The Internet Association is losing staff and influence because of unhappiness with the group's current leadership and disagreements within the tech industry over which policy issues to support, Politico reported Sunday.

IA was launched with much fanfare in 2012, with the group bringing together some of the largest players in the online economy, including Google, Facebook and eBay. The association's founding CEO Michael Beckerman left in 2020 to become head of U.S. policy for TikTok. Current employees are reportedly unhappy with his successor, Dane Snowden, whose top-down leadership style was described as "disrespectful" by at least eight people who spoke anonymously with Politico.

"I don't know anyone who isn't looking for another job," a former IA employee told the newspaper.

Also working against IA is the fact that its various members are no longer aligned on major policy issues, such as liability protections for content that appears on their online platforms. Many large tech players have their own advocacy operations and are relying less on trade groups to pursue various advocacy goals.

Several of IA's members are debating whether to continue their memberships in the organization, with annual dues ranging from $800,000 to $1 million for its largest players, according to Politico.

Snowden told the newspaper that leadership transitions at associations "are not easy" but he views IA as an organization that is growing. One of the CEO's top priorities is to strengthening the association's federal lobbying efforts, which he described as "dormant."

"We had very limited federal advocates," Snowden said. "A lot of what we did in the past was, as I understand it, was focus [on] our policy shop. Now we're focusing on our government relations shop."

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