Google Protest of Anti-Piracy Upends Lobbying

An online protest led by Google and Facebook against U.S. anti-piracy bills illustrates how Internet companies are changing legislative debate in Washington.

“It’s unprecedented,” Jonathan Zittrain, a Harvard University professor of law and computer science who serves on the boards of bill opponents Electronic Frontier Foundation and Internet Society, said. “You could see some members of Congress saying there’s no percentage in it for me to stick out my neck on something like this.” “These organizations have reinvented a lot of the ways we live, how we connect, how we absorb media,” said Rogan Kersh, an associate dean at New York University’s Wagner School who conducts research on lobbying. “They’re now trying to reinvent how we carry out democratic politics.”

Google and Facebook are boosting spending and their Washington presence to cope with a growing list of issues, including online piracy as well as consumer privacy and antitrust. Google hired 19 outside lobbying firms last year, and Facebook has two new outside firms, Senate records show.