Why not ban lobbying completely?
this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2025
512 points (99.6% liked)
World News
48585 readers
2229 users here now
A community for discussing events around the World
Rules:
-
Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
- Post news articles only
- Video links are NOT articles and will be removed.
- Title must match the article headline
- Not United States Internal News
- Recent (Past 30 Days)
- Screenshots/links to other social media sites (Twitter/X/Facebook/Youtube/reddit, etc.) are explicitly forbidden, as are link shorteners.
-
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
-
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed. Sources that have a Low or Very Low factual reporting rating or MBFC Credibility Rating may be removed.
-
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
-
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF 10/19
-
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
-
Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
-
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
Lemmy World Partners
News !news@lemmy.world
Politics !politics@lemmy.world
World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world
Recommendations
For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/
- Consider including the article’s mediabiasfactcheck.com/ link
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Because lobbying is also done be environmental groups, neighborhood groups, consumer activists, ... Ban lobbying would deprive a large set of the population of their voice
but it seems that this method of communication completely drowned out by moneyed interests
And if you kill it, money still finds its way somehow but the others don't. The problem is money.
This! only allow petitions as the method to steer law.
Power to the people needs money to be insignificant for the process of law
Lobbying is literally a form of petitioning.
Except, instead of using democratic methods you use Money 💰
That would outlaw scientists lobbying the government to stop things like global warming and pollution. It would stop mom and pop shops from lobbying against things that are good for massive corps but bad for them.
Paid corporate lobbying should end.
So what defines corporate? What defines paid? You’re excluding mom and pop shops and even medium sized businesses from your definition. How are lawmakers supposed to know if their law is gonna harm specific industries if businesses can’t tell them?
Paid is by definition anyone paid to do the lobbying. Corporate is definitely harder to define, but let’s say you’re only allowed to lobby on behalf of your own organization (or self)
And, better yet, let’s make every single lobbying effort public - Times, dates, people involved, and the subject raised (but perhaps not the outcome). Good legislation should happen in the open
So paid would include the owners (if it’s an llc or similar), it would include anyone sent by the owners even if it’s not their job title, etc.
I’m pretty sure you can request all that information as well, with a FOIA request.
I concede this is complicated, but i think we can all agree that paid lobbying groups are a cancer on society.
Yeah agreed. I just don’t see how you exclude them without unintended consequences.
And when the EU writes a regulation like mandating USB-C chargers, they'll make sure the companies making phones are on board and get to have realistic timelines to implement these things. If you're going to regulate an industry you kind of need their expertise, unfortunately.
You can still consult with various interest groups without allowing actually lobbying, but I get what you mean.
Yeah, ideally it should be government going to industry bodies, unions, etc if they need to know more about the topic they're trying to regulate instead of the current system where industry groups are basically writing laws.
revoke lobbying access
Me, as an American: ...I can haz? Plez?
Sorry, Amazon has billions more free speech tickets than you do
DO IT, Come on already!
Yes yes yes yes yes please
But don't just do it for Amazon, do it for all parties.
Hi, im Beff Jesoz and I have a company called Nozama and I'll give you 10 billion dollars to stop this.
Beef Jeezos?! Omg, he real!