But how are they spending that money?
Last year alone, they spent $81.4 million, with Google the largest contributor at $26.1 million.
But how are they spending all that money?
vpnMentor recentlyanalysed all of the lobbying reportssubmitted by the big 5 tech firms to find out.
Here’s what we discovered.
The next most mentioned word across all of their lobbying reports is tax with 2,463 mentions in 1,123 reports.
The next 3 words in order are online data and security.
Google specificallyhighlights location privacy in 8 of its reports.
And health data has become an important issue for Apple and Google.
And politicians have at times called for the organisations to be broken up.
In light of this, its understandable they would be keen to weigh in on competition laws.
Apple detail laws related to competition in 17% of their submissions.
Both Facebook and Google have been criticised as their platforms can amplify fake news and hate speech.
24% of Facebooks reports and 10% of Googles list freedom of expression as an issue of interest.
Facebook and Microsoft seem most concerned with ensuring the influx of highly-skilled migrants.
Amazon joined them in 2017, then Google in 2018.
Drones are clearly of most interest to Amazon.
The first mention of unmanned aerial vehicles appeared in a solitary lobbying report from the company in 2013.
Privacy and data security are two of the hottest political issues today.
you’ve got the option to read the full reporthere.
