Google has deep ties to the Biden White House — which some staffers are now calling a “massive conflict.”
The official who spearheaded the president’s Big Tech policy spent nearly two decades working for Google and companies associated with the search engine giant, and is now pushing for legislation targeting Google’s main business enemy, Apple.
Meanwhile, former White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain took a job this week at the law firm O’Melveny, which counts Google as a client.
Alan Davidson, Assistant Secretary of Commerce, has headed the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) since January 2022. In February of this year, Davidson’s NTIA released a report calling for more competition and an end to self-preference in the app market.
Critics say the proposals amount to a slap on the wrist for Google, but would be hugely damaging to Google’s biggest competitor, Apple.
They say Davidson could also play a role in the Biden administration’s hesitation to put antitrust law at the top of its agenda.
Alan Davidson, Assistant Secretary of Commerce, has headed the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) since January 2022.
Davidson had a clear hand in Biden’s tech agenda — his ties to Google are a huge conflict and probably one reason the Biden administration hasn’t been more successful on the antitrust front.
“If you hire the former head of Google’s lobby shop, you leave the fox in the chicken coop,” said a former Democratic congressional staffer.
“I think the revolving door between the Biden administration and technology is pervasive. And Alan Davidson is one of the great examples of that,” said another Democratic operative.
“Anytime big tech goes into the Biden world and Biden people go into big tech, it just makes those companies have more access and influence.”
Speaking to reporters, Davidson himself mentioned reforms to the Open Apps Market Act — a bill that would remove Apple’s control of its own app store.
It would also hurt Google’s control of its Android app store, but on a much smaller scale: Apple generated $72 billion from its app store in 2020, almost twice as much as Google generated from its Google Play Store.
Both Apple and Google account for nearly 30 percent of every app store purchase.
“I note that, you know, a lot of our recommendations would be answered… and addressed by legislation like the Open App Markets Act, as it was introduced last year. So we look forward to seeing what comes next this year,” Davidson said after the report was released in February.
In February of this year, Davidson’s NTIA released a report calling for more competition and an end to self-preference in the app market
Critics say the proposals amount to a light blow to Google, but would be hugely damaging to Google’s biggest competitor, Apple
While he said the report was not an endorsement of any specific bill, the proposals largely mirrored the bipartisan Open Apps Market Act.
“Consumers, for the most part, can’t get apps outside of the app store model… This means that innovators have very limited options to reach consumers, and consumers have very limited or no choice about where to get their apps” said Davidson.
While iPhone users today can only purchase apps from the Apple App Store, the Open App Markets Act would require Apple to allow third-party app stores on its phones.
But the Open Apps Market Act is just one bill in a broader package — it narrowly focuses on self-preference behavior in the app marketplace and leaves out other online platforms for self-preference.
“The fact that you appointed a former Google exec to run the agency taking a stand on a bill that would greatly favor Google is super problematic,” the former Democrats staffer said.
“President Biden has an agenda to hold technology accountable,” the source said. “But there are forces within the agencies that are actively pushing against that agenda. And that’s because they’ve worked for or plan to work for, or are good friends with, you know, big tech executives.”
With self-preference in the digital space, Google dominated the digital advertising market, projected to bring in $168 billion by 2022 compared to Apple’s $7 billion.
Apple’s app store is already much more restricted than Google’s, with strict guidelines for the applications allowed on the platform. Should the Open Apps Market Act become law, Apple and Google would essentially relinquish control of their app stores.
Meta, Amazon, and Google focused most of their lobbying efforts on countering AICOA. For Apple, AICOA and Open Apps Market Act were tied for the top bills they lobbied against.
The US Innovation and Choice Online Act would prevent all tech giants from using any of their platforms to penalize competitors – Google, Meta, Amazon, Apple and the like.
From 2005 to 2012, Davidson led Google’s US public policy team. He was Google’s first policy officer in DC, overseeing the launch and expansion of Google’s DC office.
Under Davidson’s leadership, Google registered its first in-house federal lobbyists and expanded its lobbying activities exponentially. The Center for Responsive Politics noted in 2010 that Google “had grown from a true non-entity in its first decade to one of the greatest lobbying forces among its peers.”
Under Davidson, Google launched its political action committee, NETPAC, of which Davidson sat on the board.
In May 2010, White House deputy technology chief Andrew McLaughlin was reprimanded for violating the Obama administration’s ethics pledge after emails were made public that showed McLaughlin communicating with former colleagues at Google, including Davidson.
Davidson and McLaughlin exchanged emails on McLaughlin’s personal email account about possible ramifications of comments McLaughlin made about net neutrality. Davidson vowed to “set up” an advocacy group to defend him and talk to reporters.
Davidson himself was personally registered to lobby for Google from 2007 through 2010. He lobbied Congress and several executive offices, including NTIA.
As of May 2021, Davidson had about $15,000 in shares of Google parent company Alphabet, which he had to divest from when he took the NTIA position.
Between 2014 and 2018, Davidson worked for the New America Foundation, a think tank that received $21 million in funding from Google and its then-CEO Eric Schmidt.
Before joining Google, Davidson spent 10 years as an associate director for the Center for Democracy & Technology. As of 2021, Google was one of CDT’s top three annual contributors.
Proponents of the last Congress criticized the White House for not using Democratic control over the White House and both chambers on Capitol Hill to prioritize legislation to address Big Tech.
Biden waited until January of this year to make one of his most pointed calls, but in an op-ed he urged Congress to pass legislation to rein in technology platforms.
He first called for privacy protections that limit data collection and ban targeted advertising to children, and called for reform of Section 230 – which grants social media platforms immunity from what users post on their sites, while preserving their ability to publish content. moderate.
Referring to a line he made both last year and again in this year’s State of the Union address, Biden said, “We need to hold social media companies accountable for the experiment they run on our kids to make a profit.”
“Ban targeted advertising to children and enforce tighter limits on the personal data the companies collect about all of us,” Biden said in his 2023 State of the Union address Tuesday night.