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It is hardly a secret the Barack Obama White House had a cozy relationship with Google. Between 2009 to 2015, representatives and lobbyists for the company averaged one White House meeting a week. In what can only be described as a Google-Obama revolving door, nearly 250 individuals moved either from the government to Google or Google to the government during the Obama presidency.
While politicization of executive branch agencies has become the norm for both major parties, the Obama administration’s tentacles of politicization appear to have reached even further, deep into the regulatory arena.
Leaked documents recently obtained by Politico demonstrate the Obama White House’s tight relationship with the search engine giant may have even influenced the behavior of the Federal Trade Commission, one of the highest so-called independent regulatory enforcement and consumer protection agencies in the land. The memos reveal, for example, that despite having overwhelming data that the company operated as an unchecked monopoly, the FTC declined to pursue enforcement against Google in 2013.
As a former senior member of the House Judiciary Committee, I find these revelations deeply distressing and believe they should drum up calls in Congress to reform and depoliticize these vital federal institutions. This is essential to ensure — to the greatest extent possible — that truth, justice, and law and order prevail in our country.
Federal investigators at the FTC were alerted early in Obama’s first term that Google’s surge in the then-nascent mobile phone industry appeared to be illegal and something needed to be done. Eighteen FTC lawyers and paralegals issued memos explaining that, because of exclusionary and anti-free market deal-making, Google was the default search engine on fully 86 percent of American smartphones and controlled an astounding 97 percent of global mobile searches.
While U.S. antitrust law does not explicitly define precisely what market share moves a company from a fair competitor to a monopoly, several court cases have determined that a 70 percent market share creates a monopolization threshold. This means Google’s 86 percent share more than qualified it for at least investigation, especially when the FTC’s own report showed the commission knew that a Google executive boasted to the giant company’s CEO that the company could soon “own the U.S. market.” Still, Obama’s politically appointed FTC bosses shut the investigation down even though their attorneys suggested charges should be pursued.
Unsurprisingly, the basis for their dismissive decision appears to have been meritless or at the very least contradictory grounds. One telling example was the FTC’s use of Comcast data to allege Google only controlled between 10 and 20 percent of the web traffic for rival shopping and review sites. It did this despite knowing that Google’s CEO stated in sworn testimony to the FTC that the Comcast numbers were wrong. Google’s chief economist and even the FTC’s own attorneys stated the same thing, but Obama’s appointees at the FTC used the data anyway.
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They’re Trying to Shut Us Down
Over the last several months, I’ve lost count of how many times the powers-that-be have tried to shut us down. They’ve sent hackers at us, forcing us to take extreme measures on web security. They sent attorneys after us, but thankfully we’re not easily intimidated by baseless accusations or threats. They’ve even gone so far as to make physical threats. Those can actually be a bit worrisome but Remington has me covered.
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Thank you and God bless!
JD Rucker