LPM109 - Facebook Inc's Lobbying Strategies: An Ethical Case Study

This case study delves into the ethical considerations of Facebook Inc.'s lobbying practices in the United States over the past decade. It assesses the value of lobbying efforts for tech giants in Silicon Valley, particularly concerning the public's vulnerability to corporate decisions and the social responsibility of tech executives. The study uses a responsible lobbying framework to analyze Facebook's approach, examining whether the company's self-interested lobbying raises ethical questions. It explores the strategies deployed by Facebook, including who they addressed and how they lobbied different entities, considering the influence of context on strategy selection. The study also touches upon the role of interest groups, their influence, and the ethical issues arising from Facebook's lobbying activities, ultimately aiming to provide a comprehensive understanding of Facebook's lobbying approach and its implications.

Interest groups &lobbying

Table of Contents
Topic of the case study – “To study the ethical consideration of the lobbying practices: A case study on
the Facebook Inc’s &Lobbying strategies”..................................................................................................2
3. Case intro.................................................................................................................................................2
Briefly introduce your case study............................................................................................................3
Why did you select it?.............................................................................................................................3
What did you find puzzling in this case?.................................................................................................4
How is it relevant for the project?............................................................................................................5
4. Population ecology:.................................................................................................................................5
5. Strategies deployed:.................................................................................................................................7
Who did lobbyist address?.......................................................................................................................7
How were different addresses lobbied?...................................................................................................7
What type of strategies was deployed?....................................................................................................8
How context influenced selection of the strategy?...................................................................................8
6. Measure groups’ influence:.....................................................................................................................9
Provide an evidence of groups’ influence; please, especially here, use evidence based argument...........9
Explain why you chose this not different method of influence assessment............................................10
7. Ethics of lobbying:................................................................................................................................10
Were there any ethical issues with lobbying on this case? If so what were they &how lobbyists
addressed them?....................................................................................................................................10
Reference...................................................................................................................................................12

Topic of the case study – “To study the ethical consideration of the lobbying
practices: A case study on the Facebook Inc’s &Lobbying strategies”
3. Case intro
Briefly introduce your case study
It is determined this case study examines lobbying in the United States of America, with
a focus on Facebook Inc's lobbying techniques during the last ten years. This research focuses on
the technology industry in order to better assess the worth of lobbying actions for Silicon
Valley's corporate titans. The tech behemoths are swiftly establishing themselves as major
market participants in the US economy. People are also discovering the enormous power that
leading technological businesses have on civic behaviour as more data is shared & kept on the
online. Even with dwindling popular support for increasing digital dominance, there is nothing
citizens can really do to curb the dominance of tech businesses (Anastasiadis, Moon and
Humphreys, 2018). It is determined that given the vulnerability of the public user base to
corporate decisions, tech executives have a social obligation to hold you answerable to fair
business practices &safeguarding their customers. This case study will mainly focused about
the Facebook Inc's propaganda groups to see if the technology industry is behaving in the best
interests of its stakeholders. A case study assessment &a framework assessment are included in
the report. It is an analysed that responsible lobbying framework will be used to examine
Facebook's lobbying approach, &also the case study will give a context for Facebook's
commercial &political participation. The framework's results will add to the debate over whether
self-interested lobbying calls into question the morality & also ethics of lobbying in corporations
that do have an amount of energy over potential customers.

Why did you select it?
The main concern to select this topic is to consider the importance of the lobbying and its ethics
in context of the technological industry. Through case study, it is analysed that technology
Industry's Lobbying This article is unique in that it examines lobbying in the technology
industry, notably Facebook, Inc, through lens of effective and good organisational lobbying
paradigm. Despite the fact that the data of efficient lobbying has gained popularity over the
years, there is a scarcity of literature on ethical lobbying practices. Even fewer publications have
been produced on lobbying in specialized areas, like internet technology (Bauer, 2016). Though
tech lobbying has received little scholarly attention, most of those phenomena &impacts of
general corporate lobbying apply to maintain the internet giants such as Facebook, Amazon,
&Google. The major companies in the digital industry are gradually asserting themselves in
politics. It is analysed that IT business is one of the top twenty most powerful lobbying
businesses, outpacing the business banking industry.
Basically , Tech companies or organisations lobby for a variety of issues, including but may not
constrained to financial reform, copyrighted material, cybersecurity, internet ads, alternative resources,
&education reform. While many of the problems they lobby for will be in the national good, Popiel
(2018) claims that certain initiatives are really being pressured as they've been "economized" in the frame
of reference of the industry's technical &economic population increase. This viewpoint is similar to that
expressed in previous articles on lobbying, in which activities are conducted in pursuit of private motives
&profits (Dialer and Richter, 2018).
It is also analysed that the technology rules are frequently perceived as being extremely near to
the business customer. For example, the rules that major tech corporations affect through lobbying may
have a direct impact on service delivery we ingest, the knowledge we exchange, & also network effects
that expand our connectedness to people or things. When the laws & also regulations are advocated even
without general public’s effective interests in mind, buying behaviour is harmed, which has a detrimental
impact on terminal.

