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Oi, Twitter! Sign this or we won't talk to you, growls EU

BSkyB and TalkTalk also miss Brussels' lobby register deadline

Twitter could soon find itself cold-shouldered by top European law-makers.

The deadline for all companies and organisations wanting to lobby the EU to update their information on the so-called Transparency Register passed this week.

The annual update was more important than usual this year since the Commission, under president Jean-Claude Juncker, has decided not to meet any lobbyists not on the register.

Yet more than 1,500 companies, including Twitter, BSkyB, TalkTalk, LG Electronics and Angry Birds maker Rovio failed to update their information. If they do not re-sign in the next two weeks they will be permanently deleted from the EU's register of approved lobbyists.

It is possible that they have decided to let their lobbying plans lapse, but with a new EU copyright directive in the pipeline it’s more surprising that the European Broadcasting Union and the British Copyright Council have also dropped the ball. Nor is vocal digital rights organisation La Quadrature du Net among the 7,096 organisations remaining on the register.

Topping the big spenders on the register is Microsoft with an estimated spend between four and half and five million euros. Amid its antitrust woes, Google more than doubled its outlay to as much as €4m. Huawei is the other big spender in the tech-telco sector with €3m. ®

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