[UPDATE] Reddit user who uncovered Meta's $2B lobbying for age verification laws pulled IRS filings for the organization that wrote Meta's model legislation, queried Brazil's congressional API, and cross-referenced lobbying firms across two continents. Meta's operation is global.

When a Reddit user began asking basic questions about Meta's lobbying efforts in 2024, they stumbled onto something that major tech publications had largely overlooked: a coordinated, multinational campaign to shape legislation around age verification on social media platforms.

The initial claim was straightforward but significant. Meta had spent approximately $2 billion lobbying for age verification laws—regulations that would ostensibly protect children online but would also create infrastructure requirements that smaller competitors couldn't afford to build. The company was simultaneously funding the organizations that wrote the model legislation other countries were adopting.

Meta's public position, consistent with most major tech firms when facing scrutiny, was defensive. The company maintained that its lobbying reflected genuine concern for child safety and compliance with various regulatory frameworks. Age verification, they argued, was a necessary tool for protecting minors from harmful content. The spending was presented as standard corporate engagement in the legislative process, not as an orchestrated effort to entrench market dominance.

What set this particular investigation apart was the methodology. The Reddit researcher didn't rely on leaked documents or anonymous whistleblowers. Instead, they pulled IRS filings from organizations that wrote Meta's model legislation, cross-referenced that information with Brazil's public congressional API, and traced lobbying firm connections across the United States and South America. This created a paper trail that was independently verifiable.

The findings revealed a pattern. Meta wasn't simply lobbying for age verification as one policy preference among many. The company had funded specific organizations that produced model legislation, which was then adopted—sometimes nearly verbatim—in multiple countries. The same lobbying firms appeared in different continents, handling different pieces of the same puzzle. When you mapped it all out, it didn't look like coincidental alignment. It looked like a strategy.