News Corp Boss Lambasts Google, Urges EU Crackdown

The EU has been urged to crack down further on Google by the chief executive of News Corporation Robert Thomson in a letter addressed to European Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia.

The strongly-worded letter was written earlier this month, and outlined NewsCorp’s opposition to Google’s European Commission’s settlement offer, which was agreed in February, but which is currently under revision.

“Your decision to reconsider Google’s settlement offer comes at a crucial moment in the history of the free flow of information and of a healthy media in Europe and beyond,” wrote Thomson. “There is no doubt that the case is one of profound significance for many media companies in Europe but also for the people of Europe, whose ability to access information, independently and meaningfully, is put at risk by the overwhelming power of Google.”

Strong Words

Thomson said that Google had “evolved from a wonderfully feisty, creative Silicon Valley startup to a vast, powerful, often unaccountable bureaucracy and alleged Google was contemptuous of intellectual property and routinely adjusted its search results in none-objective manner.

He said that Google takes advantage of its ability to sell advertising that targets specific audiences at discounted rates, a practices that Thomson alleges undermines specialist publishers’ ability to generate advertising revenue.

Thomson then went on to launch a personal attack on Google as a business, and even alleged it was a platform for piracy: “The shining vision of Google’s founders has been replaced by a cynical management, which offers advertisers impressively precise data about users and content usage, but has been a platform for piracy and the spread of malicious networks, all while driving more traffic and online advertising dollars to Google.”

He pointed to sudden changes in the ranking and display of Google search results, which he claimed inevitably maximise income for Google and which punish small companies. Thomson also had a dig Google for implementing a “certification” process for Android-related products, which he alleged allows Google to delay content companies access to the mobile operating system, so that it can instead develop competing products.

Google Haters?

News Corp and Microsoft have long been allied against the might of Google, along with German publishing house Axel Springer, and British price-comparison site Foundem.

In April this year, the CEO of Axel Springer, launched an extraordinary attack on Google. Mathias Dopfner accused Google of creating an “electronic superstate”, as well as operating a protection racket and a ‘global network monopoly‘ in the digital market. He also said that his publishing house is “totally dependent” on Google and they operate in a climate of fear (of Google).

Google reportedly responded to the latest attack by NewsCorp by pointing to recent comments by the executive chairman of Google, namely Eric Schmidt.

Schmidt argued that newspapers get most of their online traffic directly and that Google is not “the gateway to the internet”. He also denied that Google promotes its own products at the expense of competitors.

“The allegations made by publishers have been extensively investigated by regulators in Europe and the US over more than seven years,” Schmidt reportedly said. “To date no regulator has objected to Google giving people direct answers to their questions for the simple reason that it is better for users.”

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