Google’s True Colors: Libertarian Through and Through
Google has delved deep into the world of lobbying, making some strange bedfellows. keso s (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) Google has been throwing money at none other than George Mason University, a “major center of libertarian research.” This is the same institution that receives millions from the Koch brothers, among other donors, and now […]
Google has delved deep into the world of lobbying, making some strange bedfellows. keso s (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Google has been throwing money at none other than George Mason University, a “major center of libertarian research.” This is the same institution that receives millions from the Koch brothers, among other donors, and now the multinational tech company has joined their, let’s call them “distinguished,” ranks.
Salon:
Here’s how the free market works. Libertarian think tanks get paid by private corporations to host conferences designed to push industry-friendly regulation. It’s a beautiful thing to watch.
The emergence of Google as a major lobbying force in Washington is a generally well-reported story. But the Washington Post added fresh, intriguing details over the weekend that reveal the search engine company has been deeply involved with financing and organizing conferences on Internet regulatory policy at…George Mason University.
The Washington Post article, with the help of emails discovered through a public records request, details how Google helped set up two conferences devoted to “Internet search competition” in 2011 and 2012 that were attended by “regulators from the Federal Trade Commission, federal and state prosecutors, top congressional staffers.”
—Posted by Natasha Hakimi Zapata
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