Facebook, Google and Twitter spent a combined $7.14 million on lobbying in the three months ending Sept. 30, according to new disclosures that capture how the companies are responding to greater regulatory scrutiny on Capitol Hill and beyond.

The companies have never more been in the spotlight than now, as U.S. lawmakers investigate how social media and web platforms helped Russia interfere with last year's presidential election. Top in-house lawyers for the companies are expected to testify Nov. 1 in Washington amid the congressional probe of Russia's meddling in the election.

The lobbying spend comes as the tech industry faces not just the reputational fallout of complicity with Russia's influence campaign but also the potential for regulatory reforms that would confront online advertising models.

Google led the tech industry trio, spending $4.17 million on a host of topics, including online advertising, one issue that's in focus in the Russia investigation. That amount was only the 10th-highest total in Google's history lobbying on Capitol Hill, according to a review of the company's disclosures. But it indicated the tech giant was getting out ahead of federal interest to craft new regulations for web advertising.

This month, U.S. Sens. John McCain, R-Arizona, Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, and Mark Warner, D-Virginia, proposed legislation that would force Google, Facebook and other companies to disclose who is purchasing online political advertising.

Facebook spent $2.85 million in the third quarter—a total topped only by the $3.21 million the social media giant shelled out in the first three months of 2017.

[Facebook GC Colin Stretch Explains 'Difficult Decision' to Turn Over Russian Ads to Congress]

As it has done in the past, the company leaned on its in-house lobbyists on the issue of online advertising. But it also deployed its policy team toward major national issues such as immigration reform. According to its disclosure, Facebook's team weighed in on “temporary high-tech worker visas and employment-based permanent residency” and pushed to restore the Obama-era policy of protecting undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as minors from deportation.

Google and Facebook, along with nearly two dozen other companies, are planning to launch a coalition to advocate for legislation allowing young, undocumented immigrants a path to permanent residency, according to Reuters.

The law firm Perkins Coie has guided Google and Facebook through regulatory issues arising out of the scrutiny over Russia-linked online ads, The New York Times reported last week. Marc Elias, a former Hillary Clinton adviser who leads the firm's political law practice, has helped the two tech giants request exemptions from Federal Election Commission's disclosure rules, contending that disclaimers would not fit in the ads posted on their respective platforms.

Twitter, traditionally a modest spender in Washington, also trained its sights on immigration, the company's lobbying disclosures show. The company spent part of its $120,000 third-quarter lobbying dollars to weigh in on President Donald Trump's executive order restricting travel to the United States. Two federal judges have enjoined parts of the latest order from taking effect.

Like Facebook and Google, Twitter also revealed its attention to a bipartisan bill proposed by U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, that seeks to hold websites accountable for knowingly providing a platform for sex traffickers. The bill is a response to outrage over Backpage.com, an online advertising site whose chief executive was charged last year with running what the California Attorney General's Office described as an “online brothel.”

While certainly opposed to sex trafficking, the wider tech industry has argued against a push to revise the Communications Decency Act that would end a shield that blocks holding internet companies liable to content posted by users.

Facebook, Google and Twitter spent a combined $7.14 million on lobbying in the three months ending Sept. 30, according to new disclosures that capture how the companies are responding to greater regulatory scrutiny on Capitol Hill and beyond.

The companies have never more been in the spotlight than now, as U.S. lawmakers investigate how social media and web platforms helped Russia interfere with last year's presidential election. Top in-house lawyers for the companies are expected to testify Nov. 1 in Washington amid the congressional probe of Russia's meddling in the election.

The lobbying spend comes as the tech industry faces not just the reputational fallout of complicity with Russia's influence campaign but also the potential for regulatory reforms that would confront online advertising models.

Google led the tech industry trio, spending $4.17 million on a host of topics, including online advertising, one issue that's in focus in the Russia investigation. That amount was only the 10th-highest total in Google's history lobbying on Capitol Hill, according to a review of the company's disclosures. But it indicated the tech giant was getting out ahead of federal interest to craft new regulations for web advertising.

This month, U.S. Sens. John McCain, R-Arizona, Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, and Mark Warner, D-Virginia, proposed legislation that would force Google, Facebook and other companies to disclose who is purchasing online political advertising.

Facebook spent $2.85 million in the third quarter—a total topped only by the $3.21 million the social media giant shelled out in the first three months of 2017.

[Facebook GC Colin Stretch Explains 'Difficult Decision' to Turn Over Russian Ads to Congress]

As it has done in the past, the company leaned on its in-house lobbyists on the issue of online advertising. But it also deployed its policy team toward major national issues such as immigration reform. According to its disclosure, Facebook's team weighed in on “temporary high-tech worker visas and employment-based permanent residency” and pushed to restore the Obama-era policy of protecting undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as minors from deportation.

Google and Facebook, along with nearly two dozen other companies, are planning to launch a coalition to advocate for legislation allowing young, undocumented immigrants a path to permanent residency, according to Reuters.

The law firm Perkins Coie has guided Google and Facebook through regulatory issues arising out of the scrutiny over Russia-linked online ads, The New York Times reported last week. Marc Elias, a former Hillary Clinton adviser who leads the firm's political law practice, has helped the two tech giants request exemptions from Federal Election Commission's disclosure rules, contending that disclaimers would not fit in the ads posted on their respective platforms.

Twitter, traditionally a modest spender in Washington, also trained its sights on immigration, the company's lobbying disclosures show. The company spent part of its $120,000 third-quarter lobbying dollars to weigh in on President Donald Trump's executive order restricting travel to the United States. Two federal judges have enjoined parts of the latest order from taking effect.

Like Facebook and Google, Twitter also revealed its attention to a bipartisan bill proposed by U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, that seeks to hold websites accountable for knowingly providing a platform for sex traffickers. The bill is a response to outrage over Backpage.com, an online advertising site whose chief executive was charged last year with running what the California Attorney General's Office described as an “online brothel.”

While certainly opposed to sex trafficking, the wider tech industry has argued against a push to revise the Communications Decency Act that would end a shield that blocks holding internet companies liable to content posted by users.