Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google • Hacker News Board

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#181

Post by GeekyBear » Sat, Jun 01, 2019, 4:51 AM UTC

DannyBee wrote: post #125

GeekyBear wrote: post #59

The career officials at the FTC recommended antitrust action against Google back in 2012, but the political appointees shut them down. >When the Federal Trade Commission neared a momentous decision on whether to charge Google with violating antitrust laws in January 2013, the White House was watching closely. New emails uncovered by the Campaign for Accountability, a public interest watchdog organization, show that a…

FWIW: It sounds nefarious, but the DOJ/FTC/etc quite often meet with all parties prior to taking antitrust action. That's because (at least in the number of times i've been invited to meetings with these sorts of regulators) the relevant folks are not idiots, and in fact are trying to understand all sides of the issue before deciding what they should do. This is actually what you want them to do, as there are rarely,…

The fact is that the revolving door between Google and our government was spinning pretty quickly during that period.

>The Campaign for Accountability (CFA) this week launched the first two of its Google Transparency Projects. One of the projects – a visualisation of the revolving door between Google, the White House and US government agencies – is so dense, the website suggests viewing it on a desktop display.

As well as Googlers leaving the ad giant to join the administration, there’s also a heavy traffic in the other direction, with federal employees leaving to join Google. The project documents 61 staff taking key public positions after leaving Google, or firms working closely with Google, and 171 leaving public office to join [Google].

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/04/29/google_transparency...

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#182

Post by adrianmonk » Sat, Jun 01, 2019, 4:52 AM UTC

DannyBee wrote: post #125

GeekyBear wrote: post #59

The career officials at the FTC recommended antitrust action against Google back in 2012, but the political appointees shut them down. >When the Federal Trade Commission neared a momentous decision on whether to charge Google with violating antitrust laws in January 2013, the White House was watching closely. New emails uncovered by the Campaign for Accountability, a public interest watchdog organization, show that a…

FWIW: It sounds nefarious, but the DOJ/FTC/etc quite often meet with all parties prior to taking antitrust action. That's because (at least in the number of times i've been invited to meetings with these sorts of regulators) the relevant folks are not idiots, and in fact are trying to understand all sides of the issue before deciding what they should do. This is actually what you want them to do, as there are rarely,…

Yeah, this is basically how regulation works. You give whoever a chance to do something reasonable before you bring the hammer down. Threat of regulation is a key part of the process.

Ajit Pai just did this move with robocalls and SHAKEN/STIR:

> Ajit Pai orders phone companies to adopt new anti-robocall tech in 2019 Pai threatens "regulatory" action if carriers don't use Caller ID authentication. (https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/02/ajit-pai-orders-...)

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#183

Post by mjevans » Sat, Jun 01, 2019, 4:56 AM UTC

cycrutchfield wrote: post #162

User23 wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google engineers also built Obama's campaign software. The relationship was far tighter than most people realize.

They built his campaign software while working for Google? Are you sure about that?

I think you're jumping to a conclusion with that phrasing. It's very likely they happened to also volunteer (or maybe be hired by) the campaign WHILE also happening to be employed by Google.

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#184

Post by HillaryBriss » Sat, Jun 01, 2019, 4:57 AM UTC

studentrob wrote: post #173

orev wrote: post #82

Look, I get it — the issues with Google, Facebook, Amazon. But I can’t help but think about how AT&T and other ISPs banded together to claim they shouldn’t be regulated because they are Internet companies just like FANG during the Net Neutrality discussions. When I see just how bad ISPs are acting, in lack of competition, price gouging, content ownership, data monitoring, it really seems they were successful in shift…

You're right, ISP monopolies are a bigger antitrust issue. People are overwhelmingly pro net-neutrality They will take this action against Google, and meanwhile, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts will continue to take in an average of $100 per customer per month. This is, quite nakedly, Comcast influencing action against Google for trying to compete in broadband. It is convenient that Comcast owns NBC while lobbying governme…

IDK. Maybe this is not totally relevant, and maybe it's not a valid counterpoint, but I find it interesting that the market capitalizations of AT&T, Comcast and Charter Communications combined are roughly $200 billion less than Alphabet alone.

