The largest newspaper publisher in the United States has sued Google. Yep, you read that right. Gannett has accused the anti-free speech Big Tech giant has a monopoly over digital ads.
In a lawsuit filed in a New York federal court on Tuesday, the USA Today publisher accused Google of dictating who can buy and sell ads online. The control has caused the company’s rivals to see “dramatically less revenue.” The lawsuit stated, “The result is dramatically less revenue for publishers and Google’s ad-tech rivals, while Google enjoys exorbitant monopoly profits.”
Gannett chairman and CEO Michael Reed blasted the tech giant for harming competition. Reed said in a statement that Google’s success came “at the expense of publishers, readers and everyone else.” He went on to add that “[d]igital advertising is the lifeblood of the online economy. Without free and fair competition for digital ad space, publishers cannot invest in their newsrooms.”
Unsurprisingly, Google insisted it did nothing wrong.
“Publishers have many options to choose from when it comes to using advertising technology to monetize – in fact, Gannett uses dozens of competing ad services, including Google Ad Manager,” Dan Taylor, Google’s vice president of global ads, told CNN. “And when publishers choose to use Google tools, they keep the vast majority of revenue.”
The company claimed its business practices actually “benefit” publishers.
“We’ll show the court how our advertising products benefit publishers and help them fund their content online,” Taylor said.
Google has been under fire for numerous antitrust complaints from around the world.
The Department of Justice filed a complaint earlier this year claiming that “Google abuses its monopoly power to disadvantage website publishers and advertisers who dare to use competing ad tech products in a search for higher quality, or lower cost, matches.” In addition, the DOJ said that “Google uses its dominion over digital advertising technology to funnel more transactions to its own ad tech products where it extracts inflated fees to line its own pockets at the expense of the advertisers and publishers it purportedly serves.”
Despite its insistence that it has committed no wrongdoings, Google also settled a European Union antitrust investigation just last year and claimed it would allow ads from rival companies.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on so-called hate speech and an equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
