“Google, Facebook, Amazon and eBay are joining forces to create a powerful pro-internet lobbying group in the US,” BBC News reports. “The Internet Association, as the group will be known, will launch in September and operate out of Washington, handling political and regulatory issues.”
“Both Google and Facebook currently spend large amounts of money on political lobbying,” The Beeb reports. “Lobbying is a big industry in the US, with an estimated $3.3bn spent trying to influence lawmakers last year. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Google has spent $5.4m (£3.4m) on lobbying so far in 2012. In the same time frame Facebook spent $650,000.”
The Beeb reports, “The group would ‘educate’ lawmakers about the internet, said new president Michael Beckerman… The full list of companies joining the group and the issues they would focus on would be announced in September, he added. The issues net firms lobby on range from immigration reform – to make it easier to hire foreign engineers – [to] taxes, privacy and cybersecurity.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “buddabob” for the heads up.]
with an estimated $3.3bn spent trying to influence lawmakers…
with an estimated $3.3bn spent trying to pay off lawmakers…
There I fixed that for you.
NICE! Very pathetic…. BUT so very true.
Also… Ponder this…. Because, as Americans we ALL KNOW we can TRUST these Ethical Behemoths with all the information they collect without our concent, Right? Here you have Gaagle, FacePlant, eTard & Amazone preaching ethics to the U.S. Government. Does anybody here find this endevor just a plain and simple Skull Fuck on our liberties as Americans? I TRUST Apple over ANY OF THOSE CORRUPT entities. The American SYSTEM is utterly broken I’m not so proud to be an American any longer. Sad but true.
And they want to hire more cheap foreign labor. If they want cheap labor, they should do it overseas. Then it will be apparent how un-American these companies are.
Why do they need to “educate” the government about the Internet? The government invented it after all…
“Educate” the government? Now that would be something.
Educate means “to bribe and corrupt so as to direct a backstabbing of a politician’s constituent body”.