What did you find puzzling in this case?
In order to address the maintain the effectiveness of the ethics and values related with the lobbying, the
main concern is on the corporations prioritize reasons other than profit in choice, &the political scene in
the United States remains fragmented & also non-compromise, organizational ethical political
participation can be a vehicle for neutral individuals & also organizations to want a significant voice
influencing structural reform. Nevertheless, It is determined that if firms are rewarded to advocate in an
irresponsible way, it can lead to the even more divided political atmosphere. The goal of this case is to see
if Facebook Inc's lobbying actions have changed over the previous decade as the company has come
under more criticism for its social implication (Floridi, 2021).
This report also examines whether Facebook's lobbying approach adheres to the Responsible
Lobbying Framework developed by Simon Hodgson &Daniel Witte, which outlines ethical commercial
lobbying procedures. Hodgson &Witte developed a parts &assemblies framework for identifying
responsible pressing, & also five of Facebook's lobbying concerns will mainly reviewed using the model
to evaluate the company's commitment to good marketing. The goal of this article is to come to
conclusions on the Facebook's lobbying approach by gaining the effective and better knowledge of why
&how various subjects are lobbied in the manner they do.
How is it relevant for the project?
The relevancy of this topic is mainly depending upon the ethical considerations and values of the
lobbying. it is analysed that the Framework for Evaluating the Ethics of Lobbying Organizations The
interest organization or firm with a policy need, the lobbyist who connects companies to politicians, &
also lawmaker who enacts policies are the three main participants in lobbying. In a lobbying job, each
person has distinct incentives, thus they should all be held to the same ethical standards. Several ethical
frameworks for advertising, on the other hand, are designed to serve as moral standards for lobbyists
while they communicate with politicians on behalf of the client. Even within these advocacy paradigms,
there is disagreement about how lobbyist may behave as agents (Gonzalez, 2016).
"A lobbyist should passionately &conscientiously advance &advocate the client's or employer's interests,
and, to the degree practicable, should provide the consumer the chance to select between several choices
&techniques," according to the American League of Lobbyists' Code of Conduct (ALL, supra note 105).

The advocacy viewpoint has heightened public skepticism of lobbying &the sole duty for ethical
boundaries with legislators.
4. Population ecology:
Population ecology is termed to study of factors that affect population along with defines
reasons why population changes over time. Interest groups are termed as advocacy group that
influences opinions of public along with any policy. Special interest groups are people that share
speclist knowledge. In context to the case study, interest and interest groups are categorised as
cause groups, private and public institutional interests, economic interests and public interests.
Interest Groups are natural outgrowth of communities with interest which exist in all societies
from narrow group. In case with corporate lobbying practice, typology of interest group entails
non association groups. Moreover, there are large number of competing interest groups, that
shares common interest and concerns with Facebook.
Interest groups are concerned with natural outgrowth of varied communities that exist in
society. Interest group for the particular case study is cause groups which suggests organisation
of a promotional campaign in order to focus on any specified objective or goal. Through their
emerging policies, managers of Facebook have seek an influence on their interest groups which
led them to make their brand more viable. Through their lobbying activities, Facebook is able to
gain major support of interest groups. With the help of their connections with political parties,
managers of Facebook are able to influence their interest groups. In order to make secure from
privacy issues and regulations, managers of Facebook send funds as well as donations to interest
groups which led them to fulfil their corporate social responsibility. Cause groups majorly
includes persons with special disabilities and victims which are suffering from varied diseases
such as autism and many more. It is important for managers of Facebook to influence these cause
groups through lobbying activities.
Facebook has coalition for many progressive challenges like climate change and better
immigration policies but have pushed for less regulation to technology, media and
telecommunication industries. As these tech giants continues to grow, more people become
increasingly reliant on Facebook services and use them with rapid pace. Facebook has also able

