'Facebook Receipts' Project Reveal Meta's Influence Over Congress

A new project dubbed The Facebook Receipt spotlights the social media service's influence over legislation and regulation in Washington, D.C., through lobbyists.

The group created the project to discover why broad, bipartisan legislation that Americans supported so oft fell by the wayside.

Project leader Zamaan Qureshi says they quickly discovered Facebook's fingerprints over said legislation.

Qureshi spoke to Fox News Digital about the revelations on Thursday:

"The Facebook Receipts shows that data is power, that bringing together already open-sourced information, and the material that we've uncovered, reflects that Facebook's influence is strong in D.C., but it also goes to show that as their lobbying dollars increase, so is the energy in Congress to do something about this issue."

The report describes Qureshi as a "20-year-ol political internet wunderkind who got involved during the 2018 midterms when he felt social media was being used to influence voters, is part of the Real Facebook Oversight Board, which began in the wake of Facebook's formation of its own oversight board."

In both 2020 and 2022, Facebook gave political donations to candidates in 49 out of the 50 states. Some were Republican; others were Democrat.

The Facebook Receipts believe the intent was to combat regulations that would hurt the company’s bottom line. 

"For years, Facebook has told Congress that it wants regulation, and it wants legislation. It wants the lawmakers in Washington, D.C., to define what the rules of the road are for tech companies. But every time both Democrats and Republicans put forth new pieces of legislation, it seems that the company isn't interested in working with lawmakers on this, or actually supporting any of the regulation in a way that's substantive," Qureshi said. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is the biggest individual recipient of said Facebook donations. Schumer pocketed $10,000 from Meta’s corporate and employee donations.

Is Schumer on the Meta payroll? No. Is he compromised by Meta's finances? Undoubtedly.

Facebook has the money to continue combating legislation. Though Qureshi predicts that to eventually change as the spotlight grows brighter. 

We aren't so sure.

The project exposed how Big Tech lobbyists used their influence to kill would-be-landmark antitrust bills that would have reined in Silicon Valley monopolies.

Such a finding is hardly unexpected. But, of course, daming to see so well documented.

Big Tech wields an ominous degree of control over elections, American culture, and legislation. #TwitterFiles and #FacebookReceipts prove so beyond doubt.