Meta (Facebook)

Meta Platforms spent a record $26.4 million on lobbying in 2024 — more than any other company in America across all industries — a figure that reflects both the scale of regulatory threats facing the company and its willingness to spend whatever it takes to manage them. Mark Zuckerberg's political transformation from Silicon Valley liberal to Trump inaugural donor is one of the most dramatic corporate political pivots in recent memory, mirroring the broader tech industry's rightward shift as it seeks to avoid regulation from a Republican government. Meta wields political power through sheer scale of lobbying, strategic hiring of former government officials, and Zuckerberg's personal wealth and influence. The company employs over 80 lobbyists in Washington, many of them former government officials from both parties. Joel Kaplan, who served as Deputy Chief of Staff in the George W. Bush White House, has run Meta's policy operation for over a decade and was elevated to a more prominent role as the company shifted rightward. Kevin Martin, former FCC Chairman under Bush, joined Meta as VP of Mobile and Global Access. These hires give Meta direct access to the networks and institutional knowledge of the regulatory bodies that oversee it. The company's most urgent lobbying priorities reveal where its business model is most vulnerable. Fighting the FTC's antitrust lawsuit — which seeks to force Meta to divest Instagram and WhatsApp — is existential. Shaping AI regulation to favor large incumbents could protect Meta's massive AI investments while raising barriers for competitors. Opposing a TikTok ban benefits Instagram Reels. Blocking EU-style privacy regulation protects Meta's advertising business model, which depends on extensive user data collection. On each of these fronts, Meta's lobbying spend dwarfs that of consumer advocates or privacy groups. The Cambridge Analytica scandal of 2018, in which political consultants harvested data from 87 million Facebook users without their consent to target political advertising, remains the defining controversy of Meta's political era. The resulting $5 billion FTC fine — the largest ever imposed on a technology company — seemed enormous but represented less than one month of Meta's revenue. Zuckerberg personally approved the settlement structure that shielded him from personal liability. In 2020, Zuckerberg and his wife donated $419 million to election infrastructure through the Center for Tech and Civic Life, funding drop boxes and election worker salaries in cities across America. The "Zuckerbucks" controversy became a rallying cry for Republicans who alleged the money disproportionately helped Democratic-leaning areas. In response, 28 states passed laws banning private election funding. Then in 2024, Zuckerberg donated $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund and dropped Meta's third-party fact-checking program, replacing it with community notes — a move critics saw as capitulation to political pressure. Instagram's documented negative impact on teen mental health, revealed by whistleblower Frances Haugen in 2021, continues to generate bipartisan scrutiny, with multiple states suing Meta over addictive design features targeting children.