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US congressman says to leave Google alone

by on17 October 2012



It would be the bloke behind SOPA


A US congressman, who stood up to Big Content's SOPA bill, has demanded that regulators leave Google alone.

In a letter to Federal Trade Commission chairman Jon Leibowitz,  Jared Polis praised Google's contribution to the nation's economy. He warned Leibowitz that if the FTC does choose to initiate an antitrust case against Google, Congress might react by curtailing its regulatory authority. In other words if the FTC does its job protecting people from Anti-trust actions he will cut the outfit's funding.

Polis said that when the national economy continues to stagnate, it's not clear why the FTC should be focusing on a product that consumers seem very happy with, search engines.

"While Google is surely a big company and an important service in peoples' lives, my constituents also use a variety of competing services." To pursue antitrust action in this "hyper-competitive" environment defies all logic, he claimed.

Playing on his strengths, Polis used his experience with the SOPA issue.  In that case policymakers tried to "overregulate Internet content," but "consumers revolted" and stopped the proposal. It seems odd that Polis has not noticed how much of a monopoly Google has of the search industry. The company is also charged with doctoring its search results to kill off rival advertising.

In short it appears that Polis does not know what he is talking about. Still there is an election on and Polis probably needs campaign support from somewhere.

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