Facebook
founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is testifying before the House Committee
on Energy and Commerce today, fresh off the heels of a grueling
five-hour joint session before the Senate Judiciary and Commerce
committees yesterday. In total, Zuckerberg will face questions from
nearly 100 legislators, and many of those legislators have received
thousands of dollars from the company Zuckerberg runs.
Over the last 12 years, Facebook has spent $7 million in
campaign contributions. Historically, Facebook has donated slightly more
to Democrats than Republicans, but overall, the platform’s political
footprint is small in Washington, DC relative to its market cap, which
is currently calculated at about $400 billion. That’s not unusual for
technology companies: Amazon
spent $4 million in campaign contributions over 20 years, and it has a
market cap of nearly $700 billion. (Note, however, that Alphabet, Inc.,
with a market cap just over Amazon’s, appears to be outspending Facebook in DC by an order of magnitude.)
According to data from the Center for Responsive Politics,
since 2014, Facebook has contributed a total of $641,685 to the members
of Congress that Zuckerberg is facing this week. The top recipients of
that money include Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA),
and Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA).
The amount of money received didn’t necessarily correlate
to the hostility of questions asked by the legislators in Zuckerberg’s
first hearing. That said, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) did make a somewhat
bizarre pro-Facebook comment, saying, “Some have professed themselves
shocked, shocked that companies like Google and Facebook share
user data with advertisers. Did any of these individuals stop to ask
themselves why Google and Facebook don’t charge for access? Nothing in
life is free.” Hatch has taken $15,200 from Facebook since 2014 — the
sixth largest amount on the combined committees.
But other senators who have received even larger campaign
contributions from Facebook didn’t hold back. Cory Booker, who has
received $44,025 from Facebook since 2014 (the largest amount),
questioned Zuckerberg on the 2016 ProPublica investigation
that showed Facebook allowed advertisers to target by race. Kamala
Harris, who took the second largest amount ($30,990) grilled the CEO on
why Facebook did not notify users in 2015 that Cambridge Analytica had
misused their data, causing Zuckerberg to squirm uncomfortably.
If any senators pulled their punches, it was along party
lines, when small-government Republicans like Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS)
or Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) questioned the necessity of additional
regulation. At one point Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) held up a tablet and
pointed at the Facebook “privacy” tab, blaming individuals for not
properly reviewing their own settings. Wicker has received $10,000 from
Facebook since 2014, Tillis has received $7,500, and Sullivan has
received a whopping $2,500.
The campaign contributions from Facebook to all the
legislators who posed Mark Zuckerberg questions this week are listed
below. The list includes the members of the Senate Judiciary and
Commerce committees and House Committee on Energy and Commerce are
listed in full below, and dates back to 2014.
Committee Leaders
Legislator | Committee | Role | Party | 2014 Cycle | 2016 Cycle | 2018 Cycle | Total 2014-2018 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Grassley, Chuck (R-IA) | Senate Judiciary | Chairman | R | $1,000 | $4,000 | $0 | $5,000 |
Feinstein, Dianne (D-CA) | Senate Judiciary | Ranking Minority Member | D | $10,000 | $1,000 | $0 | $11,000 |
Thune, John (R-SD) | Senate Commerce | Chairman | R | $3,500 | $5,000 | $2,000 | $10,500 |
Nelson, Bill (D-FL) | Senate Commerce | Ranking Minority Member | D | $2,500 | $5,000 | $2,500 | $10,000 |
Walden, Greg (R-OR) | House Energy & Commerce | Chairman | R | $7,500 | $7,000 | $5,500 | $20,000 |
Pallone, Frank (D-NJ) | House Energy & Commerce | Ranking Minority Member | D | $3,500 | $0 | $2,500 | $6,000 |
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