US tech giants form lobbying group in bid to curb online regulation

US online giants including Facebook, Google, and Zynga have banded together to form a lobbying alliance. The aim of the alliance is to prevent lawmakers in the country over-regulating their sector.

The group, which calls itself the Internet Association, says it is the “unified voice of the Internet economy in Washington”.

The Internet Alliance will represent Amazon.com, AOL, eBay, Expedia, Facebook, Google, IAC, LinkedIn, Monster Worldwide, Rackspace, salesforce.com, TripAdvisor, Yahoo!, and Zynga. Notably absent are other big US-based tech players like Microsoft and Apple. Then again they have significant revenue streams outside of the internet.

“A free and innovative internet is vital to our nation’s economic growth,” said Michael Beckerman, President and CEO of The Internet Association. “These companies are all fierce competitors in the market place, but they recognize the Internet needs a unified voice in Washington. They understand the future of the internet is at stake and that we must work together to protect it.”

It claims that it “will relentlessly represent this critical economic sector, in partnership with Main Street businesses and individual users, to ensure that the internet will always have a voice in Washington and a seat at the table”.

It intends to do so, it says, with a platform based on three planks: “protecting internet freedom; fostering innovation and economic growth; and empowering users”.

“The internet is the fastest growing sector of the U.S. economy with an unparalleled record of job creation and innovation across all sectors,” Beckerman said. “It is the internet’s decentralised and open model that has unleashed unprecedented entrepreneurialism, creativity and innovation. Policymakers must understand that the preservation of that freedom is essential to the vitality of the Internet itself and the resulting economic prosperity.”