The Big Tech Lobby Playbook
How Big Tech’s power has rewritten digital rules globally
Big Tech has taken corporate lobbying to a whole new level. These companies have an influence that even Big Tobacco and Big Oil could only dream of.
The tech giants have bottomless pockets and a powerful playbook they deploy to influence and shape laws all around the world. The strategies set out in the ‘Big Tech Lobby Playbook’ are not unique to Big Tech, but they are being employed in ways that are distinctive to the tech giants. These companies don’t just engage with lawmakers and policy processes – they shape the very environment in which laws are imagined and debated.
At the heart of this is the sheer extent of these firms’ monopoly power. Big Tech firms that control the digital infrastructure of today’s societies have not been afraid to weaponise it to advance their policy agendas. Having allowed companies to gain such market dominance, governments now find themselves hostages to it. This sets their playbook apart from standard corporate lobbying.
The success of their lobby playbook is allowing these companies to rewrite the democratic rulebook so that the public interest always comes second to corporate profit.
About this series
This series of eight articles dives into specific examples of Big Tech lobbying in Australia, Brazil, the EU, India, Kenya and the US. Each case study is designed to be read independently, but it is the cumulative picture that truly exposes the enormous political power Big Tech companies wield. “Presenting the Big Tech Global Playbook” piece, therefore, draws the threads together, showing this is not a collection of isolated tools and tactics but a deliberate and, at times, deeply interconnected system operating across continents, legal systems, and institutions.
These case studies don’t just expose Big Tech’s playbook; they spotlight how civil society and public interest groups are pushing back. The final article rallies these insights into a set of counter-strategies with which we can begin to build the counter-power needed to reclaim democratic control over the digital future.
Who is this series for?
Big Tech power continues to consolidate with serious implications for society. This series is intended as a resource to support civil society organisations, trade unions, workers, activists, academics, small businesses, and journalists who are trying to fight back.
The United States: Birthplace of the Big Tech lobby playbook
Big Tech’s influence on the US government is long-standing but taken to a whole new level under Trump. The entanglements are deep and offer US Big Tech companies access to political power.
What sets Big Tech’s US strategy apart is the immense size of its lobbying resources and its unparalleled enmeshment with the Trump administration.
Brazil: Big Tech cries ‘censorship’ and spreads disinformation
As one of the world’s largest digital markets, Brazil has faced political pressure from Big Tech for years.
Brazil’s experience with the Fake News Bill and the Digital Child Protection Law shows how far Big Tech will go to protect its monopolistic business model.
Innovation or irrelevance: How Big Tech has framed EU’s choices
The EU has consistently been at the forefront of digital regulation, earning a reputation as the world’s digital police officer. Silicon Valley has responded by investing heavily in efforts to shape the EU’s digital rulebook.
Their target? Primarily, laws proposed to protect the European public.
Kenya: the human cost of Big Tech’s power
The Kenyan government has made a big bet on the country becoming the tech hub of Africa.
The promise of the gig economy and data work collided head-on with the reality of Big Tech’s business model and its ability to aggressively push Kenya to adapt itself to its business needs.
Australia: Big Tech weaponises its platforms against the government
In the past decade, Australian authorities have tried to regulate the power of these companies and their impact on the public through laws such as the New Media Bargaining Code, the Privacy Act, and guardrails for AI.
Big Tech has fought them every step of the way. While lobbying transparency in Australia is weak, Big Tech’s aggressive influence is hard to hide.
Big Tech Lobbying in India: market size versus monopoly power
India’s government has made a big bet on digitalisation. With such a huge market, India was able to meet the companies on more level terms than most countries.
Until the government tried to challenge Big Tech’s monopoly power, that is.
Presenting the Big Tech Lobby Playbook
Across continents and political systems, Big Tech has deployed a clear playbook when it comes to lobbying to protect its business interests.
The case studies in this series reveal a highly toxic form of political influence, where Big Tech manipulates the legislative and regulatory process in ways that threaten the fabric of democracy. The strategies tech giants use go well beyond classic corporate lobbying.
Recoding the system: how we can counter the Big Tech Lobby Playbook
Taking power back from Big Tech corporate giants means disrupting their global lobby playbook, which is vital to begin resetting the system.
Drawing on the lessons from the six case studies, we propose an initial set of counter-strategies. They are “initial” because the antidote to Big Tech influence must be a dynamic and creative set of strategies.
Our approach
This series of articles is based on interviews with academics, civil society activists, and lawyers. Their experience, spanning six continents, was complemented by SOMO’s analysis of official documents, lobby leaks, and media reports.
When we refer to lobbying(opens in new window) , we take a broad view that includes all activities aimed at influencing policies and decision-making, from direct engagement with lawmakers to the use of proxies and the manipulation of facts and narratives.
When we refer to Big Tech, we mean multinational technology companies that dominate the information and communication technology industry through significant market concentration. Alongside Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta, we feature companies that dominate specific markets, such as Uber(opens in new window) and OpenAI(opens in new window) .
We focus on US-based Big Tech because these companies are actively shaping laws, standards, and everyday digital environments. Although Chinese technology companies are increasingly present globally, they deploy a different playbook.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all of those who shared analysis, evidence, and feedback, and who continue to challenge concentrated corporate power. We are especially grateful to those individuals who shared their experiences and insights despite facing legal, political or professional risks in doing so. Some interviewees asked not to be named due to the risks associated with criticising Big Tech firms.
Do you need more information?
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Margarida Silva
Senior Tech Researcher -
Misa Norigami
Corporate Researcher
