MARCH 22, 2021 - Leaked Docs Show
Obama FTC Gave Google Its Monopoly
After Google Execs Helped Obama Get Re-Elected
Leaked documents from the
FTC's 2012 investigation of Google
show exactly what is wrong with the state of American antitrust enforcement.
Eight years ago, the Federal Trade Commission had the chance to face down Google — the giant of Silicon Valley whose power now alters the free flow of information at a global scale, distorts market access for businesses large and small, and changes the nature of independent thought in ways the world has never experienced.
Instead, the FTC blinked — and blinked hard, choosing to close the investigation in early 2013. A remarkable leak to Politico of agency documents about the 2012 Google investigation reveals that, despite ample evidence of market distortions and threats to competition presented by the agency’s lawyers, the five commissioners of the FTC deferred instead to speculative claims by their economists.
Records and reporting about the 2012 investigation suggest the FTC did so while bending to political pressure from the Obama White House — which was, in turn, bending to political pressure from Google. William Kovacic, a former FTC chair under President George W. Bush, reviewed the more than 3,00 pages of documents leaked to Politico and concluded the agency overlooked “what many experts and regulators would consider clear antitrust violations,” calling the specificity of issues outlined “breathtaking.”
In short, where we find ourselves today — with Google as the primary filter of the world’s information, engaging in a network of exclusionary contracts and anti-competitive conduct, and subject to an antitrust lawsuit led by the Department of Justice and joined by 48 state attorneys general — could have, and should have, been avoided.
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https://thefederalist.com/2021/03/22/leaked-docs-show-obama-ftc-gave-google-its-monopoly-after-google-execs-helped-obama-get-re-elected/#.YFiNxI5oI58.twitter
https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1373975251156094986