Google Public Policy Blog: Politics

Really, Rupert?

Friday, March 27, 2015

Last year Robert Thomson, CEO of News Corp, accused Google of creating a "less informed, more vexatious level of dialogue in our society." Given the tone of some of your publications, that made quite a few people chuckle.

This week you were at it again. One of your newspapers, The Wall Street Journal, accused Google of wielding undue political influence. Blimey!

More seriously, given the inaccuracies that have been published, we wanted to give our side of the story. Here goes.

Wall Street Journal:

“The findings [from the Bureau of Competition] stand in contrast to the conclusion of the FTC’s commissioners, who voted unanimously in early 2013 to end the investigation”.

Google:
As the FTC made clear this week: “... the Commission’s decision on the search allegations was in accord with the recommendations of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, Bureau of Economics, and Office of General Counsel” (something the Journal has chosen not to report).

Wall Street Journal:
“Since Mr. Obama took office, employees of the Mountain View, Calif., company have visited the White House for meetings with senior officials about 230 times … In comparison, employees of rival Comcast Corp., also known as a force in Washington, have visited the White House a total of about 20 times … Google’s knack for getting in the room with important government officials is gaining new relevance as scrutiny grows over how the company avoided being hit by the FTC with a potentially damaging antitrust lawsuit”.

Google:
Of course we’ve had many meetings at the White House over the years. But when it comes to the information the Journal provided to Google about these meetings, our employment records show that 33 of the White House visits were by people not employed here at the time. And over five visits were a Google engineer on leave helping to fix technical issues with the government’s Healthcare.gov website (something he’s been very public about). Checking through White House records for other companies, our team counted around 270 visits for Microsoft over the same time frame and 150 for Comcast.

And the meetings we did have were not to discuss the antitrust investigation. In fact, we seem to have discussed everything but, including patent reform, STEM education, self-driving cars, mental health, advertising, Internet censorship, smart contact lenses, civic innovation, R&D, cloud computing, trade and investment, cyber security, energy efficiency and our workplace benefit policies. For example:

As the FTC has said, the Journal "makes a number of misleading inferences and suggestions about the integrity of the FTC's investigation. The article suggests that a series of disparate and unrelated meetings involving FTC officials and executive branch officials or Google representatives somehow affected the Commission's decision to close the search investigation in early 2013. Not a single fact is offered to substantiate this misleading narrative".

We understand you have a new found love of the regulatory process, especially in Europe, but as the FTC’s Bureau of Competition staff concluded, Google has strong pro-competitive arguments on our side. To quote from their report “... the record will permit Google to show substantial innovation, intense competition from Microsoft and others, and speculative long-run harm”.

And the FTC was not alone when it comes to search ranking and display. The Texas and Ohio Attorneys General closed their comprehensive competition investigations into Google in 2014. And courts in Germany and Brazil found that there is no basis in the law for Google competitors to dictate Google’s search results.

by Rachel Whetstone, SVP Communications and Policy

Helping government officials connect with constituents on YouTube

Friday, June 10, 2011

Posted by Will Houghteling, YouTube News & PoliticsCongressman Ryan explaining his budget plan through data visualizationsGovernor Christie posting responses during Town Hall meetingsnationalleaders

youtube.com/government101Google ModeratorCitizenTube@YTPolitics

Your interview with Speaker of the House John Boehner

Friday, March 4, 2011

Posted by Steve Grove, YouTube News and Politics(Cross-posted from the The Official YouTube Blog.)unique question

The Digital Playbook: Top 5 strategies for political campaigns

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Posted by Chris Talbot, Elections and Issue Advocacy TeamEditor's note: We're excited to welcome Google's Elections and Issue Advocacy Team to the Public Policy Blog. Since 2007, they've worked with political candidates, consultants and advocates to build online advertising campaigns and fully integrate digital media into political strategy. This post marks the beginning of what we hope will be a regular series from the team. Follow the Digital Playbook label for future posts. posedonline advertising platformshealth care reformRepublican victoriesScott Brown's upset in Massachusetts1. Use search advertising to build your email list and raise money.AdWords2. "Blast" the Google Network when you need to make a big splash.AdSenseVirginiaMassachusetts3. Join social networks to further amass and interact with your list of supporters.TwitterFacebookYouTubeYouTube politician channel4. Use data to inform your campaign decisions.Google Insights for SearchGoogle Analyticsclick-through ratesGoogle Website Optimizerexperiments5. Remember: Rapid response happens online, with or without you.Joe Wilsondeftly used search advertisingmcdonnell thesisDigital Playbook label
Update: If you're a campaign or candidate looking for help on getting started with advertising on Google, don't hesitate to give us a shout. You can get started on AdWords yourself, though—all it takes is a credit card and a few moments to create your first ad.

A new model for political interviews and debates

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Posted by Steve Grove, YouTube News & Politicspartneredquestions

our CNN/YouTube Debates"Open for Questions"google.com/moderator

Have a question for Virginia's Democratic gubernatorial candidates?

