New Demand Progress Education Fund Report Reveals Collusion Between Amazon, Google and U.S. Trade Office Officials
Washington, DC — Today, Demand Progress Education Fund released a report that exposes how Amazon and Google are using revolving-door relationships with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to weaken trade regulations in favor of Big Business.
The report, based on exclusive emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, shows how Big Tech companies like Amazon and Google use revolving-door relationships with USTR staff to bypass normal informational channels and lobby person-to-person for policies that help Big Business and hurt American workers, companies and media outlets.
Revelations from the report include:
- Google meeting with USTR staffers to water down a Canadian law requiring social media platforms to pay news outlets for the use of their content
- Senior officials at Amazon and USTR meeting to discuss pending Brazilian proposals to regulate digital platforms
- Senior officials at Amazon and USTR discussing a proposal from the Japanese government to make it easier for smaller companies to compete for government cloud computing contracts
“People who work for our government should be working for the public good, not just for the good of Big Tech,” said Emily Peterson-Cassin, director of corporate power at Demand Progress Education Fund. “These emails expose how Big Tech gets unprecedented access to our government in order to weaken laws, both here and abroad, that could protect American consumers, workers and companies.”