

White House Petition: Congress to investigate Google - robomartin
https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/call-upon-congress-investigate-googles-business-practices-order-protect-consumers/7pPZTcn7

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kylemaxwell
Erm - petitioning the executive branch for the legislative branch to do
something is not how the government works. If you want congressional hearings,
contact the members of the appropriate committee (particularly if one of them
represents you). If you want an agency investigation, then the WH can direct
that. But this is sort of like a kid asking his mom to make his dad do
something.

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robomartin
Not my petition.

Still, if you read through the WH petitions site there are a lot of them
asking for Congress to become involved. I would imagine that, at some level,
this is probably a way to raise awareness. That said, they all talk to each
other to think otherwise is probably a little naive.

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kylemaxwell
Naivete would be to suggest that this administration could get the House to do
anything (partisan politics and all that). I could possibly see a few senators
holding a hearing, but again: much easier to approach them directly rather
than roundabout. :)

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robomartin
Probably true.

I do like the idea that someone is getting tired of Google's behavior.

I'd sign it but I hate the idea of having an account with the White House.
Probably dumb on my part. I just have a distrust of politicians, regardless of
affiliation.

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itsmequinn
The complaint is so vague as to be meaningless. Let's give a specific instance
in which google has acted unlawfully, not just that they deleted your account
an you're pissed, which is what this sounds like.

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robomartin
I've already said that this is NOT my petition. There are no issues with my
Google accounts because I avoid all of their products except for Analytics. I
don't use AdSense or AdWords because of the way they behave.

That they engage in questionable practices is probably without dispute. For
specific instances, well, Google something like "google suspended my account"
which returns some 12 million results. If you have the time, read through the
first hundred or so and see if you agree with the general sentiment.

Also, on the being vague part. I read somewhere that the petitions severely
limit the number of characters you can use(I think it is 500 or so). It might
be difficult to create a really detailed petition under those conditions. I
don't know if they allow links or not.

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lomegor
>> That they engage in questionable practices is probably without dispute. For
specific instances, well, Google something like "google suspended my account"
which returns some 12 million results. If you have the time, read through the
first hundred or so and see if you agree with the general sentiment.

I think that's far fetched. Of course you can argue that Google engages in
questionable practices, but account suspension are nothing of that sort. First
of all, most of the stories you will find are from the perspective of the
user, which isn't entirely fair. And secondly, although I'm not saying they
can do what they want with your account, if you violated their terms in any
way, they have that possibility. That's not an unfair or otherwise
questionable practice.

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enomar
Didn't congress already do this?

[http://www.judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/hearing.cfm?id=3d90...](http://www.judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/hearing.cfm?id=3d9031b47812de2592c3baeba64d93cb)
[http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20109630-93/eric-
schmidts-o...](http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20109630-93/eric-schmidts-
oral-testimony-before-senators/)

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robomartin
It was bound to happen...

