US billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel said on July 14 that Google needs to be looked into by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on whether the technology giant has been infiltrated by Chinese intelligence. Thiel also asked why Google had made "the seemingly treasonous decision to work with the Chinese military," instead of that of the US. US President Donald Trump tweeted on July 16 that Thiel "knows this subject better than anyone" and his administration "will take a look." In response, the tech firm denied it was working with Chinese military.
What they accused Google of is not based on facts, but is driven by economic and other considerations. Attempting to put pressure on Google embodies US political farce.
Two things can best describe Thiel. First, he has connections with the US intelligence community. He is one of the co-founders of Palantir Technologies, a private US software company specialized in big data analytics, $2 million of whose early investment came from the CIA's venture capital arm IN-Q-Tel.
Furthermore, a document showed that in 2013, Palantir's clients included at least 12 groups of the US government, such as CIA and FBI. Palantir's data-mining software has been used by the US intelligence community for collecting data and surveillance. He sounds exactly like US intelligence departments while making the accusation against Google.
As part of the initial funds for Palantir came from the CIA, it can be concluded that there are forces that encourage Thiel to speak against Google and they come from US intelligence community, which needs firms like Google to cooperate to monitor global cyberspace activities. Since cooperation with Google in this domain is not optimistic, the US intelligence community is trying to smear the Mountain View-headquartered firm's normal cooperation with China.
Second, when competing with business rivals, Thiel is expert at utilizing political power for unfair competition. Thiel is a board member of Facebook, one of the main rivals of Google. He may seek to benefit Facebook by accusing Google of wrongdoing.
US President Donald Trump doesn't pull punches when criticizing the Google and believes it fudges search results. Trump had lashed out at Google in 2018 and complained the search engine manipulated results to show unflattering news about him.
Thiel just gave Trump a good reason to blame Google.
The incident shows the anti-China hysteria of the US. Both Thiel and Trump inexplicably suspect the connection between China and Google but don't have evidence to back their allegations. To say the least, if even there was proof, there is nothing wrong with Google's legitimate cooperation with the Chinese government.
The doctrine of McCarthyism in the US in the 1950s rested on making accusations of subversion or treason without sufficient proof. Then, the US strived to expose supposed Communist infiltration in diverse spheres of the US government. Currently, the US practice toward China has returned to such hysteria, which is nothing but unhealthy morbidity.
The author is director at the Research Center for Cyberspace Governance, Fudan University. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn
