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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday April 07 2022, @11:11AM   Printer-friendly

Amazon, Google Busted Faking Small Business Opposition To Antitrust Reform:

For decades now, a favorite DC lobbying tactic has been to create bogus groups pretending to support something unpopular your company is doing. Like "environmentalists for big oil" or "Americans who really love telecom monopolies." These groups then help big companies create a sound-wall of illusory support for policies that generally aren't popular, or great for innovation or markets.

Case in point: this week both Politico and CNBC released stories showcasing how Amazon and Google had been funding a "small business alliance" that appears to be partially or entirely contrived. The group, the Connected Commerce Council, professes to represent small U.S. businesses, yet has been busy recently lobbying government to avoid antitrust reform (which would, generally, aid small businesses).

When Politico reached out to companies listed as members of the organization, most of them had mysteriously never heard of it, and were greatly annoyed their company names were being used for such a purpose:

The four-year-old group listed about 5,000 small businesses in its membership directory before it removed that document from its website late last month. When POLITICO contacted 70 of those businesses, 61 said they were not members of the group and many added that they were not familiar with the organization.

Google is not your friend!


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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Thexalon on Thursday April 07 2022, @11:45AM (1 child)

    by Thexalon (636) on Thursday April 07 2022, @11:45AM (#1235440)
    The purpose of these sorts of efforts isn't really to be credible, nobody with a brain thinks they are. The purpose is to provide the politicians with political cover while they do what they were bribed lobbied to do, so if any of those pesky constituents or reporters asks them about it they can say "I did what I did at the urging of the Connected Commerce Council, a group of small businesses who benefit from keeping things as they are." And that's how even though astroturfing groups like this are full of crap, everybody knows it, and everybody knows that everybody knows it, they still succeed in their purpose of helping their funders get what they want.
    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 07 2022, @12:24PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 07 2022, @12:24PM (#1235443)

      Yes and they can also make it look like unpopular issues have a second side. It's like smoking or climate change which are extremely one sided issues when it comes to the actual research that's been done, but the relevant industries can buy time by muddying the water.

      Genetic engineering is another good example where they lie their asses off about regular cross breeding being similar to transgenics and now when less problematic methods come along, there's no way of cleanly distinguishing a reasonable boundary line.

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Thursday April 07 2022, @11:55AM (1 child)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane (4757) on Thursday April 07 2022, @11:55AM (#1235441)

    But I'm reassured to know that they value my privacy. I know that because they told me.

    • (Score: 3, Touché) by RS3 on Thursday April 07 2022, @04:22PM

      by RS3 (6367) on Thursday April 07 2022, @04:22PM (#1235488)

      Value, as in "your personal information has value, and we will cash in on it."

  • (Score: 4, Informative) by GlennC on Thursday April 07 2022, @01:45PM (7 children)

    by GlennC (3656) on Thursday April 07 2022, @01:45PM (#1235450)

    I thought that it was common knowledge that corporations and industry groups create fake grass-roots organizations.

    Definition of "Astroturfing": https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/astroturfing [merriam-webster.com]

    --
    Sorry folks...the world is bigger and more varied than you want it to be. Deal with it.
    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 07 2022, @01:48PM (5 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 07 2022, @01:48PM (#1235452)

      It is and if politicians cared about our democracy, they wouldn't allow it. This isn't any sort of legitimate free speech. They shouldn't be allowed to spend money on it.

      • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 07 2022, @08:34PM (4 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 07 2022, @08:34PM (#1235531)

        Yes, we need to ban any spending on any speech of which you, personally, do not approve. Absolutely. Because your view of what does or does not constitute permissible speech, and permissible use of resources is truly the acid test, the one shining beacon of rectitude in a morass, nay, a quagmire - more, even a miasma of doubt and duplicity. You and your organisation, Patriotic UltrAmericans for Pancivil Liberalisationalities, will lead us through the murk of sin and horror into the sunlit uplands of responsibly defined freedoms.

        Where do we donate?

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 08 2022, @12:17AM (2 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 08 2022, @12:17AM (#1235574)

          If they believe these things they should say it with their names attached. If these people doing the posting actually believe this, then why are they being paid to pretend like they're using their own beliefs?

          This isn't like when people come door to door with prepared statements looking for a signature or donations, this is far worse.

          And of course it should apply to all sides, if you're not able to make a compelling argument without stooping to this, your probably on the wrong side.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 08 2022, @05:08AM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 08 2022, @05:08AM (#1235613)

            Anonymous speech is protected, and for very good reasons. So is pseudonymous speech. Outlawing them is a favourite approach of witch hunters and dictators, so speaking of people probably being on the wrong side, have you checked the company with which you're running?

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 08 2022, @04:01PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 08 2022, @04:01PM (#1235658)

              I am Anonymous Coward, and I approve this message.

        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday April 08 2022, @01:17AM

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday April 08 2022, @01:17AM (#1235579) Journal
          Sounds plausible! 👍 👍
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 07 2022, @05:37PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 07 2022, @05:37PM (#1235505)

      Wow, I was today years old when I learned why it was called astroturfing.

      Thank you GlennC!

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 07 2022, @06:13PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 07 2022, @06:13PM (#1235514)

    Given that this was put out on April first ...

    • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday April 07 2022, @06:23PM

      by Freeman (732) on Thursday April 07 2022, @06:23PM (#1235517) Journal

      One could only wish.

      --
      Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 07 2022, @08:49PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 07 2022, @08:49PM (#1235535)

    Water is wet, the sky is blue, and the astroturf is green.

    This is news for kindergartners who are still excited about the prospect of not wearing diapers. Everyone else got the memo when Patrick Moore left Greenpeace because it was taken over by extremists, Candace Lightner left MADD because of burgeoning neo-prohibitionism, and when we discovered that nonprofit administration was a hot career option in the USA.

    Of course Amazon and Google are excited about antitrust reform. So are the trade unions who might end up having to face some antitrust regulations of their own. Just suggest that their free ride on that front might come to an end and listen for the feral howls of protest. Fellas, I hope you're all sitting down, because I have big, big news for you: large organisations and packs of fanatics not only hate, hate, hate being open to criticism and accounting, but will straight-up hire wordsmiths and muscle to defend their position.

    Funny thing is, the government does the same thing, often on behalf of the squeakier pressure groups. It's one example of regulatory capture.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 07 2022, @09:31PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 07 2022, @09:31PM (#1235553)

      My astroturf is blue [boisestate.edu], you insensitive clod.

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