Snapchat Adds New Friends to Lobby Republicans

​Everyone's favorite temporary photo swapping app (or, let's face it, nude photo swapping app) is stepping up its game on Capitol Hill. Snapchat has hired a second team of lobbyists, this time from a firm with Republican ties, to advocate for the app as congress considers changes to information privacy legislation, according to ​lobby registration paperwork.

Jochum Shore & Trossevin—a firm that inc​ludes a former Chief of Staff for the House Republican Conference and two former senior officials from the George W. Bush administration—has been hired to "monitor policy related to data privacy, security and other issues impacting application based companies." It's one of the same firms Lyft picked up in 2014 to advocate for "the removal of barriers that inhibit ride sharing."

Democratic lobbyists Heather Podesta + Partners also joined Snapchat last year.​

With the public more aware of the government's surveillance capabilities, social media companies that have access to a rich mine of personal information have a bit of a target on their back. Facebook, Twitter, and now Reddit all issue transp​arency reports that detail what and how much information the government is asking them to divulge, and how often they comply.

But companies only have so much say in whether or not they can decline to cooperate with requests for information, and changes to privacy law will be the biggest determining factor in just how private your private info really is.

Given the sensitive n​ature of much of the ac​tivity on Snapchat, it makes sense for the company to want to have a little muscle on the hill.