Mar 16, 2026 19:00:00

A report details Meta's massive lobbying efforts to pass legislation that would shift the responsibility for age verification to app stores.

In 2025, Meta spent a record-breaking $26.3 million (approximately 4.2 billion yen) on lobbying the U.S. government. Through this lobbying effort, Meta deployed over 86 lobbyists across 45 U.S. states and secretly funded a non-profit organization called the Digital Childhood Alliance (DCA) to promote

app store liability laws . A research report detailing these activities has been published by the volunteer project, The TBOTE Project.

The TBOTE Project
https://tboteproject.com/

GitHub - upper-up/meta-lobbying-and-other-findings · GitHub
https://github.com/upper-up/meta-lobbying-and-other-findings

The App Store Liability Law is a law that obligates app store providers such as Apple and Google to verify the age of their users. While some argue that this law will help protect the safety of children, others oppose it, arguing that it could lead to an infringement of user privacy.

Meta is not the only one lobbying for the App Store Liability Act. Snap, X (formerly Twitter), and Pinterest have joined Meta in supporting the Act. All of the organizations that have expressed support for the App Store Liability Act are operators of social media platforms, while all of the organizations that oppose it are companies that operate app stores.

The TBOTE Project analyzed the confirmed flow of $2 billion (approximately 320 billion yen), surveyed 59,736 recipients of campaign fundraising, analyzed documents submitted by electoral district development boards, and mapped campaign fundraising across four states to uncover the reality of Meta's lobbying activities.

The TBOTE Project, based on publicly available documents, reveals that Meta hired 87 lobbyists through more than 40 lobbying firms by 2025. 85% of these lobbyists have prior experience working for the U.S. government. Documents submitted by Meta to the Senate reportedly specify the 'App Store Responsibility Act' as one of the bills the company lobbied.

At the state level, they paid $338,500 (approximately 54 million yen) to Headwaters Strategies (Colorado), $324,992 (approximately 52 million yen) to nine companies and twelve lobbyists in Louisiana, and $1,036,728 (approximately 165 million yen) for direct lobbying in California.

The following graph summarizes how much Meta has spent on lobbying the U.S. government. Spending has increased year by year, reaching $26.3 million in 2025.

Meta actively engages in lobbying not only in the United States but also in Europe, spending €10 million (approximately 1.8 billion yen) annually. This is reportedly the largest lobbying expenditure by a single company. Meta utilizes more than 18 consulting firms.

In addition to the App Store Liability Act, there is also the Digital Age Assurance Act (DAAA), which mandates a system for verifying age online on the device side. The DAAA was proposed by

the International Center for Missing and Abused Children (ICMEC), and Meta is also a major donor to this organization.

The following diagram summarizes the full scope of Meta's lobbying activities. Meta's efforts to promote the App Store Liability Act are mainly divided into five channels: one direct lobbying effort to the federal government ($26.3 million), one lobbying network spanning 45 states, one lobbying effort via the DCA, one lobbying effort via the Special Political Action Committee , and one state legislative election campaign. There is also a sixth channel through a different funding network, but Meta's connection to this has not yet been proven.