Friday, May 29, 2009

Posted by Steve Grove, YouTube News & PoliticsYouTubeGoogle Moderatorto launch

Live Stream on YouTube: The President's First 100 Days News Conference

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Posted by Steve Grove, YouTube News & Politics(Cross-posted from the YouTube Blog)White House YouTube channel

Hear Karl Rovea re-cap talk with AmericansCitizentube videoyoutube.com/whitehouse

As Canada faces political upheaval, what are Canadians searching for?

Friday, December 5, 2008

Posted by Jacob Glick, Canada Policy CounselConservative Partyre-elected just under two months agoLiberal PartyNew Democratic PartyBloc Québécoisthe Governor General has agreed, to prorogue ParliamentProrogation

Insights for Searchcoalition agreement

constitutional crisis

At the Republican Convention: Politics in the cloud and on the ground

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Posted by Niki Fenwick and Jake Parillo, Republican Convention Team(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog)Hurricane Gustavsearching for Sarah Palincloud-based systemNews and Media Portal powered by Google

RedState.comJon VoightTom DelayDennis HastertJon KingSenator George Allen

speechesYouTube ChannelMcCainPalin'sbehind-the-scenes footageeventswe partnered with Vanity Fair to throw a party US Election page

Denver recap and St. Paul update

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Posted by Rick Klau and Brittany Bohnet, Google Elections Team(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog)Conventions siteBig Tent2008 U.S. Elections siteGoogle Maps Election GalleryPower Readers in Politics

500Governor Mark WarnerSenator Harry ReidGovernor Bill RichardsonGovernor Brian SchweitzerMayor Gavin NewsomCongresswoman Tammy BaldwinJohn LegendCharles BarkleyLouis Gossett Jr.Senator Obama's acceptance speechYouTube channel

US Voter Info Guide

townhall discussionMacaca incident

DNC website

track Gustav's progressdisplay evacuation sites and hurricane forecastsGoogle News

Live Streaming by Ustream

"In their own words": political videos meet Google speech-to-text technology

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Posted by Arnaud Sahuguet and Ari Bezman, Product Managers
(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog)Google ResearchGoogle Elections Video Search gadgetPoliticians channelswhen

iGoogle gadget page

Elections in the Internet era

Monday, June 16, 2008

Posted by Bob Boorstin, Washington Director of Policy Communications(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog)first 21st century campaignBen RellesLizz WinsteadDaily ShowChristopher HitchensYouTube channelPop Culture PoliticsRunning the 21st Century CampaignCovering the 21st Century CampaignCitizentube1-on-1 interviews with panelistsC-SPANphotosgrowing influence

The Lisbon Treaty, Europe's future and Ireland’s decision

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Posted by Iarla Flynn, European Policy Manager - IrelandTreaty of LisbondebateRock the Vote"Ask The Experts"debate

Event next Wednesday: the first 21st century campaign

Friday, June 6, 2008

Posted by Dorothy Chou, Google Elections Team

YouTube usersNational JournalEVENT DETAILS:The first 21st century campaignRSVP@nationaljournal.com

Checkout now for PACs

Monday, March 17, 2008

Posted by Shoaib Makani, Associate Product Marketing Managerwe launchedGoogle Checkout for Political Contributionspolitical action committeesFederal Election Commissionhere

Our political advertising policies

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Posted by Peter Greenberger, Elections and Issue Advocacy TeamTwitterwho once saidelections teamnew guidelines

Editorial Guidelines. Like all AdWords ads, political ads must follow our editorial and content policies (including our trademark policies). Google may refuse any ads or terminate ad campaigns at any time, for any reason, as noted in the advertising Terms and Conditions.

Fairness. We permit political advertisements regardless of the political views they represent, and apply our policies equally. Just as the Net itself provides space for a thousand political opinions to bloom, Google is committed to being a neutral platform for people to advertise their political messages.

No attacks on an individual's personal life. Stating disagreement with or campaigning against a candidate for public office, a political party, or public administration is generally permissible. However, political ads must not include accusations or attacks relating to an individual's personal life, nor can they advocate against a protected group. So, "Crime rates are up under Police Commissioner Gordon" is okay, but "Police Commissioner Gordon had an affair" is not.

Donations. If you're soliciting political donations, your ad's landing page must clearly state that the donations are non-tax-deductible.

No misleading ads. As with all AdWords advertisements, political ads should not mislead users (for example, using ad text that leads a user to believe that they're clicking on Dog Catcher Jones' ad when it's really his challenger's ad). Ad text must be clear, easy to read, and descriptive of a candidate or cause.

elections team

Google Checkout for political contributions

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Posted by Prem Ramaswami, Product ManagerGoogle Checkout for Political Contributionshere

Our primary colors

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Posted by Brittany Bohnet, Elections Program Manager(Cross-posted to Google LatLong)announcedmaps.google.com/nhprimary2008

CNN/YouTube Republican debate tonight

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Posted by Pablo Chavez, Policy Counselthe first CNN/YouTube presidential debateRepublicans' turnsubmittedfireworks

"Virtual candidates" and web politics in Scandinavia

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Posted by Nicklas Lundblad, European Policy Manager - Stockholmsnapthe highest broadband penetration in Europebuying keywordswill revolutionize the electionscraft policy reform proposalsmentioned herefailing to invite dialogue and interactionBentSoelbergBerlingske Tidendepieceone researcher

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