Big Tech cultivates war chest to shape technology policy narratives and spend big ahead of 2026 midterms

Today, Issue One released a package of three new products documenting the scale, scope, and impact of Big Tech’s massive influence operation. Together, this new body of work reveals the full machinery of Big Tech’s power — how money and influence move in tandem to shape policy, public opinion, and, ultimately, our democracy.

“Big Tech isn’t just selling products: it’s selling a version of reality that protects its own power,” said former House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt (D-MO), co-chair of Issue One’s Council for Responsible Social Media (CRSM). “These new products show how tech companies are deliberately manipulating narratives to avoid accountability for the harms that their products cause to our children, our civil discourse, and our democracy. Over the past decade, these tech companies have built a self-reinforcing ecosystem of influence: shaping research, buying credibility, and flooding Washington with lobbying dollars to keep real oversight at bay. As the 2026 midterms approach, they’re using their vast resources to shape laws and cozy up to the lawmakers that should be holding them accountable. Congress must recognize that Big Tech’s power has implications far beyond just tech policy — it has the ability to undermine our entire democracy.”

Added former Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey (R-MA), co-chair of Issue One’s CRSM: “What we’re witnessing is an industry that has learned to control every lever of influence — from the news we read to the legislation meant to protect us. Big Tech has poured staggering sums into killing accountability bills and promoting the illusion of self-policing. The result is an information ecosystem that’s toxic for children and corrosive to democracy. Americans deserve platforms that serve the public good, not corporations that profit from division and delay.”

Issue One’s three products chronicle how Big Tech benefits from division, deception, and delay. First, Issue One’s latest Tech Lobbying Report illuminates the hard-money side of Big Tech’s power: the millions spent each quarter to sway Congress and secure favorable outcomes in Washington. As the industry builds a massive political war chest ahead of the 2026 midterms, the third quarter analysis shows how Big Tech’s financial leverage keeps lawmakers close and accountability at arm’s length.

Second, a new Tech Policy Press three-part op-ed series (the first piece released today) traces the soft influence that money enables, revealing how Big Tech borrows tactics from Big Tobacco, Big Oil, and Big Pharma to manipulate public understanding and policy alike. By sanitizing internal research, funding friendly media, and embedding corporate allies inside policymaking institutions, the tech industry shapes regulation from within, without ever appearing to lobby. “The playbook may be old,” our new op-ed concludes, “but the solution is well within reach. Lawmakers have faced this challenge before — and they should already know how to respond.”

Finally, Issue One’s updated Broken Promises Tracker documents the real-world consequences of these intertwined forces. With nearly 30 new examples, the tracker shows how Big Tech’s cycle of cash and control has delayed reform, deepened public harm, and eroded trust — proving that self-policing has failed, and public accountability is long overdue.

“Big Tech has spent years shaping public narratives and manipulating the policy conversation to preserve its own power,” said Issue One Vice President of Advocacy Alix Fraser. “Through lobbying, public relations campaigns, and strategic philanthropy, the tech industry has built an echo chamber that protects its profits and masks accountability. One of its most effective tactics has been distorting the truth about Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act — convincing lawmakers that any reform would destroy innovation, when in fact the law has been stretched so far that tech companies now enjoy near-total immunity for the harms caused by their own design choices.”

Fraser continued: “Our new analysis reveals how the tech industry’s influence machine works — from funding research and newsrooms to flooding Congress with money — all to keep real reform off the table. Congress must act to restore balance by updating Section 230, maintaining protections for good-faith moderation while ensuring that powerful platforms can no longer use it as a shield from responsibility. Americans deserve stronger safeguards online, and Congress must act now to provide them.”

With Big Tech companies spending $16 million last quarter on federal lobbying and also creating super PACs ahead of the 2026 midterms, it’s more important than ever to hold these companies accountable and liable.

• Read Issue One’s latest Tech Lobbying Report.
• Read about the tech industry’s influence tactics in Tech Policy Press.
• See Issue One’s updated Broken Promises tracker.