05.15.11
Gemini version available ♊︎Microsoft’s AstroTurfing Fetish Necessitates Oversight
Summary: Microsoft uses proxies to stomp on Google and give it antitrust trouble while it is actually Microsoft that deserve the antitrust treatment
Microsoft is not a reformed company. It’s a thuggish convict in search of a whipping boy. It is still an unethical bully which is more focused on bribes and extortion, as fiascos like OOXML and the B&N blackmail ought to remind regulators all across the world. It makes no sense whatsoever to remove oversight. It’s like releasing a prisoner who was beating inmates up. As one person puts it:
This ignores all the foot-dragging in the EU, the anti-competitive moves in mobile, the software-patent suits, etc.
There is another reason to keep Microsoft — not Google — under the microscope. It is Microsoft — not Google — which hires many AstroTurfers to daemonise a competitor, Google. In the context of Burson-Marsteller we mentioned this before Groklaw and others. Bob Sutor writes: “Burson-Marsteller: now #Facebook against #Google – http://bit.ly/ k6H6fL , then #Microsoft against #Google – http:// on.wsj.com/k5Brp9″
PJ opines (via reader of ours):
It links to a 2007 article in the Wall Street Journal, “Microsoft Goes Behind the Scenes — Public-Relations Proxy Aims to Gather Opposition To Google-DoubleClick Deal”, showing that Microsoft hired the same PR firm as Facebook, Burson-Marsteller, back then also to attack Google. If you are surprised, please raise your hand. Say, journalists, why not ask Facebook if they got this lame idea in 2011 from Microsoft? Or ask Burson if they got the idea from Microsoft and then pitched it to Facebook. I have the feeling we haven’t dug all the way to the bottom of this picture yet.
For Microsoft this is business as usual. See our page on AstroTurfing for additional examples. How can such a convict be left without supervision? █
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