Opinion

Leave Google alone

Font Size:

President Obama’s class-warfare assault on successful businessmen and investors appears to have spurred members of Congress to launch an assault on Google because it has been too successful. Depressingly, however, these attacks are not limited to Democrats, but include among their ranks so-called conservative Republicans.

America is often portrayed as a place where entrepreneurs invest their hard-earned money into their ideas and, with enough perseverance and hard work, can thrive and be prosperous.

That is the dream that has made us the envy of the world. But if you become too successful, you will find yourself investigated by regulators and pestered by members of Congress looking to find a few moments of face time on television. Unfortunately, Google finds itself in that very situation now.

The situation is not all that dissimilar from what Microsoft went through in the 1990s when the software giant became a frequent target for regulators at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and busybody lawyers at the Department of Justice (DOJ).

At the time, Microsoft was dominating the computer software industry. Nearly every computer used the Windows Operating System and the Internet Explorer browser. Bill Gates had, through years of investment and employing the brightest minds in the field, put together a product that was extraordinarily successful. Because of that success, Microsoft was deemed to be a threat.

The accusation was that Microsoft was attempting to maintain its monopoly by stifling competitors. After costly investigations, the DOJ filed an antitrust suit against Microsoft.

The suit was eventually settled out of court, but Microsoft paid a steep price, both in terms in defending itself and allowing access to its intellectual property.

The case also set a bad precedent that was sure to be repeated. In fact, Milton Friedman warned in 1999 that Silicon Valley would come to regret when they asked for intervention against Microsoft. The Nobel Prize-winning economist said, “From now on the computer industry, which has been very fortunate in that it has been relatively free of government intrusion, will experience a continuous increase in government regulation.”

Fast-forward to 2011 and we see that Friedman was correct as now the federal government has found a new boogeyman in Google, a resoundingly successful search engine founded in 1998.

Over the years, Google has developed a variety of services and branched out into many other avenues, some through innovations of its own or purchasing other companies.

Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, found himself last week defending his company against accusations from members of a Senate subcommittee who believe that the company has “cooked” search engine results to promote its growing list of services.

During the hearing, senators heard from competitors whining that Google was not playing fair. For example, Jeffrey Katz of Nextag, Inc. complained that “Google rigs its results, biasing in favor of Google Shopping and against competitors like us.”

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), a self-described “constitutional conservative,” seemed to buy into the hype, pointing out to Schmidt that Google “magically” comes up every third time. Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) complained that the responses from Schmidt on his company’s methods were “fuzzy.”

Just because Google is the big kid on the Internet block does not mean its success is illegal and ought to be circumscribed by the government. There are inherent dangers of congressional and federal regulators, such as the FTC or FCC, trying to manipulate Internet search engines and impose their own views of what the market should look like.

Bob Barr represented Georgia’s Seventh District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003. He provides regular commentary to Daily Caller readers.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel