Google accused of shadow campaigns redirecting antitrust scrutiny to Microsoft

On Monday, Microsoft got here out weapons blazing, posting a blog accusing Google of “dishonestly” funding teams conducting allegedly biased research to discredit Microsoft and mislead antitrust enforcers and the general public.

Within the weblog, Microsoft lawyer Rima Alaily alleged that an astroturf group known as the Open Cloud Coalition will launch this week and can look like led by “a handful of European cloud suppliers.” Really, nevertheless, these smaller corporations have been secretly recruited by Google, which allegedly pays them “to function the general public face” and “obfuscate” Google’s involvement, Microsoft’s weblog mentioned. In return, Google possible supplied the cloud suppliers money or reductions to hitch, Alaily alleged.

The Open Cloud Coalition is only one a part of a “sample of shadowy campaigns” that Google has funded, each “instantly and not directly,” to muddy the antitrust waters, Alaily alleged. The one different named instance that Alaily offers whereas documenting this supposed sample is the US-based Coalition for Honest Software program Licensing (CFSL), which Alaily mentioned has attacked Microsoft’s cloud computing enterprise within the US, the UK, and the European Union.

That group is led by Ryan Triplette, who Alaily mentioned is “a well known lobbyist for Google in Washington, DC, however Google’s affiliation isn’t disclosed publicly by the group.” A web-based search confirms Triplette was previously a lobbyist for Franklin Sq. Group, which Politico reported represented Google throughout her time there.

Ars couldn’t instantly attain the CFSL for remark. Google’s spokesperson instructed Ars that the corporate has “been a public supporter of CFSL for greater than two years” and has “no concept what proof Microsoft cites that we’re the primary funder of CFSL.” If Triplette was beforehand a lobbyist for Google, the spokesperson mentioned, “that is a bizarre criticism to make” because it’s possible “everyone in legislation, coverage, and many others.,” has “labored for Google, Microsoft, or Amazon sooner or later, in some capability.”