An Ethical Evaluation of Corporate Lobbying Practices: A Case Study on Facebook Inc’s Lobbying Strategies

Abstract

This thesis is an analysis of lobbying in the United States of America and in specific, a case study of Facebook Inc’s lobbying strategies in the past decade. This paper focuses on the technology industry to understand the value of lobbying activities for the business giants in Silicon Valley. The tech giants are quickly becoming some of the biggest market players in the US economy. And as more information gets shared and stored on the internet, people are also realizing the overwhelming power leading technology companies have on civic behavior. But even with decreasing public support for strengthening tech influence, there is little that people can do to change tech companies’ position of power. Given that the public user base is vulnerable to the business decisions made, tech leaders have a social responsibility to hold themselves accountable to the practice of fair business and protecting their stakeholders. To better understand whether the technology industry is acting in favor of their stakeholder, this paper will study Facebook Inc’s lobbying initiatives. The paper consists of a case study analysis and a framework evaluation. The case study will provide a narrative for Facebook’s business and political engagement and the responsible lobbying framework will be used to evaluate Facebook’s lobbying strategy. The conclusions made in the framework will contribute to the discussion on whether lobbying actions fueled by self-interest begs to question the morality and ethicality of lobbying in businesses that already have a lot of power over their consumers.