"No evidence of harm is often misunderstood as evidence of no harm, which is a very different thing."

A brief guide to tech lobbyists in Europe -- Tech News and Analysis

In the last few years, lobbying by web giants like Google and Facebook has increased dramatically on both sides of the Atlantic.
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There's an obvious reason they're concentrating their energies, too. Technology companies are incredibly powerful, which draws a lot of attention, and a lot of anger in many cases. Unfriendly administrations can be powerful enemies: from Microsoft's drawn-out conflict with European officials -- effectively running for 20 years -- to the vast fines levied on companies like Intel who break competition rules, conflict with governments can be costly and distracting. So what better way to try and smooth the path than try to head off that conflict earlier in the process?

But lobbying is furtive, and tends to happen behind closed doors: only dragged into the open when big issues emerge, such as the recent furore over American tech companies paying little or no tax in the U.K.. The European Commission does run a transparency register that companies are meant to report for, but the truth is that many -- including, for example, Apple -- have not signed up. Shouldn't the extent of lobbying be more visible?

Shouldn't buying influence be more difficult in Brussels than it is in Abidjan, Djakarta or even Washington DC? </rhetorical question>

Europeans think a hundred miles is a long way. Americans think a hundred years is a long time.