Facebook suffers lobbying exodus

Three contract lobby shops have stopped lobbying for Facebook after content providers who were also clients of the firms raised "conflict" concerns in recent weeks. The move signals that the gloves are coming off in the ongoing lobbying fight between content providers and Internet companies. Facebook's lobbying spending increased about 285 percent from $351,000 in 2010 to $1.35 million in 2011. "They are doing everything they can to ensure that the tech industry and Facebook in particular doesn't have any talent to go up to the Hill," one tech lobbyist said of the content providers.