Lobbyists, on the whole, have a pretty bad reputation. They’re regarded as a rather shady group of people; one of the main headings in a Wikipedia article is “corruption concerns.” Draw your own conclusions, then, about this bit of news: Google wants to hire lobbyists throughout Europe.
According to the Financial Times, the search engine giant “advertised for recruits” in not one, not two, but “at least ten capitals.” And while this is sure to stir up some fresh theories about world domination, Google claims that it’s just protecting its own interests and the general public’s.
After all, applicants should support “the expansion of a free and open internet.” And Google’s legion of lobbyists, once established, will focus on “privacy, freedom of expression, copyrights, competition and security, regulation of online content, advertising and technology.” That’s not so bad, right?
Bad press and poor public relations are likely the cause behind the search, however (although a spokesperson explicitly denied this in the Financial Times piece). If your memory is a little hazy, Nate Anderson did an excellent job of summarizing the many problems Google has encountered in recent days; there are, to understate the issue, a lot of them, and many occurred in Europe and Asia.
One unnamed lobbyist – who quite possibly threw his or her application on Google’s pile – agreed that the company needs help. “They thought that they could sit on the west coast [of the US] being techie and not deal with all the politics. Then they realized government has a responsibility to determine the public interest and if you are not talking to them, others are.”
Never fear (or, maybe, “fear” a lot) – Google has gotten the message and is in the process of getting a lot of lobbyists.
