and state antitrust lawsuits as well as a series of hearings summoned CEO Mark Zuckerberg to Washington, spent nearly $20m in 2020, up nearly 18pc from the previous year. Amazon, which saw CEO Jeff Bezos testify before Congress for the first time and continued pressing to expand its business as government contractor, up from 11pc from 2019 spending. Such expenditures, which are required to be disclosed under federal law, represent only part of an array of efforts that tech giants, including Apple and Alphabet, are using to build goodwill in Washington.