Twitter is looking to become the next D.C. power player.
According to The Hill’s Hillicon Valley blog, the company created a political action committee — Twitter#PAC — as well as registering its first Beltway lobbyist.
William Carty, a Twitter staff member and former congressional staffer, formally registered as a lobbyist for the company. According to the filing, he will be working on “issues related to patent reform, privacy, Internet freedom and net neutrality.”
Right now, Carty is Twitter’s only lobbyist, but he expects to work with other Capitol Hill professionals. The company also hired former congressional press aide Nu Wexler as the director of public policy communications.
By establishing a PAC, Twitter hopes to expand its reach into Washington. However, it still has a way to go before catching up to other tech companies, such as Google, PayPal and Amazon. In 2013, Facebook so far spent $3.6 million on lobbying, while Google spent $6.8 million this year alone.
Twitter has been one of last to the politicization party, as one of the leading companies that is not a member of the massive advocacy-lobbying group The Internet Association.
