4 ms·

Two quick thoughts. I very briefly glanced under the technical covers of this campaign. For the curious, citizensagainstmonopoly.org was created 2017-08-10T18

Two quick thoughts. I very briefly glanced under the technical covers of this campaign. For the curious, citizensagainstmonopoly.org was created 2017-08-10T18:56:36Z. The site was apparently written by middleseat.co - "Middle Seat is a digital marketing, media and organizing firm advocating for progressive candidates and causes." Its principals are the former Bernie Sanders digital and social media directors and advisor (Zack Exley, frm Wikimedia Foundation). Microsoft has a long history of funding, encouraging, and astroturfing opposition to Google. One easy approach to discouraging this behavior is to make sure Microsoft is mentioned whenever a Google "evil monopoly" campaign goes by. Especially if it mentions Facebook and Amazon as well, but leaves out Microsoft. So I mention it in passing here, mostly to illustrate the approach. I know of nothing connecting Microsoft with the current campaign. FWIW.

tomjakubowski 9y ago
> Microsoft has a long history of funding, encouraging, and astroturfing opposition to Google. What exactly have they done to this effect? The closest I can think of is Scroogled [1], which was pretty transparently a Microsoft marketing campaign. I would hardly characterize it as "astroturfing". [1] https://web.archive.org/web/20130207164132/http://www.scroogled.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20130207164132/http://www.scroog...
- wdr1 9y ago
  Microsoft caught 'astroturfing' bloggers again to promote Internet Explorer http://www.pcworld.com/article/2365060/microsoft-caught-astroturfing-bloggers-again-to-promote-internet-explorer.html http://www.pcworld.com/article/2365060/microsoft-caught-astr... Confirmed: Ben Edelman Paid by Microsoft, Attacks Google http://techrights.org/2011/08/30/ben-edelman-works-for-monopolist/ http://techrights.org/2011/08/30/ben-edelman-works-for-monop... Astroturfing Antitrust: How Microsoft is Crafting the Grassroots Case Against Google https://www.cbsnews.com/news/astroturfing-antitrust-how-microsoft-is-crafting-the-grassroots-case-against-google/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/astroturfing-antitrust-how-micr... Who’s Behind This Shadow Group Attacking Google? http://fortune.com/2016/04/27/google-transparency-project/ http://fortune.com/2016/04/27/google-transparency-project/

tomjakubowski 9y ago

> Microsoft has a long history of funding, encouraging, and astroturfing opposition to Google. What exactly have they done to this effect? The closest I can think of is Scroogled [1], which was pretty transparently a Microsoft marketing campaign. I would hardly characterize it as "astroturfing". [1] https://web.archive.org/web/20130207164132/http://www.scroogled.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20130207164132/http://www.scroog...

wdr1 9y ago
Microsoft caught 'astroturfing' bloggers again to promote Internet Explorer http://www.pcworld.com/article/2365060/microsoft-caught-astroturfing-bloggers-again-to-promote-internet-explorer.html http://www.pcworld.com/article/2365060/microsoft-caught-astr... Confirmed: Ben Edelman Paid by Microsoft, Attacks Google http://techrights.org/2011/08/30/ben-edelman-works-for-monopolist/ http://techrights.org/2011/08/30/ben-edelman-works-for-monop... Astroturfing Antitrust: How Microsoft is Crafting the Grassroots Case Against Google https://www.cbsnews.com/news/astroturfing-antitrust-how-microsoft-is-crafting-the-grassroots-case-against-google/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/astroturfing-antitrust-how-micr... Who’s Behind This Shadow Group Attacking Google? http://fortune.com/2016/04/27/google-transparency-project/ http://fortune.com/2016/04/27/google-transparency-project/