Thread by @politico

In 2012, the Obama-era FTC spent 19 months investigating Google over allegations it violated antitrust law, favoring its own products over rivals’ in search results.

Ultimately, the FTC misread evidence in front of them – and voted against taking action. politico.com/thegooglefiles

Since then, Google has continued to amass power over smartphones, data-hoovering devices and wide swaths of the internet, unimpeded by laws meant to deter monopolies politico.com/thegooglefiles

The FTC has never disclosed the scope of its probe nor explained all its reasons for letting Google slide. But we obtained 312 pages of confidential memos that reveal what lawyers and economics experts were thinking at the time.

Here’s what we found 👇 politico.com/thegooglefiles

1️⃣ Google made sure it was the search engine of choice for mobile carriers. An exec said they paid “humongous” sums for exclusive deals to “own the U.S. market.”

Commissioners closed that part of the probe without taking action or publicly disclosing it. politi.co/3eJ9YDX

2️⃣ Google gave its own products the top priority in search results.

One algorithm change in 2007 demoted products from rivals like Yelp and Amazon (it was later reversed). Another change in 2011 led to significant drops in traffic for rival sites. politi.co/38Li6A6

3️⃣ Fellow tech giants Facebook and Amazon urged the FTC to crack down on Google, saying their business suffered because of the company’s bias.

Excerpts reveal the companies were trying to privately undermine Google’s arguments while publicly staying mum. politi.co/3rWkv2n

4️⃣ The FTC staff made a series of wrong judgments about the future of tech.

One example: They thought advertising targeted at specific users had only “limited potential for growth.” (Today, that’s the backbone of Google and Facebook’s revenue.) politi.co/3eJ9YDX

Many of the people who were involved in the FTC’s 2012 probe are still players in the antitrust fights involving the tech giants — sometimes for the opposite side.

Here’s a look at where they are now 👇 politi.co/2OZoxIQ

Any questions about the FTC’s investigation into Google? @ us and our antitrust reporter @leah_nylen might answer some of them later today.

Read her full investigation: politico.com/thegooglefiles

Here's a look at how @leah_nylen reported this story

https://twitter.com/leah_nylen/status/1371834567422832652?s=20

Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike are calling for new scrutiny of a nearly decade-old decision by federal regulators not to sue Google over alleged antitrust violations, in light of hundreds of pages of case documents newly unearthed by POLITICO politico.com/news/2021/03/1…