Facebook set a lobbying record in the first three months, just as an uproar flared up the leak of data on millions of users’ without their permission.
The company spent $3.3 million, according to disclosures filed with the government Friday, up from the $3.21 million it spent in the same period a year earlier, which represented the company’s prior high.
The world’s largest social-media company lobbied on issues including federal privacy legislation, online advertising, internet privacy and security, the filing said. It also referred to "general discussions on data breach," without providing further details. A company representative didn’t immediately respond to a request for clarification about what the data breach lobbying referred to.
Toward the end of the first quarter, Facebook was hit by revelations that data on millions of users had been improperly obtained by Cambridge Analytica, a firm that worked on President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign. Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg was grilled on the issue by Congress in April and some members of both parties are considering privacy legislation.
Tech companies including Google, Facebook and Amazon.com are being scrutinised in Washington over their responsibility for online content, potential market dominance, and competition for government contracts. Some on Capitol Hill are calling for more regulation of the sector.
Among the tech giants, Google spent $5m on lobbying in the first quarter, up 43 per cent from a year earlier and 14 per cent from the last quarter of 2017, according to its filing. Firms representing its subsidiaries had yet to report as of Friday evening. The company, which is routinely the top spender in the tech sector, set a company record of $5.9m in the second quarter of 2017.
Microsoft disclosed spending $2.3m on lobbying in the first quarter, including on the data-request bill, the same as a year earlier and up 6 per cent from the fourth quarter. Amazon spent $3.38m in first three months, up 17 per cent from a year earlier and 2 per cent higher than the fourth quarter, the disclosures show. Apple Inc. spent $2.14m, up 53 per cent from a year earlier and 33 per cent from the fourth quarter.
Facebook lobbied the White House, the Senate, the House of Representatives and government agencies including the Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission, the company also said in its disclosure.
The social media site had already endured more than a year of criticism for its role in the spread of fake news, online extremism and Russia’s campaign to swing the 2016 presidential election to Trump.
Facebook also disclosed lobbying on a bill that would increase transparency requirements for online political advertising -- a measure that the company announced it would support as it responded to Cambridge Analytica fallout in April.
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Google worked on issues including tax reform, anti-trust and legislation that curbs the online sex trade. The bill, which became law in April, creates liability for sites that knowingly facilitate sex trafficking. It represents one of the first US efforts to weaken legal protections for online platforms and many companies in the tech sector spent the first three months of the year focused on the legislation.
In addition to the companies’ spending, the Consumer Technology Association trade group spent $1.07m during the quarter, according to filings, up from $1.05m in the first quarter of 2017.
The association is one of several lobbying groups in Washington that have criticised Mr Trump’s proposed trade tariffs, arguing they will hurt US consumers and the economy. The CTA lobbied on the North American Free Trade Agreement and proposed tariffs, according to its filing.
More than 100 representatives from technology, retail, agriculture, manufacturing and other sectors have joined a rare coalition of business groups that say the tariffs on $150 billion in Chinese goods are counterproductive to the goal of holding Beijing accountable for alleged intellectual property theft and other trade practices.
Several tech companies - including Facebook, Google and Microsoft - also disclosed lobbying on a measure introduced in Congress February 6 to clarify the handling of cross-border data requests from law enforcement. They had previously disclosed their support for the measure.
In addition to battles over legislation and regulation, several tech companies are competing over a multibillion-dollar contract to provide the Defense Department’s cloud computing. Oracle, a late entrant into the cloud market that provides several federal agencies with its flagship databases, led an informal coalition that also included Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Hewlett Packard.
The group’s goal was to make sure that the award process is opened up to more than one company and to unseat Amazon as the perceived front-runner for the award, which could last up to a decade.
The anti-Amazon group has already claimed some significant victories, including Congress’s directive to the Pentagon in the $1.3 trillion spending bill passed in March to explain why it’s planning a single source award for the cloud contract.
In Pentagon responses to industry concerns, the department made clear it doesn’t plan to budge from its decision to award a single contract while emphasising eventual winner could be made up of a team of companies.
The bill landed as the Supreme Court considered a case focused on US law enforcement requests for data held overseas by Microsoft. The high court heard the case February 26, and several justices expressed support for the government in its battle with the company. The measure, known as the Cloud Act, was then tucked into a massive spending bill that Congress passed in late March, and the Supreme Court dropped the case April 17.
Several of the companies also disclosed lobbying on immigration. Many of them employ high-skilled immigrants and have thrown themselves into debates and lawsuits over the fate of undocumented immigrants who were brought to the US as children.
Company%20profile
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The Way It Was: My Life with Frank Sinatra by Eliot Weisman and Jennifer Valoppi
Hachette Books
Director: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
Rating: 1/5
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
THE TWIN BIO
Their favourite city: Dubai
Their favourite food: Khaleeji
Their favourite past-time : walking on the beach
Their favorite quote: ‘we rise by lifting others’ by Robert Ingersoll
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
Dubai Bling season three
Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed
Rating: 1/5
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Tell Me Who I Am
Director: Ed Perkins
Stars: Alex and Marcus Lewis
Four stars
Europe’s rearming plan
- Suspend strict budget rules to allow member countries to step up defence spending
- Create new "instrument" providing €150 billion of loans to member countries for defence investment
- Use the existing EU budget to direct more funds towards defence-related investment
- Engage the bloc's European Investment Bank to drop limits on lending to defence firms
- Create a savings and investments union to help companies access capital