to get great success operating at Washington as its strong lobbyist network and connections with
member of Congress allowing them to most lobbyist in corporate circle. Facebook passes pillars
of Responsible Lobbying Framework and met their accountability aspect proactively. This
opportunity is met as Facebook joined a coalition with technology giants to support getting the
bill passed. Also, it networked with Arab Spring Revolution to spread their movement through
social media. The size at which their movement passed through Middle East and North African
Region was propelled. This also provides broad narrative that wide network of government
offices from various parties provides Facebook more flexibility to explore right people to work
in order to attain desired results.
5. Strategies deployed:
Who did lobbyist address?
It is analysed that the lobbying is a part of everyday life in every country. It has the likely to
improve democratic involvement by providing useful information &insights to decision-makers,
as well as facilitating stakeholder access to the creation &execution of public policy. However,
lobbying is frequently viewed as a shady practice with questionable ethics that may lead to
excessive pressure, unfair practices, &crony capitalism at the expense of fair, unbiased,
&effective government.
It is also determined that the lobbying is an important element of the legislative process in the
United Kingdom, with a wide variety of commercial organizations &lobby groups "lobbying" for
specific activities & also regulations by the Parliament &other political organs at the federal,
regional, including county level (Holyoke, 2017).
How were different addresses lobbied?
It is analysed that the Legislative lobbying, regulatory advocacy lobbying, &budget advocacy are the
three main forms of lobbying. Lobbying is an important element of the legislative process in the United

Kingdom, with a wide range of commercial organizations &lobby groups "lobbying" for specific policies
&decisions by Commons &other legislative organs at the federal, regional, &county level (Laboutková
and Vymětal, 2018).
What type of strategies was deployed?
On the basis of the case study, The Lobbying Strategy of Facebook According to the Center for
Democratic Accountability, Facebook is the biggest financial lobbyist in the United States, having raised
its Washington investments by 56 percent since 2018. These figures suggest that heavy spending is an
important part of Facebook's lobbying approach. "We had a hierarchy in my office in Congress," Mick
Mulvaney, a former U.S. Congressman, previously stated. I didn't talk to you if you were a lobbyist who
never gave us money. I could talk to you &if you're a lobbyist who gave us money." It was unavoidable
that monies be put in a voice in how policy is formulated in order to engage & also make connections
with policymakers &politicians (Lewicka-Strzałecka, 2017).
According to Public Citizen, three - quarters of all senators &Congressmen with authority over
confidentiality &antitrust problems have received funding from tech PACs or lobbyists (Chung, 2021).
Facebook has lobbied for several liberal issues, such as climate change &better immigration policies,
&they've always decided to push for much less regulation in the advanced technologies, media,
&electronics sectors. However, Zuckerberg has recently become more entangled in regulatory
requirements as a political maneuver to have a formalized regulations rather than varying responsibilities
for distinct nations.
As legislators become more aware of the potential consequences of keeping the business unregulated,
they are striving to draft new regulations &legislation to safeguard their people. The public's rising
concern &anxiety that digital giants are gaining too much power has proven to be a financial dilemma for
Facebook. Rather, Facebook issued a statement promptly expressing its approval for additional privacy
legislation, stating, "Privacy is therefore basically building a successful business at Facebook."

