[ConAntonakos]

I feel like such a novice, but what exactly do lobbyists do? Do they bombard gov't officials with emails, show up in-person, convince people to follow their clients' agendas, etc.? How will they be employed by Reddit? Why is lobbying even a thing?

[creaghpatr]

They tend to serve as subject matter experts when it comes time for legislation to be drafted. It's not practical to expect a 50/60-year old Senator to be able to architect nuanced regulations of social media platforms which didn't exist when he or she was in law school so they outsource the details to lobbyists or similar organizations like think tanks.

[jessriedel]

Well, the senator also has a large staff for drafting legislation.

[creaghpatr]

True, it's an ongoing negotiation between lobbyist groups and the Senator's own in-house experts.

[wyldfire]

> Why is lobbying even a thing?

There is a legitimate or at least semi-legitimate function of having businesses educate legislators on what impact their existing, proposed or "needed" legislation has on their business. e.g. what would happen to Disney, Universal, et al if Copyright term were reduced to 1 year-after-first-publication? "OMG end of days and we will fire all your constituents!"

Sorry, to be a bit more serious: other groups like EFF, AARP, etc can also lobby legislators to tell them "our members would suffer greatly if you passed H.R. 9999 because it would restrict our access to Xyz and cause them harm. Could you amend your bill to include exclusions for these purposes?" The details of these things can be subtle and it's worth paying someone to hound the legislator to make sure all of the details are covered and they don't try to sweep your group's needs under the rug.

[BeefySwain]

To expand on this, calling and complaining to the intern at your local reps office is lobbying. Asking your school board member to consider adding more snow days when you see them at church is lobbying. Lobbying is any time anyone seeks to influence an elected official. It is not inherently good nor bad.

[bdamm]

Right. Buy lunch, invite out to baseball games, write bill drafts, analyze progress of legislation, learn about lawmakers favorite hobbies, that kind of thing.

Or at least that's how I imagine it working since that's basically personal influence 101.

[s73ver_]

Have you ever written a letter to your Congressperson? Then you've probably engaged in lobbying.