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#185

Post by tyingq » Sat, Jun 01, 2019, 4:58 AM UTC

GeekyBear wrote: post #59

The career officials at the FTC recommended antitrust action against Google back in 2012, but the political appointees shut them down. >When the Federal Trade Commission neared a momentous decision on whether to charge Google with violating antitrust laws in January 2013, the White House was watching closely. New emails uncovered by the Campaign for Accountability, a public interest watchdog organization, show that a…

Here's the staffer report from that event: http://graphics.wsj.com/google-ftc-report

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#186

Post by onetimemanytime » Sat, Jun 01, 2019, 4:58 AM UTC

and third world countries are corrupt? They are just open about it and give everyone a chance to bid. Imagine the hundreds of billions this decision was worth to Google. Total cost to Google? Probably tens of millions, and a lot of lobbying work was overlapping.

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#187

Post by davesque » Sat, Jun 01, 2019, 4:59 AM UTC

hueving wrote: post #179

davesque wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If he cites factual information and gives reasonable arguments, what's the difference?

He gave no facts about the whitehouse advisor.

Notice the "if". My point was that his working for Google shouldn't matter if those conditions are met. Whether or not they were met is another matter.

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#188

Post by threezero » Sat, Jun 01, 2019, 5:00 AM UTC

GeekyBear wrote: post #181

DannyBee wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW: It sounds nefarious, but the DOJ/FTC/etc quite often meet with all parties prior to taking antitrust action. That's because (at least in the number of times i've been invited to meetings with these sorts of regulators) the relevant folks are not idiots, and in fact are trying to understand all sides of the issue before deciding what they should do. This is actually what you want them to do, as there are rarely,…

The fact is that the revolving door between Google and our government was spinning pretty quickly during that period. >The Campaign for Accountability (CFA) this week launched the first two of its Google Transparency Projects. One of the projects – a visualisation of the revolving door between Google, the White House and US government agencies – is so dense, the website suggests viewing it on a desktop display. As we…

Notice that no Googlers have a good response to this or the Eric Schmidt / Hillary Clinton connection. Google’s ties to the Obama administration were deep.

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#189

Post by kortilla » Sat, Jun 01, 2019, 5:04 AM UTC

nsomaru wrote: post #174

I was the biggest Google fan ever. I recommended all their products to everyone I know. Gone are those days. I now trust Microsoft (heh! M!cr0$0ft, anyone?) more than Google which is strange given I grew up rebelling against MS’s technical desktop hegemony. I wonder when Google decided “doing evil” was okay. I wonder how the SWE’s and other senior people in this thread feel about working for a company that many now c…

Would it make you feel better if I told you Google pays really well and offers nice perks for SWEs? It’s worth it to a lot of people to have a path to early retirement, even if it means the destruction of the open internet.

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#190

Post by dmix » Sat, Jun 01, 2019, 5:06 AM UTC

threezero wrote: post #188

GeekyBear wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact is that the revolving door between Google and our government was spinning pretty quickly during that period. >The Campaign for Accountability (CFA) this week launched the first two of its Google Transparency Projects. One of the projects – a visualisation of the revolving door between Google, the White House and US government agencies – is so dense, the website suggests viewing it on a desktop display. As we…

Notice that no Googlers have a good response to this or the Eric Schmidt / Hillary Clinton connection. Google’s ties to the Obama administration were deep.

It really shouldn't matter what a public officials prior employment, often domain expertise is often a good or necessary thing. But it unfortunately seems to be a recurring problem worth investigating. There should be some conflict of interest rules around anything related to your former employers. Only if they were previously high up at the company, of course.

The DoJ and other state legal offices have rules about excusing prosecutors from cases but this one seems to not be seen as an issue at these regulatory and broader judicial agencies.

This should matter considering the US is disparaging China for having private companies backed by the powerful government bodies, operating under a different set of rules than everyone else.