Facebook spent USD 960,000 on lobbying in Apr-Jun

The social networking giant shelled out USD 960,000 on lobbying in April-June this year, against just USD 320,000 in the year-ago period, according to lobbying disclosure reports with the US Senate.

Facebook lobbied with lawmakers on several issues such as cybersecurity, employment, privacy, taxes, IPO, advertising and copyright.

During the quarter, Mark Zuckerberg-led Facebook entered the capital market in an aim to raise about USD 18 billion through its initial public offering (IPO).

Although, Facebook's long-awaited stock market debut on May 18, did not live up to expectation as its shares have been trading near USD 28 level, which is much below its issue price of USD 38 apiece.

Facebook lobbied on a range of other policy issues such as Internet privacy issues and freedom of expression on the Internet.

Among other major lobbying issues were "international regulation of software companies, global online freedom Act, restrictions on Internet access by foreign governments, preserve and advance the multi stakeholder governance model, protecting and advancing online freedom of expression and privacy through 'observer' status of the Global Network Initiative (GNI)."

In the first half of this year, Facebook spent USD 1.61 million on lobbyists compared with USD 1.35 million last year and USD 351,000 in 2010.

Zuckerberg, who started the company eight-years ago in a Harvard dorm room, has more than 900 million users worldwide.