As KOSA Prepares for the Senate Floor, Big Tech Lobbying Operations Hold Steadfast

It has been nearly one year since the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) was voted unanimously out of committee by the Senate Commerce Committee. In the year since, the bill has made progress in the House and has garnered strong bipartisan support, with close to 70 Senate cosponsors, and is expected to receive a vote on the Senate floor as early as this week.

Yet, a new analysis by Issue One of recently filed federal lobbying reports by Meta, ByteDance, and other big tech companies underscores how social media companies show no signs of slowing down their influence operations and several have invested record breaking amounts of money into their lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill during the first half of 2024.

Social media giants ByteDance and Meta together have spent an average of nearly $220,000 per day that Congress was in session thus far in 2024 on their lobbying efforts and have employed one lobbyist for every five members of Congress.

ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, spent a record $6 million on lobbying during the first half of 2024  — a 65% increase from what it spent on lobbying during the first half of 2023 and the most the company has spent in any first half of the year since it first hired federal lobbyists in 2019. This includes $3.3 million spent in the second quarter of 2024 alone, an increase of 25% from the first quarter of the year. This year, ByteDance has hired 49 lobbyists — one for every 11 members of Congress.

Similarly, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, spent a record $13.6 million on lobbying during the first half of 2024 — a 43% increase from what it spent on lobbying during the first half of 2023 and the most the company has spent in the first half of the year since it first started federal lobbying in 2009. Meta’s spending on lobbying of nearly $6 million in the second quarter of 2024 is moderately less than what it spent in the first quarter of the year, a decrease of 23%. This year, Meta has employed 65 lobbyists — one for every eight members of Congress. 

“Unaccountable social media companies are continuing to spend millions and deploy a slew of lobbyists to disrupt growing bipartisan support for responsible safeguards that prioritize the safety of our children and the health of our democracy over the bottom line of a few corporations. Despite apologizing to parents whose children have been harmed by his platform earlier this year, Mark Zuckerberg’s company still has one lobbyist for every eight members of Congress,” said Alix Fraser, director of Issue One’s Council for Responsible Social Media. “An overwhelming majority of Americans are demanding that Congress pass reasonable measures, like the Kids Online Safety Act, that will help create a healthier online environment. It’s time for our elected leaders to listen to the voices of the people and stand up to Big Tech.”

As the biggest social media companies have deepened their influence on Capitol Hill, other companies have followed suit. These companies include major trade associations that have been working at the state and federal levels to stymie legislation that would protect kids online and strengthen data privacy. This includes working against kids’ safety and data privacy bills at the state level, such as in Vermont, where the bill was ultimately vetoed despite passing the general assembly. And at the federal level, bills, including KOSA, stalled for nearly a year. Together, Big Tech has continued to invest significant resources into expanding their lobbying efforts.

• Microsoft, the parent company of LinkedIn and a major player in the emerging market of generative artificial intelligence (AI), spent $5.1 million on lobbying during the first half of 2024 — a modest increase of 0.1% from what it spent during the same period in 2023. This includes $2.6 million in the second quarter alone.
• TechNet — a trade association formed in 1997 whose members today include tech companies such as Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, OpenAI, and Snap — spent a record $1,530,000 on lobbying during the first half of 2024. This sum is more than the association has spent in any first half of the year since it first began lobbying in 1998, a 28% increase from what it spent during the same period in 2023. This includes $770,000 in the second quarter alone.
• OpenAI, the company behind the popular AI tool known as ChatGPT, spent $800,000 on lobbying during the first half of the year, including $460,000 in the second quarter alone. This is the most the company has spent on lobbying since hiring its first-ever federal lobbyists during the fourth quarter of 2023 and an increase of 35% from its spending in the first quarter of 2024.
• Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, spent a record $640,000 on lobbying during the first half of 2024. This sum is more than the company has spent in any first half of the year since it first began lobbying in 2014, a 19% increase from what it spent during the same period in 2023. This includes $220,000 in the second quarter alone.
• NetChoice — a trade association formed in 2001 whose members today include tech giants such as Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Snap, and X — spent a record $380,000 on lobbying during the first half of the year, a 124% increase from what it spent during the same period in 2023 and the most the association has spent in any first half of the year since it first began lobbying in 2010. This includes $130,000 in the second quarter alone and comes alongside the association distancing itself from TikTok as well as its involvement in high profile litigation.
• Internet Works — a trade association formed in December 2020 whose members include small to medium sized tech companies such as Discord, Pinterest, and Reddit — spent a record $240,000 on lobbying during the first half of the year, a 9% increase from what it spent during the same period in 2023 and the most the association has spent in any first half of the year since it first began lobbying in 2020. This includes $100,000 in the second quarter alone. This increase in lobbying expenditures is in line with the coalition’s growth that included hiring its first executive director in July 2024 who formerly served as the senior vice president of federal policy and government relations for TechNet.

Among major social media companies, only X, the company formerly known as Twitter, and Alphabet, the parent company of Google, invested less on lobbying expenditures during the first half of 2024 than during the same period in 2023.

During the first half of 2024, Alphabet spent $7.2 million on lobbying, just 3% less than the first half of 2023. More drastically, X spent $370,000 on lobbying, a decrease of 30% from what it spent in the first half of the previous year. Despite the company’s owner, billionaire Elon Musk, recently pledging a personal donation of $45 million a month to a super PAC backing former president Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, the tech company itself has decreased its presence on Capitol Hill. This decline in lobbying expenditures reflects the fiscal decline the company has experienced since 2022 when Musk took over the company.