New America's Slaughter Denies Allegations Involving Google Criticism
New America CEO Anne-Marie Slaughter denied a New York Times​ story alleging the organization was cutting ties with its Open Markets initiative and 10 full-time employees after its director, Barry Lynn, praised a European Commission $2.7 billion fine in June…
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against Google, a major funder (see 1706270001). "This claim is absolutely false," said Slaughter in a statement. She said Lynn was just fired since he repeatedly refused to follow "standards of openness and institutional collegiality." The story said Alphabet Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt complained to Slaughter after Lynn's June post, which was taken down and then reposted hours later. The story said Slaughter told Lynn a couple of days later their organizations would part. Slaughter now said New America has "always encouraged many different viewpoints and our funders are aware of and support this philosophy." She said the group has been working to spin out Open Markets as an independent program, while keeping ties with New America. The organization didn't comment whether the initiative will still be spun out now. Consumer Watchdog Privacy Project Director John Simpson said think tanks have "grown fat on Google's money" and are "rapidly becoming little more than paid shills for Google and Big Tech." A Google spokeswoman said the company backs hundreds of organizations promoting a free and open internet, more access to information and more opportunity. "We don't agree with every group 100% of the time, and while we sometimes respectfully disagree, we respect each group’s independence, personnel decisions, and policy perspectives,” she said. Google's funding to New America didn't change since the June post, Schmidt didn't threaten to cut off funding and the company had no role in casting off Open Markets, she added.