{"id":117458,"date":"2025-11-21T11:39:01","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T16:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/?post_type=news&p=117458"},"modified":"2025-11-21T11:39:01","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T16:39:01","slug":"1-1-billion-in-big-tech-political-spending-fuels-attacks-on-state-ai-laws","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/news\/1-1-billion-in-big-tech-political-spending-fuels-attacks-on-state-ai-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"$1.1 Billion in Big Tech Political Spending Fuels Attacks on State AI Laws"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress are trying to delete state laws that protect the public from harms caused by artificial intelligence (AI), fueled by more than $1.1 billion in Big Tech political spending, according to a new report<\/a> from Public Citizen released today.<\/p>\n

At Trump\u2019s behest, Congressional Republicans are maneuvering <\/a>to completely preempt state AI laws with a provision they hope to add to the must-pass National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), and the White House is preparing<\/a> an executive order that aims to undermine state AI regulation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe same Donald Trump who postures as an enemy of Big Tech is in fact the industry\u2019s water boy,\u201d said Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen<\/strong>. \u201cCozying up to the Trump White House with donations for his garish ballroom, dumping money on elections, hiring armies of lobbyists, and inserting tech executives in top administration positions, Big Tech is getting a massive return on investment. Trump proposes to take care of his Big Tech friends by overriding the bipartisan efforts of states to impose modest restraints on the Big Tech companies that are recklessly pushing dangerous AI technologies on America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Big Tech executives and investors spent at least $764.5 million during the 2024 election cycle and over the course of 2025 so far, according to the Public Citizen report. Nearly three-quarters of this sum favored Republicans and nearly half of which was donated by Elon Musk.<\/p>\n

The report also documents hundreds of millions of dollars worth of tech industry lobbying, surpassed only by the pharmaceutical industry, as well as tens of millions of dollars given away to Trump\u2019s inauguration, the \u201cGolden Ballroom\u201d replacing the East Wing of the White House, and as lawsuit settlements.<\/p>\n

Federal lawmakers have so far failed to adopt nationwide standards to protect Americans from becoming Big Tech\u2019s guinea pigs. But state lawmakers and governors have led the charge to advance and enact laws against AI-generated child exploitation material, predatory deepfakes, algorithmic workplace surveillance and discrimination, and more. Innovative state laws like these are already protecting Americans and demonstrating that supporting technological advancement does not require sacrificing the public\u2019s rights and safety.<\/p>\n

A proposed congressional moratorium on state AI rules and an executive order the Trump administration is reportedly preparing to sign aim to erase this progress by stomping on states\u2019 authority with the boot of federal preemption. The order would block or undermine states\u2019 power to protect their own citizens from dangerous AI technologies.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody voted to hand over our country to Big Tech billionaires like Meta\u2019s Mark Zuckerberg, X\u2019s Elon Musk, OpenAI\u2019s Sam Altman, Amazon\u2019s Jeff Bezos, Google\u2019s Sundar Pichai, Palantir\u2019s Peter Thiel, or a16z\u2019s Marc Andreessen,\u201d said Rick Claypool, a research director for Public Citizen<\/strong> and author of the report. \u201cIt\u2019s time for the White House to stop prioritizing the profits of Trump\u2019s biggest Big Tech backers over protecting the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n ","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-117458","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","tax_topic-ai","tax_topic-big-tech","tax_topic-consumer-worker-safeguards","tax_topic-corporate-influence-in-government","tax_topic-making-government-work","tax_topic-money-in-politics","tax_topic-protecting-democracy","tax_topic-regulatory-safeguards","tax_case_topic-campaign-finance-elections","tax_case_topic-internet-free-speech-miscellaneous","tax_case_topic-internet-free-speech-right-to-speak-anonymously","tax_case_topic-internet-free-speech-use-of-brand-names-in-domain-names-and-metatags","tax_supertag-corporate-crime-enforcement","tax_supertag-taking-on-trump","tax_news-press"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n$1.1 Billion in Big Tech Political Spending Fuels Attacks on State AI Laws - 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