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by TUSF 958 days ago
It's called lobbying, and the courts consider it "free speech". Speech that says "I just spent a million dollars to inconvenience my competitors."
1 comments

> It's called lobbying, and the courts consider it "free speech"

No, it's called bribery. If you give a politician money it's bribery. The closest we have to this is the revolving door.

Lobbying involves paying someone to give your letter to an elected. When you call your representative, you are lobbying. When the EFF engages the Congress, they are lobbying. There is campaign contributions, which go to a campaign, not the individual, and PACs, which involve buying messaging. But conflating bribery and lobbying is simply incorrect.

There is also conflicts of interests, some of those Members of the Senate failed to disclose they own stocks in Intel.