Open Markets: Google's Abuse of Search Results is a Blatant Betrayal of the Public Interest and a Threat to Democracy.

Washington, DC -- The following is a statement from Barry Lynn, Executive Director at Open Markets Institute regarding the report of Google interfering with search algorithms to change search results:

"The Wall Street Journal has finally confirmed that Google engineers search results to serve its own private interests and those of big advertisers and other giant corporations. In doing so, the Journal's reporters provided hard proof of how Google manipulates and exploits the public and yet another example of why we must break the corporation's advertising-based business model. Google's abuse of its market power is also bad for American business, as the corporation routinely and mechanically steers commerce away from independent entrepreneurs to giant monopolists such as Amazon and Facebook. That Google maintains a secret blacklist to remove sites from search, beyond those required by law, is blatant censorship and a threat to free speech. It's way past time for our federal and state governments to fix Google."

Press Contact: Stella Roque at Open Markets Institute, roque@openmarketsinstitute.org