US: Bannon says Google-Facebook merit utility treatment

Google spent the most it ever has in a single quarter trying to influence elected officials in Washington, according to The Guardian. Google spent $5.93 million between April 1 and June 30, more than any other corporation in the second quarter. That’s about 40 percent more than it had spent during the same period last year.

After Steve Bannon’s recent comments that Google and Facebook should be regulated as utilities, it is likely Google will only increase its lobbying expenditure in the next few months.
Bannon says that tech firms like Google and Facebook should be regulated as utilities, according to sources who have spoken with him on the issue.

His efforts on this issue came before Congressional Democrats released their “Better Deal” policy planning objectives last week, which included a vague call to crack down on corporate monopolies. The policy platform did not single out Google, Facebook or Amazon, but many see confronting the giants’ monopolistic practices as inevitable.

Google, for its part, is not going to wait idly for regulations to come to materialize. The company has spent almost US$6 million lobbying the US capital over the past three months alone, reports the Guardian. The number puts Google on track to overtake Comcast to become the top corporate lobbying spender in the US.

Full Content: The Guardian

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