“How Big Tech’s “Invisible Hand” Reaches Latin American Regulators”, 09 September 2025

​“What should we, as members of Congress, be doing about artificial intelligence?” asks Diego Caicedo, a young Colombian congressman…

Both men are part of a broader web of influence through which Big Tech companies like Google, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft shape public policy in Latin America...

When tech companies prefer not to put their own lobbyists in the spotlight, they turn to intermediaries: law firms, industry associations, and policy groups.

…their strategy is simple: gain “access to decision-makers and to any mechanism that allows them to influence decisions.”

None of this is illegal—and none of it is new. ..

…Big Tech has embedded itself into nearly every aspect of modern life…[A]nd their influence is only growing, as artificial intelligence becomes woven into everything we do…

But as this journalistic investigation—The Invisible Hand of Big Tech, led by the Brazilian outlet Agência Pública and the Centro Latinoamericano de Investigación Periodística (CLIP), together with 15 other media outlets in 13 countries—has shown, regulating the tech giants has been anything but easy...

A database collectively built from publicly available online information, freedom of information requests, interviews with dozens of sources in governments, congresses, and tech companies, as well as with experts and academics, documented 2,977 concrete influence actions in ten countries and the European Union, most of them between 2019 and June 2025. These involved 1,516 direct or indirect representatives of the tech companies who...interacted with 2,508 public officials—from legislators, regulators, and ministers to directors of public schools and hospitals. .

This investigation also found that the need to curb the unwanted impacts of Big Tech is so great that, in just eleven countries and the European Union, governments, legislators, or citizens have introduced at least 801 bills since 2019...

The journalistic alliance likewise found 315 legal cases in just four countries, recorded since 2022, tied to conflicts with tech companies…

…This alliance sent detailed questionnaires to Big Tech companies about their lobbying activities in several countries. The corporations responded with general statements acknowledging their interactions with policymakers in issues relevant to their products and businesses, and claiming these interactions comply with all relevant ethical and regulatory guidelines. Find a document detailing the companies’ here...