Google reveals spending over $21M to lobby the U.S. government in 2018

In a quarterly disclosure to the Congress, Google confirmed it shelled out $4.9 million in the fourth quarter on lobbying activities.

Google has disclosed in a recent filing that it had spent a record $21.2 million in 2018 on lobbying the United States government. With this spending the company toppled its previous high of $18.22 million it had spent in 2012, as the search engine giant is now fighting a broad range of scrutiny being directed towards its practices.

In a quarterly disclosure to Congress, Google confirmed it shelled out $4.9 million in the fourth quarter on lobbying activities, which is a little higher than $4.4 million during the same period a year ago. It also exceeded the $18.04 million spent in 2017 on lobbying, as tracked in the filings by the Center for Responsive Politics.

Google refused to provide any comments beyond the filing. Apparently, Facebook has also revealed that it spent its highest ever on lobbying the U.S. government in 2018, amounting to $12.62 million. Referring to the data from the Center for Responsive Politics, this number indicates a raise from the $11.51 million Facebook spent a year ago.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who had testified before a U.S. House of Representatives panel for the first time in December, has stated that the company supports the notion of national privacy legislation. He has been contesting accusations against the company which claim it stifles competition and has a political bias in its search results.

The company had disclosed that in the fourth quarter, criminal justice reform, international tax reform and its search technology were among the new lobbying areas it focused on. Supposedly, Google has perennially been one of the top spenders on lobbying in Washington.

According to reports, Microsoft also confirmed it had spent $9.52 million to lobby the government in 2018, rising from the 2017 figure of $8.5 million. Regulators and lawmakers have seemingly weighed new antitrust and privacy rules for restraining the power of major internet service providers like Amazon, Google and Facebook. Analysts are saying that Alphabet investors are significantly concerned about regulatory backlash in the U.S., Europe and Asia.