{"id":1412939,"date":"2022-03-31T13:15:19","date_gmt":"2022-03-31T17:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1412939"},"modified":"2022-03-31T13:15:24","modified_gmt":"2022-03-31T17:15:24","slug":"cnbc-google-and-amazon-bankrolled-a-small-business-astroturf-group-to-lobby-against-big-tech-oversight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/cnbc-google-and-amazon-bankrolled-a-small-business-astroturf-group-to-lobby-against-big-tech-oversight\/","title":{"rendered":"CNBC: Google and Amazon Bankrolled a &#039;Small Business&#039; Astroturf Group to Lobby Against Big Tech Oversight"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcnbc-google-and-amazon-bankrolled-a-small-business-astroturf-group-to-lobby-against-big-tech-oversight%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1412939&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"subheading\">A recent report by CNBC details how Google and Amazon financed a small business owner advocacy group in order to lobby against Big Tech regulation.<\/p>\n<p>CNBC <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2022\/03\/30\/how-google-and-amazon-bankrolled-a-grassroots-activist-group-of-small-business-owners-to-lobby-against-big-tech-oversight.html\">reports<\/a>\u00a0that tech giants Amazon and Google are reportedly behind the funding of the Connected Commerce Council (3C), a group that claims to be a grassroots movement representing small business owners.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<div id=\"attachment_10863182\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/media.breitbart.com\/media\/2019\/07\/Jeff-Bezos-Gloats.png\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Amazon founder Jeff Bezos during the JFK Space Summit at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, Wednesday, June 19, 2019. (AP Photo\/Charles Krupa)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_10881134\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Google-train.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10881134\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Google-train.jpg\" alt=\"Google train\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Google train (Alex Wong \/Getty)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>CNBC tells the story of Clay Montgomery, the owner of a small blacksmith shop called \u201cArrow M Enterprises,\u201d outside of Mingus, Texas. Montgomery\u2019s blacksmith shop was reportedly listed as a member of a Washington D.C. trade group called the \u201cConnected Commerce Council\u201d (3C) which describes itself as a non-profit organization aiming to \u201cpromote small businesses\u2019 access to essential digital technologies and tools.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>The astroturf group aggressively campaigns against the regulation of big tech firms and according to its website wants to ensure that \u201cpolicymakers understand the essential intersection of technology and small business.\u201d But, Montgomery says that he is not a member of the group and has never even heard of it.<\/p>\n<p>Montgomery isn\u2019t the only small business owner to surprisingly find their names listed as a member of the Connected Commerce Council. Over 20 other individuals listed as members of the group told CNBC they never even heard of the group.<\/p>\n<p>CNBC writes:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Lobbying watchdog group the Campaign for Accountability called 3C an \u201cAstroturf\u201d lobbying organization, thanks to the tech giants\u2019 financial support. That\u2019s a bit of Washington slang for a group that claims to represent grassroots entities, but in reality serves as an advocate for big industry. It\u2019s a tactic used in Washington to push for specific legislative or regulatory goals using the sympathetic face of mom and pop organizations. The Campaign for Accountability described 3C in a 2019 report as an \u201cAstroturf-style front group for the nation\u2019s largest technology companies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBig Tech knows that voters and their representatives aren\u2019t hugely sympathetic toward the complaints of trillion-dollar corporations, so they\u2019ve decided to paint small businesses as the real victims of antitrust legislation,\u201d said Michelle Kuppersmith, executive director of the Campaign for Accountability.<\/p>\n<p>To be sure, the group does have some active small business members, several of whom told CNBC they value 3C\u2019s offerings and agree with its issue advocacy in Washington.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Read more at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2022\/03\/30\/how-google-and-amazon-bankrolled-a-grassroots-activist-group-of-small-business-owners-to-lobby-against-big-tech-oversight.html\">CNBC here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><i>Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter\u00a0<\/i><i><a class=\"x5l\" href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/lucasnolan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">@LucasNolan<\/a>\u00a0<\/i><i>or contact via secure email at the address\u00a0<a class=\"x5l\" href=\"mailto:lucasnolan@protonmail.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">lucasnolan@protonmail.com<\/a><\/i><i><\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A recent report by CNBC details how Google and Amazon financed a small business owner advocacy group in order to lobby against Big Tech regulation. CNBC reports\u00a0that tech giants Amazon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1412939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1412939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1412939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1412939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1412939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1412939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1412939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}