Web giants to form powerful lobby in US

Web giants Google, Amazon, eBay and Facebook will form a lobbying organisation with other online companies to make their voices heard in political and regulatory issues in Washington DC, according to the Reuters news agency.



The companies already collectively spend millions to lobby regulators and legislators on a variety of issues, but as a unified group they’re hoping to become major players in shaping legislation.


Internet companies have been lobbying recently on issues as disparate as easing visa restrictions to hire overseas engineers, revenue repatriation, privacy, cybersecurity and sales taxes for Internet companies.


If these companies become entrenched parts of the political system, however, and yield to government demands for release of private data, Internet users around the world could be in for a lot of trouble.