How context influenced selection of the strategy?
Many Americans are suspicious of lobbying's role in a democratic republic, but the right to attempt to
manipulate regulation is protected under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, which
states that “ no person shall amendment the public's freedom "to collect signatures the government for
redress of grievances of grievances." This safeguard assumes that people should have a say in choices that
impact them, &that advocating for a range of causes is an important element of creating efficient
judgments (Mitrovic, 2017).
6. Measure groups’ influence:
It has been seen that the rising number within the Periodic scandals along with the other ethical
issues and lead significant influence of the Americans sceptical and other people who are engaged in
lobbying which is leading a change in the view point about the role of lobbying in a democracy (Cowley,
2022). Further, the three broad approaches and tools that are being applied to measuring interest group
influence within the current case study based on “the Ethical Evaluation of Corporate Lobbying Practices:
A Case Study on Facebook Inc’s Lobbying Strategies” use of the process-tracing, assessing along with
applying and making the use of the attributed influence and gauging the degree of preference attainment
is seen as the major group influence (Rival and Major, 2018).
Provide an evidence of groups’ influence; please, especially here, use evidence based
argument
The three main types and form of the measuring group influence tend to includes and comprises of
the process tracing, attributed influence and gauging degree of the reference attainment. Out of these the
Process tracing tend to comprises and includes of a qualitative analysis methodology the main purpose
and emphasis of which is tend to be in establish whether, and how, a potential cause or undertaking
thinking tend to causes influenced a specified change or set of changes. Along with this, the process
tracing group influence is tending to be done by the way of the applying formal tests in order to examine
the strength of key evidence which are tend to be linking to the potential causes to the changes and
influence. Further, it has been seen and analysed that the attributed influence and gauging degree of the
reference attainment are tend to be associated and related with determining about the aspiration of the

group people along with reviewing the attitude and behaviour in a clear manner. Therefore, the
implication and use of the attributed influence and gauging degree of the reference attainment is more
complex way of the measuring the group influence thus not used and applied in current argument
(Myers, 2018).
Explain why you chose this not different method of influence assessment.
The main reason and justification behind making the use of the process tracing method of influence
assessment is based on the fact that the it comprise of qualitative set of analysis and lead to better review
of influence caused by a specific change through applying a formal test. Beside this, the process tracing
way of measuring group influence also supports the examination of the strength of the evidence that is
linking the potential cause of the change thus it is adding the uncovering as well as testing the causal
mechanisms that supports better measurement of group influence (Newmark, 2017). Along with this, the
process tracing method also supports and brings out the higher fairness in lobbying to supporting ethical
way by the way of leading the fairness and transparency of the questions (Barron and Skountridaki,
2022).
7. Ethics of lobbying:
Were there any ethical issues with lobbying on this case? If so what were they &how
lobbyists addressed them?
In context of the Fairness ,Tipping a member of the government to vote in a favorable way or
compensating him or her with valued benefits after a vote is the most evident immoral (&illegal) behavior
linked with influencing. People &groups with money would always win if this behavior was permitted.

).

Reference
Anastasiadis, S., Moon, J. and Humphreys, M., 2018. Lobbying and the responsible firm:
Agenda‐setting for a freshly conceptualized field. Business Ethics: A European
Review, 27(3), pp.207-221.
Barron, A. and Skountridaki, L., 2022. Toward a Professions-Based Understanding of Ethical
and Responsible Lobbying. Business & Society, 61(2), pp.340-371.
Bauer, T., 2016. Responsible lobbying: An empirical study in the EU. Annals in Social
Responsibility.
Cowley, C., 2022. Teaching Medical Ethics through Medical Law. Teaching Philosophy, 45(2),
pp.139-152.
Dialer, D. and Richter, M. eds., 2018. Lobbying in the European Union: Strategies, dynamics
and trends. Springer.
Floridi, L., 2021. Translating principles into practices of digital ethics: Five risks of being
unethical. In Ethics, Governance, and Policies in Artificial Intelligence (pp. 81-90).
Springer, Cham.
Gonzalez, G.A., 2016. Democratic Ethics, Environmental Lobbying Groups, and Symbolic
Inclusion: The Case of the Canadian Oil Sands. In American Empire and the Canadian
Oil Sands (pp. 75-98). Palgrave Macmillan, New York.
Holyoke, T.T., 2017. A theoretical foundation for assessing principal-agent problems in lobbying
ethics and an empirical test. Interest Groups & Advocacy, 6(3), pp.272-289.
Laboutková, Š. and Vymětal, P., 2018. Key elements of transparent lobbying: Relevance of
wider approach.
Lewicka-Strzałecka, A., 2017. Ethical model of lobbying: An analysis of the codes regulating
lobbying activity. Annales. Etyka w życiu gospodarczym, 20(8), pp.75-86.