Big Tech Lobbies for a Seat at the Table as the 119th Congress Sets Its Tech Policy Priorities

A new Issue One analysis of recently filed federal lobbying reports reveals that major social media and tech giants expanded their lobbying operations on Capitol Hill during the first quarter of 2025 and are exerting massive efforts to shape lawmakers’ legislative agendas as the new 119th Congress begins.

Big Tech, including Meta (the parent company of Facebook and Instagram), Alphabet (the parent company of Google and YouTube), Microsoft, ByteDance (the parent company of TikTok), X (formerly known as Twitter), and Snap (the parent company of Snapchat) collectively pumped more than $17.5 million into lobbying during the first three months of 2025 alone, more than the amount the same companies spent together on lobbying during the same time period in 2024. 

“With the arrival of the new Congress, Big Tech companies are continuing to spend tens of millions of dollars to lobby lawmakers and dominate technology policy conversations on data privacy, kids’ online safety, and other issues,” said Issue One Vice President of Advocacy Alix Fraser.

He continued: “Big tech companies have used their immense power to put profit above all else, showing their willingness to hurt vulnerable children and teenagers, fuel an unprecedented youth mental health crisis, and in the words of Meta whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams, work ‘hand in glove’ with the Chinese Communist Party to censor its critics and share Americans’ sensitive data with the Chinese government. Massive lobbying allows Big Tech to have a seat at the table from the start and essentially draft the legislation that is supposed to create safeguards against their products’ worst harms. Congress must pass commonsense guardrails to rein in the influence that tech titans’ money has in Washington.”

New records show that Meta alone spent a record $8 million on lobbying in the first quarter of 2025. This is the most the company has spent on lobbying in any single quarter since it first began lobbying in 2009, and is about 5% more than what it spent on lobbying efforts during the first quarter of 2024. So far this year, Meta has employed 85 lobbyists — one for every six members of Congress.

Meanwhile, ByteDance spent $2.83 million on lobbying during the first quarter of 2025. This is a 6% increase from what it spent on lobbying during the first quarter of 2024. So far this year, ByteDance and its subsidiary TikTok, have hired 43 lobbyists — one for every 12 members of Congress.

Two other major tech companies also intensified their influence operations on Capitol Hill during the first quarter of 2025.

• Alphabet spent $3.8 million on lobbying during the first quarter — an increase of 4% from what it spent during the same period in 2024.

• OpenAI, the company behind the popular AI tool ChatGPT, spent $560,000 on lobbying during the first quarter — an increase of 65% from what it spent during the same period in 2024.

This lobbying blitz comes as lawmakers in the new 119th Congress are debating how to tackle major issues that affect tech and social media companies’ users and business models, including data privacy and kids’ online safety.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee, for example, has begun seeking input from civil society on new approaches to data privacy by way of its comprehensive data privacy working group, to which Issue One, among other groups, has provided feedback about the necessity of technology reform for the benefit of the public and our democracy.

This lobbying spree also comes as big tech and social media giants have used multiple levers to curry favor, access, and influence with not just the new Congress but also the new administration. Tech companies and CEOs were among the top donors to President Donald Trump’s inauguration, and several tech companies — including Amazon, Meta, and YouTube — even sponsored this year’s White House Easter Egg roll.

Notably, not every tech company’s first-quarter lobbying expenditures broke records. Among tech giants, three large companies — Microsoft, X, and Snap — each invested modestly less on lobbying in the first quarter of 2025 than during the same period in 2024.

However, while X, the company previously known as Twitter, only spent $170,000 on federal lobbying during the first quarter of 2025 — about the same amount as it spent during the same period in 2024 — its executive chairman, Elon Musk, was tapped by Trump to lead the work of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has been slashing government services and programs, leading to a barrage of legal challenges and charges of executive branch overreach.