Once a vocal critic and antagonist of Google….
What happened?
source: Tech Transparency Project
The chairman of the Senate antitrust subcommittee used to be one of Google’s chief Republican antagonists. What changed?
When Eric Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman, appeared before the Senate antitrust subcommittee in September 2011, one of his toughest questioners was Sen. Mike Lee.
“You’ve cooked it so that you’re always third,” the Utah Republican snapped at Schmidt, pressing him about a Google price comparison tool that, the senator said, often yielded results that were good for Google. “Senator, I can assure you we have not cooked anything,” Schmidt retorted.
It was the nearest the hearing had to a standout moment, and the tech giant took notice. The heated exchange dramatized the fact that Google had few allies among conservatives, who could normally be relied upon to defend a big company against government regulation.
It wasn’t the first time Lee had sounded the alarm about Google’s growing market dominance. Before becoming a senator, Lee helped push a Utah law that critics said would have effectively banned Google’s largest revenue source, keyword advertising. In March 2011, Sen. Lee sent a strongly worded letter to the subcommittee’s chairman, Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), expressing his “strong concerns” about Google’s “possible abuse of its predominant position” in Internet search. He called for “vigorous antitrust oversight and enforcement in this area.”
A month later, Lee praised the Department of Justice (DOJ) for imposing rigorous conditions on one of Google’s acquisitions and renewed his call for antitrust oversight of the company.
And after the contentious September 2011 hearing, Lee kept pressing, joining with Kohl in urging the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate “whether Google’s actions violate antitrust law or substantially harm consumers or competition.”
But today, as he presides as chairman of the Senate antitrust panel, Lee’s stance couldn’t be more different. With critics on both sides of the political aisle assailing big tech, Lee has questioned the need for congressional antitrust investigations, complained about big fines imposed on Google, and defended the tech industry against Republican charges of liberal bias.
Most recently, when the DOJ announced its own broad antitrust review of the leading online platforms in July 2019, Lee seemed to shrug, focusing not on the behavior of the tech companies, but on what he called the “institutional tug-of-war”between the Justice Department and the FTC.
What changed? A new analysis by the Google Transparency Project shows that Lee’s change of heart came after a lengthy, multifaceted campaign by Google and other big technology companies aimed at neutralizing Lee and his allies in the tea party movement. The company launched big projects in his home state and poured money into his 2016 reelection campaign, while Google and others in big tech hired away Lee’s staffers and allies.
As it courted Lee, Google also built what would quickly become a flourishing relationship with the Heritage Foundation, an influential Washington think tank with strong ties to Lee and others in the tea party movement.
Lee’s prominence among conservatives and his key role on the antitrust panel made him an especially valuable target for Google. But the company’s embrace of Lee is emblematic of the way it has moved to protect its right flank, wooing conservatives after years of building ties to Democrats.
Long read, but worth it!
The Curious Transformation of Mike Lee
H/T ItsGaryinAz66
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