Categorized | Uncategorized

GOP States Join DOJ’s Google Antitrust Investigation

Posted on 15 September 2020

Google appears to be in for a reckoning as a bipartisan alliance of states has joined to target the Big Tech platform for antitrust. “About a dozen states, mostly led by Republicans, are expected to join the Justice Department’s upcoming antitrust lawsuit against Alphabet Inc.’s Google, according to people familiar with the investigation,” Bloomberg reported on September 11. This comes as politicians such as Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) have sounded the call to war on Big Tech monopolies in a September 10 tweet: “Big Tech companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook, & Apple have way too much power over our economy & our democracy. For the good of our country, we must demand our regulators do their jobs & take swift, aggressive action – not kick the can down the road one more time.” Bloomberg went on to observe that: “Nearly every state attorney general is investigating the company in a parallel probe focused on the company’s online advertising business and led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.” Google might be facing fights on multiple fronts: “Different states have focused on other parts of Google’s sprawling business lines, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing confidential matters.” The article then explained how, according to the same anonymous sources: “Even after the case is filed in the coming weeks, some Democratic-led states could continue to investigate other aspects of Google’s business and could bring an additional case in the coming months.” The same article specified that this will be one of the most decisive actions against Big Tech in many years: “The lawsuit is expected to be the most significant antitrust action in the U.S. in the roughly two decades since the government sued Microsoft Corp. in 1998.” Conservatives have good reason to believe Google abuses its power as the world’s largest search engine. Guerilla journalism group Project Veritas published a video showing Google Responsible Innovation Head Jen Gennai suggesting that “breaking up Google” would not “prevent the next Trump situation.” She also mused how changes in Google’s secret algorithms could have prevented his election from happening in the first place. Donald Trump, Jr. accused Google of “election interference” in mid-June after the search engine giant had reportedly demonetized skeptic news website ZeroHedge and sent a warning that it would take similar action against The Federalist. NBC News alleged that “A Google spokesperson said in an email on Monday that it demonetized the websites after determining they violated its policies on content related to race.”  Google also flip-flopped on its ad policies after massive pushback by liberals who complained that they could specifically benefit the Trump campaign. Could this clear liberal bias and vulnerability to liberal activists lead to a stolen election? At least one expert would say, yes. Prominent liberal Google critic Dr. Robert Epstein wrote that Google gave at least 2.6 million votes to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016 and that it could sway “upward of 15 million votes” in the Democrats’ favor in 2020. Breitbart released leaked footage of Google leadership and employees gathering for a meeting with an “atmosphere of panic and dismay,” after President Donald Trump’s 2016 victory. Conservatives are under attack. Contact the FCC at 1-888-225-5322 and/or via the MRC’s FCC contact form to give your take on the petition filed by the Department of Commerce regarding Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. Demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives.