The political storm over the Googleplex
April 27, 2015 4:01 pm
The political storm over the Googleplex
By Gideon Rachman
Concern about government snooping is mixed with anxiety
about commercial use of data
Google regularly tops the list of companies that students
want to work for and, visiting its Silicon Valley campus last week, I could see
why. The skies were blue, the temperature was perfect. A group of employees was
playing volleyball, while out in the car-park somebody was demonstrating a
prototype of a self-driving Google car.
Amid all the fun, Google has emerged as one of the five
largest companies in the world, measured by market capitalisation. The largest,
Apple, is about 20 minutes drive down the road. Facebook, another giant, is in
a nearby suburb.
Yet the Silicon Valley idyll is increasingly being
disturbed by political storms blowing in from foreign lands. The world’s
students may aspire to work for Google. But the world’s politicians seem to
want to bring the company to heel.
This month saw the announcement that the European
Commission in Brussels is charging Google with violations of competition law.
Potentially, the charges threaten the company with a choice between massive
fines or costly modifications to its business model.
Europe is not the only source of trouble. Most western
multinationals see the Chinese market as crucial to their futures. But Google,
along with Facebook and Twitter, is effectively shut out by the country’s
“Great Firewall” that blocks internet access.
Meanwhile, Silicon Valley’s close relations with the
Obama administration have got a lot tenser since Edward Snowden’s revelations
about the extent of US government snooping on the internet.
The Snowden affair seems to have galvanised those who
believe there is something sinister about the power of Silicon Valley. French
critics came up with the acronym, “Gafa” (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon), to
encapsulate America’s evil internet empire. As the acronym suggests, it is
often Google that is placed first in the firing line. Company executives were
aghast when the British government decided to crack down on alleged tax
avoidance by multinationals and the new measures were dubbed the “Google tax”.
One theory is that Google has attracted particular
attention simply because it is the most ubiquitous name in Silicon Valley. (Not
everybody can afford an iPhone, but Google is free to anyone with internet
access). Another argument is that the breadth of Google’s activities means it
is upsetting incumbents all over the world — whether it is newspapers angered
by Google News; media companies threatened by YouTube (owned by Google);
publishers that hate Google books; or car manufacturers who see driverless cars
on the roads and worry that even their industry is vulnerable to the Valley.
Some European politicians have been explicit in their
concerns that the success of the US internet giants poses a direct threat to
Europe. Sigmar Gabriel, Germany’s vice-chancellor, worried aloud last year that
“this (digital) infrastructure will be controlled by a handful of American
internet concerns, which could dominate the economic life of the 21st century.”
One of the most vociferous corporate critics of Google is
the Axel Springer publishing group in Germany, a powerful voice in Berlin and
Brussels, and which provided crucial support for the election of Jean-Claude
Juncker as the head of the European Commission.
President Obama seemed to buy the idea that US internet
companies are the victims of European protectionism, when he argued recently that
— “We (America) have owned the internet. Our companies have created it,
expanded it, perfected it, in ways they can’t compete.” What Mr Obama did not
add is that the US government itself has done much to damage Silicon Valley.
The Snowden affair has firmly established the idea that any internet search,
email or post is open to surveillance, either by the government or by the likes
of Google and Facebook.
Google and other internet giants vehemently deny that
they ever gave governments the keys to a secret back door into their data.
Indeed, they complain that they were themselves the victims of snooping. In an
effort to regain consumer trust, the Silicon Valley firms are emphasizing their
new encryption technologies and privacy safeguards. But the damage is done.
Concern about government snooping has become intertwined with anxiety about the
commercial use of data by firms such as Google. That, in turn, has fed the
appetite for the regulation of the internet.
All of this political heat appears to have come as an
unpleasant surprise to the company, which seems genuinely to believe that it
lives by the motto of its founders: “Don’t be evil.” Yet the real surprise is
that the political backlash did not come sooner. Google proclaims its mission
is “to organize the world’s information”. But, as the saying goes, “information
is power”. And power has traditionally been the province of politicians.
Some argue that it is better that “elected politicians”,
not business people, should take decisions about the flow of information and
data. But some of the political figures most eager to take on Google — like the
Chinese government and even the European Commission — are not, in fact,
elected. And while nobody voted for the engineers and entrepreneurs of Silicon
Valley, more than a billion customers have voted with their fingers by clicking
on Google products. That is the kind of vote of confidence that most
politicians can only dream of.
gideon.rachman@ft.com
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2015.
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