Google to Customers: Help Us Fight Against Stronger Antitrust Laws
Big tech is moving towards a slow declaration of war on Congress.
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Last week, Dave Dayen at the American Prospect reported on how Amazon is telling hundreds of thousands of merchants that it will have to kick them off of its marketplace if Congress passes antitrust law reform.
It turns out that Google is getting in on the game as well. Below is an email Google’s ‘customer solutions team’ sent to customers of Google’s office tools, warning them that Congress is about to destroy the tools on which they rely. Specifically, Google is saying that addresses will have to be stripped from Google search and maps, that Google ads would be less accurate, and that Google docs, gmail, and calendar wouldn’t work together anymore.
This is the beginning of a list-building exercise, where Google is trying to find businesses who will back them. And then the search giant will get those firms to contact Congress, with the goal of blocking any sort of legal reform.
Too Big for Democracy.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Google Customer Solutions <[email protected]>
Subject: Take action: Three ways new legislation could affect your business
Dear XYZ,
Over the past year and a half, the pandemic has created challenges for American businesses. And we've heard from many of you how digital tools have helped your business to adapt, recover, and reach new customers, in spite of those challenges.
Some of you have also expressed concerns about proposed regulations in Congress that would have unintended consequences for your business, and could disrupt many of the digital tools you rely on every day. So we wanted to share an update and offer you the opportunity to hear more.
By clicking this button I consent that Google can contact me about legislative and regulatory issues, events, and advocacy opportunities related to my business.
If passed, these bills could cost your business time and money by:
Making it harder for customers to find you because your business listing (including your phone number, address, and business hours) may no longer appear on Google Search and Maps.
Reducing your digital marketing effectiveness if Google Ads products were disconnected from each other and from Google Analytics.
Hurting your productivity if Gmail, Docs, and Calendar were split up and no longer work together seamlessly.
Google's public policy team is working with members of Congress to share concerns about how these bills could impact businesses like yours. If you're interested in learning more about these bills, their impact on your business, and what you can do about it, we invite you to sign up to stay informed.
Together, we can be an important voice in the policy conversation about regulations that affect you - and your business.
Thank you,
The Google Customer Solutions Team
Google LLC
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
This is an informational email to inform you about potential changes to your Google account.
That is just blatant lying. I can not see how interoperability of the current products - like showing business information on a map - would suddenly become impossible. It may become more expensive for Google, or more accessible to other companies providing map services. I guess "your business may be shown on the map in other services besides Google" is not as convincing, though.
If I may, on topic of Google, serious degradation of the provided search capability in the last 10 years has taken place for those seeking information. Really, the transformation is all but complete and it's now a marketplace, with commercial results always taking priority. Then again Facebook has nearly killed off Internet forums and the structured information they provided, so there is less information to find. We did get Groups with no structure and information that may be deleted at any given time for whatever reason in exchange for the forums, though.
Perhaps this is just another case of "old man yells at cloud" when society inevitably progresses. I would just like to use a search engine that helps me find what I actually want, not what they want me to find.
Google Maps is terrible. It seems to pick insane routes, without fail. Break 'em up. Govern already.