<story><title>Facebook and Google pressured EU experts to soften fake news regulations</title><url>https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/facebook-and-google-pressured-eu-experts-soften-fake-news-regulations-say-insiders/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>akavel</author><text>Oh wow, that&amp;#x27;s really rough:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;Monique Goyens – director-general of BEUC, which is also known as The European Consumer Association – is blunter. &amp;#x27;We were blackmailed,&amp;#x27; she says. [...]&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Facebook’s chief lobbyist, Richard Allan – another member of the expert group – said [...] to another group member: &amp;#x27;He threatened that if we did not stop talking about competition tools, Facebook would stop its support for journalistic and academic projects.&amp;#x27;&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>szbalint</author><text>I think the really damning bit is:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; According to Frau-Meigs, independent funding for academics as well as journalists is extremely important. “Google and Facebook are paying these partnerships from their direct marketing arm, not through more neutral foundations,” she says.&lt;p&gt;This seems to be implying that Facebook and Google are paying these partnerships partly or mainly to coopt the researchers in order to avoid public relations or regulatory issues.</text></comment>
<story><title>Facebook and Google pressured EU experts to soften fake news regulations</title><url>https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/facebook-and-google-pressured-eu-experts-soften-fake-news-regulations-say-insiders/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>akavel</author><text>Oh wow, that&amp;#x27;s really rough:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;Monique Goyens – director-general of BEUC, which is also known as The European Consumer Association – is blunter. &amp;#x27;We were blackmailed,&amp;#x27; she says. [...]&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Facebook’s chief lobbyist, Richard Allan – another member of the expert group – said [...] to another group member: &amp;#x27;He threatened that if we did not stop talking about competition tools, Facebook would stop its support for journalistic and academic projects.&amp;#x27;&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mc32</author><text>All of this “do good” nonsense FB and Google do is just another tool in their arsenal to support and serve their main business.  They don’t care who it helps &lt;i&gt;or&lt;/i&gt; hurts.  They only care that these proxies help them.</text></comment>