Real America’s Voice, Brought To You From Outside America

I spoke to Amit Tapiro, co-founder and board member of two companies that have current partnerships with Real America’s Voice: BoldWin and Twist Digital.

In a DM conversation, Tapiro said that he’s never heard of Steve Bannon because they are “not located in the U.S.” and “are not involved in American politics.”

Indeed, Tapiro’s companies are based in Israel. But Twist Digital markets itself as an ad network for people who love dogs, celebrities, and wellness for mostly U.S. audiences. (Americans make up 71% of their audience.)

How did Real America’s Voice get in there? Who approached who? And is being unfamiliar with who you’re in business with a defense for working with white nationalists?

Pay No Attention To The Megacorporation Behind The Check

Yesterday, Google filed a motion in the DOJ v. Google adtech trial to get out of having to explain their alleged anticompetitive conduct to a jury. They also offered a big fat check “for the full monetary damages [the government] seeks.”

But that wasn’t enough for Google. The I’m-not-a-monopoly-I-swear-here’s-a-fat-check company then decided to insult everyone by arguing that a trial would be just too confusing for most people.

We aren’t buying it, and neither is Sarah Kay Wiley, our Director of Partnerships and Policy.

“This argument isn’t surprising, but it is arrogant and insulting,” Sarah wrote. “Once again we are seeing Google act as if they are above the law, and above the consumers it purports to serve. Of course they don’t want to have to explain their ‘designs’ to a jury - because doing so would open a window into their black box of power that has gone unchecked.” Read the rest of her thoughts on this on LinkedIn.

Oh, to get a check for millions of dollars from Google (also, "Mootness" is a fun word).

… Or The Megacorporation Behind Making Your Search Results Worse

Google is integrating AI into its search results and it’s going about as well as you’d expect. Plagiarism! Made-up answers! And lost revenue for the sites it’s pulling info from. The Washington Post wrote a great article breaking down the whole mess, or watch Rachel spell it out on TikTok!

Like “The Parent Trap” But With Geopolitical Consequences

We’re featured in the documentary “The Click Trap: The Dark Side of the Digital Advertising System”! It reveals how programmatic advertising helps to “fuel scams, dis- and mis- information and extremist hate online.” Sounds familiar! Catch the trailer here! 

That’s all from us for this week. We’ll be back in your inbox sooner than you think 👀

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