lobbying

Over on Threads this week, Marques Brownlee (you’ve probably heard of him) asked for everyone’s “tech hot takes”. And Instagram and Threads’ boss Adam Mosseri chimed in saying that “Android’s now better than iOS”. Now if you’ve been following him on Threads since it launched, you’ll know that he did recently switch to Android on his main device. And has talked about he prefers it over iOS these days. One has to wonder if this is going to influence Instagram and Threads‘ product roadmap, with the head of the two apps…

Three EU based asset management companies holding millions in stake in Toyota Motor have submitted a shareholder request that the Japanese automaker provide a comprehensive, annual review of its climate-related lobbying efforts. Never one to miss an opportunity to show cynicism toward a steadfast BEV future, Toyota has urged his other shareholders to vote against the proposal. Even as Toyota softens at the idea of BEVs as the vehicle of the future new leadership, its sloth-like approach to the…

MIT political science professor In Song Kim’s work has illuminated the effects of lobbying on US trade policy. Kim’s research shows that most firms lobby for policies pertaining to specific components of their products, and trade policy consists heavily of carve-outs for companies, not industry-wide standards. Kim’s work includes over a dozen published journal articles over the last several years, several other forthcoming research papers, and a book he is currently writing. At the same time, Kim has created a public…

A former Biden aide is lobbying on behalf of TikTok as the hugely popular social media platform launches an all-out push to avert a U.S. ban.  TikTok contracted with Ankit Desai, a for-hire lobbyist who briefly served as an aide to then-Sen. Biden in 2005, according to a document filed with Congress Thursday. TikTok hired Desai in late January to lobby on “regulation of content platforms.”  The most recent lobbying hire comes as Washington appears closer than ever to banning the app, citing data privacy and…

Second, we should strengthen disclosure requirements on lobbyists, whether they’re entirely human or AI-assisted. State laws regarding lobbying disclosure are a hodgepodge. North Dakota, for example, only requires lobbying reports to be filed annually, so that by the time a disclosure is made, the policy is likely already decided. A lobbying disclosure scorecard created by Open Secrets, a group researching the influence of money in US politics, tracks nine states that do not even require lobbyists to report their…

Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. broke their lobbying spending records last year as they fended off heightened scrutiny of their business models and power over the US economy. Meta Platforms Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google spent slightly less than previous years, but they both still landed among the top 10 spenders in Washington. In total, the top tech companies spent nearly $70 million on lobbying in 2022, outstripping other industries including pharmaceuticals and oil and gas, according to a…

Photo: Mathieu Lewis-Rolland (Getty Images)This story was originally published by Grist. You can subscribe to its weekly newsletter here.Electric and gas utilities have used money collected from customers to lobby lawmakers, butter up regulators, and slow the shift to clean energy. Beyond being occasionally illegal, the practice has stuck consumers with higher bills and led to higher carbon dioxide emissions, industry watchdogs say.In one particularly egregious example, the FBI arrested Larry Householder, who was the…

Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation had a calamitous 2022 – managing to anger everyone from Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny to Joe Biden and Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. As calls grow for action to rein in the concert monopoly in the US and abroad, the company seems to have hit on a new strategy: spending big in Washington.Live Nation’s spending on lobbying jumped from about $250,000 in 2018 to nearly $1.3m in 2021, federal records show, and it may top that peak in 2022 and beyond. It has…

Owner of Twitter, Elon Musk says he will resign as CEO after finding a replacement! Read more tech news Good morning tech fam, here are some quick tech updates for you to catch on to! What’s New Today: Mark Zuckerberg discusses the goals of Meta in virtual reality. To create virtual reality products, Meta has been investing enormous sums of money. Fast-Track Insights: KuCoin is the focus of a DCB bank warning over unregistered service offerings. KuCoin violates the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing…

US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Republican Senator John Cornyn are lobbying hard for a ban on government business with Chinese chipmakers, Politico reported on Thursday, citing three people familiar with the matter. The senators want to get their amendment which blocks federal access to semiconductor products and services made by Chinese firms into the final version of this year's National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the report said.The measure would broaden provisions in Section 889 that already…