Revenge of the Nerds: How Online Activism is Changing the Way DC’s Biggest Policy Battles are Fought and Won
POLITICO is out with a piece this morning that has Washington buzzing. The piece titled “K Street’s boom goes bust” focuses primarily on declining revenues at some of Washington’s most prestigious lobbying firms. But the storyline that caught our attention was the fact that the way public policy fights are being won and lost in D.C. are fundamentally changing. As POLITICO puts it:
Fights are no longer just about which side has the most — or best — lobbyists. The new world of Washington influence is more diverse: Traditional access lobbying is waged alongside campaigns that use media, grass-roots activism and the Internet — activity often not reported in federal lobbying filings.
Several lobbyists pointed to last week’s massive online mobilization that tanked two fast-moving anti-online piracy bills as the perfect example of how the influence game is changing. While clients are still willing to pay for access lobbying, there is more of a focus on nonreportable strategy through social media and other grass-roots initiatives.
For more than a year, Engage has been a leading voice in the fight against SOPA and PIPA (formerly known as COICA) using digital tools to mobilize hundreds of thousands of Americans to fight back against well-funded Hollywood. We will have much more to say on this issue in the coming weeks, but for now, we will leave you with this quote from the POLITICO story referenced above:
“A well-resourced content group of people completely got outmaneuvered by the guys in the basement,” Ogilvy Government Relations’ Drew Maloney said of the anti-piracy fight.
