Oracle funds an anti-Google group with intent to tarnish Google’s image
We all know that the big tech companies play strategic backroom games for one-uppance against each other. Sometimes they do it openly like Microsoft opened a special website called abc.wtf just to troll Google when it was merged into Alphabet, while other times they do it covertly, far hidden from public gaze. However, the abc.wtf was harmless trolling of Google as it took visitors to Bing, Microsoft’s own search engine.
The issue is what happens when you are found to be secretly funding a group whose sole intent is to tarnish Google’s image and goodwill. Look’s like Oracle took last month’s lawsuit to heart when it lost its big Java fight against Google. It is reportedly pushing for a fresh trial in the Java vs Android feud but the software giant is also trying to undermine its rival some ungentlemanly way.
Oracle is funding a non-profit advocacy group called Campaign for Accountability. That should be no problem as all big tech companies undertake CSR as a part of their work culture. But it seems that Campaign for Accountability is decidedly anti-Google. While it promotes most causes that liberals are famous for, like fighting “big oil” and promoting LGBT rights. But its main enemy seems to be Google. Not only it has a Google Transparency Project that aims to “track the company’s influence” on government and personal lives. The group is also obsessed with the possible ethical implications of Google’s White House meetings. From the looks of it, the group seems to be a medium for scrubbing Google in public.
Oracle has now confirmed to Fortune that it has been funding  Campaign for Accountability. Ironically, CfA, as it is known, isn’t very transparent about its own membership or funding.
Other tech companies are known to keep a distance from it. Microsoft has explicitly denied funding the group, however.
Looks like Oracle has still not forgotten it lost the Java vs. Android case to Google and is looking a backdoor ways to get back at the world’s largest search engine.
