Sen. Mike Lee’s transformation from Google critic to ally
On August 20, 2019, Tucker Carlson discussed CfA's report, The Curious Transformation of Mike Lee, on his Fox News show, Tucker Carlson Tonight.
On August 20, 2019, Tucker Carlson discussed CfA's report, The Curious Transformation of Mike Lee, on his Fox News show, Tucker Carlson Tonight.
On August 19, 2019, CfA, which runs the Google Transparency Project, published a new analysis, "The Curious Transformation of Mike Lee," which documents how Google used its power and influence to turn U.S. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) into a reliable Google ally after years of antagonizing the company.
"Alice Huling, counsel at the Campaign for Accountability, [an] ethics watchdog and Google critic, said Google’s policy change had not given enough thought to the ways in which users use the search engine."
"Daniel Stevens, the head of the watchdog group Campaign for Accountability, who has been monitoring Google closely for his organization’s Google Transparency Project, said the failure to act fits a pattern at the company."
"A new report out today from the Google Transparency Project details a non-profit named the Connected Commerce Council, or 3C, pitching itself as “the voice of small business.” Curiously, they only seem interested with Amazon, Google, and Facebook."
On July 16, 2019, CfA released a new report, Plumbers, Pub-Keepers and Notaries: Big Tech’s New Disguise, revealing that the Connected Commerce Council (3C), a small, newly-founded Washington-based nonprofit that bills itself as the “voice of small business,” appears to be an Astroturf-style front group for the nation’s largest technology companies.
On June 26, 2019, CfA sent letters to executives at Apple and Google calling on the companies to remove from their platforms apps belonging to the anti-abortion behemoth Susan B. Anthony List and anti-choice/anti-LGBT group, the Family Research Council, for violating company policies.
"Alice Huling, counsel for the Campaign for Accountability, a watchdog fighting a recent change in federal rules on what kinds of clinics can receive federal funds for healthcare services, said Google was usually the first resource for a woman with an unplanned pregnancy."
"Google and federal regulators have tended to have an especially close relationship when it comes to driverless cars. The Obama administration, for instance, took an innovation-friendly approach that sometimes translated into 'regulators reaching out to Google asking them how to write the rules,' said Daniel Stevens, executive director of the Campaign for Accountability, a nonprofit watchdog group"
"A new report by Campaign for Accountability, a [...] watchdog group that is critical of Google... has chronicled the way in which the company sought to forge ties in Cuba beginning in 2014, when Schmidt and three other Google executives flew to Cuba on a private jet as part of what they said was an academic research project."