How Google Quietly Funds Europe's Leading Tech Policy Institutes (newstatesman.com) 14
Google has provided tens of millions of pounds of funding to academics investigating issues closely related to its business model. From a report: A recent scientific paper proposed that, like Big Tobacco in the Seventies, Big Tech thrives on creating uncertainty around the impacts of its products and business model. One of the ways it does this is by cultivating pockets of friendly academics who can be relied on to echo Big Tech talking points, giving them added gravitas in the eyes of lawmakers. Google highlighted working with favourable academics as a key aim in its strategy, leaked in October 2020, for lobbying the EU's Digital Markets Act -- sweeping legislation that could seriously undermine tech giants' market dominance if it goes through.
Now, a New Statesman investigation can reveal that over the last five years, six leading academic institutes in the EU have taken tens of millions of pounds of funding from Google, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft to research issues linked to the tech firms' business models, from privacy and data protection to AI ethics and competition in digital markets. While this funding tends to come with guarantees of academic independence, this creates an ethical quandary where the subject of research is also often the primary funder of it. The New Statesman has also found evidence of an inconsistent approach to transparency, with some senior academics failing to disclose their industry funding. Other academics have warned that the growing dependence on funding from the industry raises questions about how tech firms influence the debate around the ethics of the markets they have created.
Now, a New Statesman investigation can reveal that over the last five years, six leading academic institutes in the EU have taken tens of millions of pounds of funding from Google, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft to research issues linked to the tech firms' business models, from privacy and data protection to AI ethics and competition in digital markets. While this funding tends to come with guarantees of academic independence, this creates an ethical quandary where the subject of research is also often the primary funder of it. The New Statesman has also found evidence of an inconsistent approach to transparency, with some senior academics failing to disclose their industry funding. Other academics have warned that the growing dependence on funding from the industry raises questions about how tech firms influence the debate around the ethics of the markets they have created.
Now talk about how they manipulate US policymaking (Score:2)
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"Surprising to see such an article at all (who knew actual journalism still exists?) but not surprising to see that it's from the UK and not the US."
Why? Murdoch and other Billionaires make a much worse news-job over there than in the US.
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Whataboutism
Why not focus on the Big Tech problem for this article unless you really feel the need to draw attention away from google and back to Murdoch?
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not surprising to see that it's from the UK and not the US.
It surprises me greatly that academics in the EU are being accused of accepting payoffs in English currency! Not even European Intellectuals want Euros these days? What?
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Surprising to see such an article at all (who knew actual journalism still exists?) but not surprising to see that it's from the UK and not the US.
Giant corporation controlling US policy is not even news. What everybody already knew is not newsworthy.
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And yet while the left and the right, the liberals and the conservatives always squabble about politics while these corporate puppets, the think tanks, institutes, organisations and lobbyists all dictate to the politicians what they will really do.
Saying it is not newsworthy is a terrible untruth, while profits lead corporations and corporations lead politicians, the world will keep talking one step forwards and two steps back.
If everybody knew how the world was being run then people would understand that t
That's smart (Score:3)
they are killing the 'weeds' right as they come out of the ground, which is smart an certainly dubious.
Google are a shower of creeps (Score:2)
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I despise their condescending "it's for your own good" approach to foisting their products upon you.
This has been happening throughout the entire tech industries history, what do you think happened in 1997 with Ultima online? Game industry found out the public was clueless about technology/software ownership and the business community was ecstatic. They are turning the global telecom into one giant locked down mainframe, we'll soon have encrypted chips and no access to raw binaries. See here:
https://trustedcomputinggroup.... [trustedcom...ggroup.org]
They are going hardcore to prevent raw file access and have end to end control
imob (Score:1)
Simple rule in research (Score:2)
Don't bite the hand that feeds you.
I've seen how the influence works in education research projects when the stakes are high. Every academic I've heard of who does research into high-stakes summative assessment is very careful not to ruffle the feathers of the major research funders which also happen to be the big high-stakes summative assessment providers.
On the other hand, if you cross them, they'll come after you, no holds barred: https://www.texasobserver.org/... [texasobserver.org]
Wow! (Score:2)
They make friends instead of sending the Brute-Squad with balckmail to politicians?