Google May Soon Have To Face The Music

The Western Journal had more on the story: 

Google spent 44 percent less on lobbying in 2019 than it did in 2018. Given the massive shift in public opinion against the company and the court battles it now faces, is it any wonder why?

There was a time when both parties in Washington would seemingly cover for the search engine giant. There was a time when the company would appear to receive many of its legislative and regulatory asks on a silver platter.

But that time has long passed, and Google now ostensibly knows it.

New polling shows that a growing number of Americans believe Big Tech has a negative impact on society. Members of Congress seem to have picked up on their constituents’ increasing disdain for these entities. They know that it’s no longer politically expedient to do these companies’ bidding.

That’s probably why just about everyone in the legislative branch — from Democratic leaders to the Republican Study Committee — is now pushing policies to prioritize holding these behemoths accountable in this new session of Congress.

CNBC reported: 

Google faces antitrust probes from the Justice Department and a coalition of 50 attorneys general across the country. Its YouTube subsidiary had to answer to the Federal Trade Commission last year with a $170 million settlement over claims that it violated child privacy laws. In the fourth quarter, it lobbied on mobile location privacy, online child safety, encryption standards and more. (Google is the main business unit of holding company Alphabet, and accounts for substantially all its revenue and profits.)

Google’s reduced spending reflects that it fired about half a dozen firms representing about half of its lobbying bill, according to a June report in The Wall Street Journal. The move was part of a broader change in Google’s global government affairs and policy operations.

As Google is scaling back, its peers are ramping up.