Advertisement

Google Paid Professors For Favorable Research, Advocacy Group Says

05:20
Download Audio
Resume
The Google mobile phone icon. (Matt Rourke/AP)
The Google mobile phone icon. (Matt Rourke/AP)

An advocacy group is accusing Google of buying favorable research from academics to sway public opinion and bolster their case against regulators like the Federal Trade Commission. Google has funded hundreds of academic papers on topics including copyright and surveillance over the past decade, paying anywhere from $5,000 to $400,000 dollars to researchers whose work supports their business practices.

The company says the funding comes with no strings attached, and that they would "appreciate receiving attribution or acknowledgement" upon publication, but often the researchers did not disclose that Google was a source of funding, according to a new report by the nonprofit advocacy group Campaign for Accountability and reporting by the Wall Street Journal.

Here & Now's Meghna Chakrabarti speaks with Jack Nicas (@jacknicas), who co-authored the Wall Street Journal story with Brody Mullins.

This article was originally published on July 13, 2017.

This segment aired on July 13, 2017.

Related:

Advertisement

More from Here & Now

Listen Live
Close