Thread · 5 tweets · 15 Jun 2021

Whenever I point out that Google just straight up helps itself to other people's work and property, people think I exaggerate. Surely, if it were true, someone would do something about it! Here's Google using AMP to force overlay ads for its own products atop publisher content.

There are several interesting ways to look at this. One is simply the money: do you know how much it would cost if Google paid for this instead of just taking it? It would cover the annual salaries of a lot of reporters.

Another is power: is it normal that this can just happen, or is there an urgent need to reform the Web to make sure that this kind of behaviour is ruled out by design and by law?

There's also culture: just how entitled do you have to feel to go ahead and ship something like this? Google friends often tell me "Would it not be great if we ran the tech and you just did the content?" Well, we can all see *exactly* what looks like — and no, it's not great.

Ah, the Zuckerberg Apology is coming.