Masters of the Universe Town Hall: Peter Schweizer Says Google and Facebook Have ‘More Power than Any Company in Human History’

Peter Schweizer, president of the Government Accountability Institute and best-selling author of Clinton Cash and Secret Empires, argued at Breitbart News’ “Masters of the Universe” town hall on Thursday that Google and Facebook have “more power than any company in human history.”

At Breitbart News’ live town hall event, “Masters of the Universe: Big Tech vs. Free Speech and Privacy” in Louisiana on Thursday night, Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow asked Schweizer, “So one of Google’s mottos is ‘Don’t be evil,’ that is not sarcasm. How are they doing?”

Schweizer responded:

It is really interesting when you look at all of the warnings about technology over the last century, the biggest dystopian novels, 1984, and Brave New World, tt was about the government controlling and manipulating technology. I do not think anyone envisioned it would be these two large companies that would use these technologies to control.

“With Google, it is different. It’s softer, they are still trying to steer, manipulate, and direct us in ways that they want to go,” Schweizer added.

Schweizer then said, “Part of the problem is that they do not define what evil is.”

Schweizer then explained that Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt once said that the technology giant would move the company towards, but not cross, the “creepy line” of what the company does with their technology.

“Eric Schmidt said that they would go right up until the creepy line but not cross it,” Schweizer revealed. “Which is funny because you would think that people in power would not want to get close to that creepy line.”

The Clinton Cash author then argued:

The Schmidt admits that lines changes, and shifts. This is the inherent problem. These two large companies are unaccountable. At least with the government, you can file a Freedom of Information Act [FOIA] request, you can try to get access to that information.

[With] Google you have no recourse. So that is the inherent problem. They have enormous powers, powers that I would argue that company has ever had in human history over the flow of information. They are not just Internet companies. They are media companies, they are opinion companies, and they steer the national debate in ways that are unimaginable.

Schweizer then posed, “I think the fundamental question is, what are we going to do about Google, and what are going to do about Facebook?”