Report: Google 'Coming After Critics' in Academia and Journalism, 'Forming Into a Government of Itself'

Google is “coming after critics in academia and journalism,” according to the Washington Post, who added that the company “is forming into a government of itself.”

“Google has established a pattern of lobbying and threatening to acquire power. It has reached a dangerous point common to many monarchs: The moment where it no longer wants to allow dissent,” claimed Zephyr Teachout, an academic, activist, and former Democratic political candidate in an article for the Washington Post.

Referencing the news this week that members of the Open Markets team she was part of at the Google-funded New America Foundation think tank had been kicked out after they praised the European Union’s decision to fine Google for violating anti-trust regulations, Teachout highlighted the irony of Google’s former slogan “Don’t be evil,” adding, “It appears that Google may have lost sight of what being evil means, in the way that most monarchs do: Once you reach a pinnacle of power, you start to believe that any threats to your authority are themselves villainous and that you are entitled to shut down dissent.”

“Google is forming into a government of itself, and it seems incapable of even seeing its own overreach. We, as citizens, must respond in two ways,” proclaimed Teachout. “First, support the brave researchers and journalists who stand up to overreaching power; and second, support traditional antimonopoly laws that will allow us to have great, innovative companies — but not allow them to govern us.”

Teachout also wrote an article for the Intercept this week, where she explained, “In 2010, while I was pushing to break up big banks because they had become too powerful, I started to realize that the problem in America wasn’t just big banks, it was corporate monopolies.”

In the article, Teachout also announced she will be “the board chair of a new organization, comprised of the same team [kicked out of New America], doing the same work.”

“We will be launching in the fall, and I am helping to create a new digital campaign, Citizens Against Monopoly, to help channel the tremendous public concern that we know exists around monopoly power,” she concluded. “Google’s actions make it more important than ever that we stand up to fight monopolies. At the end of the day, this is about freedom.”

Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington and Gab @Nash, or like his page at Facebook.