US technology companies Google, Amazon and Facebook have spent record amounts on lobbyists in defense of their interests over the past year, official documents showed.
Google's affiliate, Alphabit, spent more than $ 21 million to influence US decision-making in the year that CEO Sandar Bishay attended congressional hearings.
In the last three months of last year, the company that runs the world's largest Internet search engine spent $ 4.9 million on lobbyists, and the company's spending last year was $ 18 million.
Amazon also spent $ 3.7 million on lobbyists in the fourth quarter of last year, bringing total spending for the year to $ 14.2 million, compared to $ 12.8 million in 2017.
Facebook spent $ 13 million on lobbyists over the past year following a scandal over the privacy of millions of users and the sale of data to third parties.
The company's spending in the fourth quarter of last year was $ 2.83 million, while the company spent more than $ 11.5 million in 2017.
Microsoft spent $ 9.5 million on software over the past year, while Apple Electronics spent $ 6.6 million, and was the only company to cut spending on lobbyists compared to 2017, when it spent $ 7 million.
The total spending of the five largest technology companies in the last year was $ 64.3 million.
The report did not forget Twitter, which exceeded spending on lobbyists last year for $ 1 million for the first time, doubling almost the $ 2017 spent in 2017.
Increased spending comes at a time when legislators are focusing their attention on regulating the technology industry, focusing on issues such as privacy legislation, Internet neutrality, election integrity, G5 communications and cybersecurity.