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I would be very interested in reading any sources on this you may choose to provide, if you please.

by jpt4 10y ago

ocdtrekkie 10y ago
So, it starts with a slightly different form of sleezy behavior: Google paid a university to write "academic studies" that Google would then claim demonstrated that Google wasn't anticompetitive. http://www.businessinsider.com/google-and-george-mason-university-2015-11?op=1 http://www.businessinsider.com/google-and-george-mason-unive... One of the professors, who was the author of many of those "studies" is Joshua Wright, who thereafter took the FTC Commissioner position in 2013. Note that the Google checks to GMU started the same month as the FTC probe began. http://www.salon.com/2015/11/24/googles_insidious_shadow_lobbying_how_the_internet_giant_is_bankrolling_friendly_academics_and_skirting_federal_investigations/ http://www.salon.com/2015/11/24/googles_insidious_shadow_lob... The FTC investigation around this time had found significant cause to go after Google: http://www.wsj.com/articles/inside-the-u-s-antitrust-probe-of-google-1426793274 http://www.wsj.com/articles/inside-the-u-s-antitrust-probe-o... Despite this, the FTC decided to close the investigation without any significant change on January 3rd, 2013: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2013/01/google-agrees-change-its-business-practices-resolve-ftc https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2013/01/googl... And the Google-paid advocate above, Joshua Wright, was signed in as FTC Commissioner just ten days later: https://www.ftc.gov/about-ftc/biographies/joshua-d-wright https://www.ftc.gov/about-ftc/biographies/joshua-d-wright Note that the close relationship between Google and this White House have been well documented. Googlers are some of Obama's top contributors in the previous Presidential election, numerous Googlers have taken high-ranking positions at the White House, and Google executives or representatives visit weekly. So I have a hard time buying that any of this is coincidence. And the rumor is, that within like a month of Joshua Wright resigning, the FTC started investigating Google antitrust again.

I would be very interested in reading any sources on this you may choose to provide, if you please.

by jpt4 10y ago

I would be very interested in reading any sources on this you may choose to provide, if you please.

So, it starts with a slightly different form of sleezy behavior: Google paid a university to write "academic studies" that Google would then claim demonstrated that Google wasn't anticompetitive. http://www.businessinsider.com/google-and-george-mason-university-2015-11?op=1 http://www.businessinsider.com/google-and-george-mason-unive... One of the professors, who was the author of many of those "studies" is Joshua Wright, who thereafter took the FTC Commissioner position in 2013. Note that the Google checks to GMU started the same month as the FTC probe began. http://www.salon.com/2015/11/24/googles_insidious_shadow_lobbying_how_the_internet_giant_is_bankrolling_friendly_academics_and_skirting_federal_investigations/ http://www.salon.com/2015/11/24/googles_insidious_shadow_lob... The FTC investigation around this time had found significant cause to go after Google: http://www.wsj.com/articles/inside-the-u-s-antitrust-probe-of-google-1426793274 http://www.wsj.com/articles/inside-the-u-s-antitrust-probe-o... Despite this, the FTC decided to close the investigation without any significant change on January 3rd, 2013: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2013/01/google-agrees-change-its-business-practices-resolve-ftc https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2013/01/googl... And the Google-paid advocate above, Joshua Wright, was signed in as FTC Commissioner just ten days later: https://www.ftc.gov/about-ftc/biographies/joshua-d-wright https://www.ftc.gov/about-ftc/biographies/joshua-d-wright Note that the close relationship between Google and this White House have been well documented. Googlers are some of Obama's top contributors in the previous Presidential election, numerous Googlers have taken high-ranking positions at the White House, and Google executives or representatives visit weekly. So I have a hard time buying that any of this is coincidence. And the rumor is, that within like a month of Joshua Wright resigning, the FTC started investigating Google antitrust again.