Google, once disdainful of lobbying, now a master of Washington influence
In May 2012, the law school at George Mason University hosted a forum billed as a “vibrant discussion” about Internet search competition. Many of the major players in the field were there — regulators from the Federal Trade Commission, federal and state prosecutors, top congressional staffers.
What the guests had not been told was that the day-long academic conference was in large part the work of Google, which maneuvered behind the scenes with GMU’s Law & Economics Center to put on the event. At the time, the company was under FTC investigation over concerns about the dominance of its famed search engine, a case that threatened Google’s core business.
In the weeks leading up to the GMU event, Google executives suggested potential speakers and guests, sending the center’s staff a detailed spreadsheet listing members of Congress, FTC commissioners, and senior officials with the Justice Department and state attorney general’s offices.
“If you haven’t sent out the invites yet, please use the attached spreadsheet, which contains updated info,” Google legal assistant Yang Zhang wrote to Henry Butler, executive director of the law center, according to internal e-mails obtained by The Washington Post through a public records request. “If you’ve sent out the invites, would it be possible to add a few more?”
Butler replied, “We’re on it!”
On the day of the conference, leading technology and legal experts forcefully rejected the need for the government to take action against Google, making their arguments before some of the very regulators who would help determine its fate.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-google-is-transforming-power-and-politicsgoogle-once-disdainful-of-lobbying-now-a-master-of-washington-influence/2014/04/12/51648b92-b4d3-11e3-8cb6-284052554d74_story.html
Excellent breakdown of how many pies Google is sticking their fingers in, their unholy alliances, unsavory bedfellows, how they get useful idiots to unwittingly campaign for their bills, etc...They're like a slightly less misanthropic Koch brothers...
Anyone who has read my posts on the NSA threads knows that one of my many issues with the way the story is reported is how corporations like Google who do massive data collections to their own ends have been able to skate while the NSA has gotten all the global scorn...Actually, Google did more than skate -- While everyone was focusing their attention on the NSA, Google did a quick disguise change and made themselves into an *innocent victim* instead of waiting to be outed as a willing partner; and everyone fell for the ruse (quick note to the NSA PAO: THAT is how you skilfully conduct damage control in a public relations crisis -- Google is even scrubbing all online links they have to certain DoD projects as well)...And now Google is lobbying for MORE data collection powers? With nary a bit of public anger or even attention even after the Google+ expose?
I realize that probably a quarter of DU regulars have me on ignore by now (I don't blame them; I've put them on ignore as well)...But I'm very, very interested in hearing peoples' thoughts about this...For the record, Greenwald and Snowden have repeatedly said in interviews and public comments that corporate data collection is a non-issue...If they are being willfully duplicitous on this issue, god help them...
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