Big Tech lobbies against anything that protects intellectual property.

TO THE EXTENT THAT THE DIGITAL TRADE AGENDA existed a decade ago, it flowed from copyright holders, like Hollywood studios, music labels, and software companies. They wanted tech platforms to be held responsible when website users published copyrighted material, and they made some headway. USTR negotiated the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and generally took the industry line that tech policy needed to protect intellectual property. This was a separate form of capture, of course, since copyright holders represented powerful industries.

Tech companies, who didn’t want the legal risk and compliance burden of constantly monitoring their sites for copyright infringement, devised a game plan. They formed the Internet Association, a lobbying group led by Amazon, Facebook, and Google. But they also joined existing organizations like the Coalition of Service Industries and the Information Technology Industry Council, which were familiar to trade negotiators.

After that, the charm offensive began. Li details how tech lobbyists used ad hoc meetings, social gatherings, and public appearances to supplement formal actions like congressional hearings. Many of the key lobbyists were former legislative staffers or trade officials; Chris, the lobbyist who told Li about grabbing lunch or coffee with trade negotiators, previously worked at the Department of Commerce.

The revolving door spun both ways. Robert Holleyman became deputy trade representative during Obama’s second term; formerly, he’d been the president and CEO of the Business Software Alliance. Around this time, software started to migrate to the cloud, aligning that industry’s beliefs on digital trade with the tech platforms, which controlled major cloud computing operations.

Lobbyists for the major tech industries set out to reverse how trade negotiators think about tech platforms.

The lobbyists positioned themselves as expert “stakeholders” with essential information for trade officials, who were untutored in how the industry worked. “I spend a lot of time with the companies trying to understand their business model, trying to understand how they interact with the governments in different countries, and then of course, socializing it within the building,” Mike, a trade official and negotiator, told Li.