FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 11, 2017

Contact: Daniel Stevens, 202.780.5750, dstevens@campaignforaccountability.org

WASHINGTON D.C. – Earlier today, Leslie Miller, Google’s Director of Public Policy, wrote a blog post responding to Campaign for Accountability’s (CfA) new report, Google Academics Inc.  In response, CfA Executive Director, Daniel Stevens, released the following statement.

“Whenever Google’s bad behavior is exposed, it invariably points the finger at someone else.  Instead of deflecting blame, Google should address its record of academic astroturfing, which puts it in the same league as Big Oil and Big Tobacco. Also, a little perspective: CfA is a small nonprofit organization.  In contrast, Google is one of the largest, most powerful and richest companies on the planet.

“We think our work speaks for itself.  Over the past 18 months, the Google Transparency Project has documented more than 425 White House meetings by Google lobbyists, 250 revolving door hires between Google and government and more than 325 academic papers paid for by the company to help advance its policy interests. All of the underlying data is published on the site, along with more than 40,000 pages of Google emails with US government officials.  The data in the report has also been subject to analysis by The Wall Street Journal, which cited the data in its own investigative article today.”

Campaign for Accountability is a nonpartisan, nonprofit watchdog organization that uses research, litigation, and aggressive communications to expose misconduct and malfeasance in public life and hold those who act at the expense of the public good accountable for their actions.