Murdoch launches Twitter tirade against Obama, Google over online piracy
Rupert Murdoch, seen at Sunday's Golden Globe Awards, went to bat for his companies on Twitter in the battle against Internet piracy.
January 16th, 2012
11:23 AM ET

Murdoch launches Twitter tirade against Obama, Google over online piracy

Rupert Murdoch didn't waste any time using his newfound popularity on Twitter to make waves and take shots at some other major names.

His targets? President Barack Obama and Google.

The media mogul took aim at the president and the leading Internet search engine after the White House announced over the weekend that it would not support legislation mandating changes to Internet infrastructure to fight online copyright and trademark infringement. The White House statement came in response to two petitions circulating on the Internet as well as widespread comments across the Web about the dangers of the legislation.

A major online backlash has developed regarding the Stop Online Piracy Act, with everyone from lawmakers to Web freedom advocates to some of technology's biggest players calling it a greedy and dangerous overreach that could have a chilling effect on free speech and innovation. Google, Yahoo and Facebook are among the Web heavyweights who have joined the chorus against SOPA, which backers hope to have ready for a vote by the end of the year.

The combination of Google and Obama attacking the bill clearly didn't make Murdoch happy. He began unleashing his frustration on Twitter by attacking Obama's relationship with so-called "Silicon Valley paymasters."

Naturally, Murdoch has a dog in the SOPA fight too - his massive media empire. No doubt he doesn't care for all the websites where users can watch and download episodes of his company's TV shows and movies without ever subscribing or paying.

And clearly he isn't happy that all of this is out there. It means a loss of money for him and his advertisers. And for that, Murdoch squarely blames Google.

For his remarks, Murdoch took a bit of a beating on Twitter, where most people are advocates of an open Web without government control. Some users argued he was outdated in his thinking and were quick to point out that Google has done a lot to help the media.  Some said it was foolish to criticize a search engine for having links available in its search. Users swung back at Murdoch that you can't complain about what a search engine's results turn up.

So Murdoch changed his tactic a bit, trying to humanize the issue.

For many users on Twitter, that didn't go over well either. Now, thousands of people tweeted, all of a sudden Murdoch was coming to the aid of the little guy?

So Rupert, still in his tweeting infancy, wanted to make clear he didn't have only bad things to say about Google.

That was, apparently, until he went back to the search engine and took a look at what was out there for the new "Mission Impossible" film. He saw the results as evidence that his anger toward Google was warranted.

He then admitted that while he may not understand completely all details and nuances of the fight and Google's role, he did know enough to know he didn't like what he saw.

So what did the search engine giant think of the media mogul's Twitter allegations? A representative told CNET it was "nonsense." 

"Last year we took down 5 million infringing Web pages from our search results and invested more than $60 million in the fight against bad ads. ... We fight pirates and counterfeiters every day," the spokeswoman told CNET.

Murdoch never quite clarified whether he'd like the search engine to do more to take those links down, or if he perhaps wished companies like his could play more of a role in asking for something to be taken down if it infringed upon their copyright.

But his fight continued, culminating at perhaps the  perfect time: the day of the Golden Globes. As fans tweeted their thoughts on who was going to win and shared their excitement to see the best of the best in the industry, Murdoch turned back to those very people to show that piracy was a real danger to Hollywood.

He ended with a shot at Obama, asking why he would align himself with the "pirates" who help push illegal content online. (Murdoch later clarified that in this tweet he had an autocorrect issue on his iPad and had clearly meant to reference POTUS, the president of the United States, instead of the name of an Australian company.

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Filed under: Movies • Music • Rupert Murdoch • Showbiz • TV
soundoff (403 Responses)
  1. Typinator

    I have no empathy for Murdoch. He runs a propaganda empire for his own personal agenda. Any liberal news outlets he would be running serve as sheep's clothing for the wolf. Giving only the appearance of legitimacy.

    January 16, 2012 at 5:12 pm | Report abuse |
  2. LogicalThinker

    All this diatribe from Murdoch rings false, what with his family's blatant phone hacking for tabloids.
    The world will be a better place once Rupert has gone to his reward.

    January 16, 2012 at 5:16 pm | Report abuse |
  3. talshar

    He has his own primary in Britain, they call it the Murdoch primary.

    You can't be prime-minister without winning it.

    He is a very evil man.

    January 16, 2012 at 5:17 pm | Report abuse |
  4. RedneckJay

    Is this the same guy who deleted a dead girl's voicemail? Hacked hundreds of email accounts? Publishes tens of thousands of lies every year via his media outlets?

    January 16, 2012 at 5:18 pm | Report abuse |
  5. K2

    Rupert and his fat paws trying to own the internet and then spy on users like how his News Corp did on countless individuals. What have you given to the internet you fat pig!

    January 16, 2012 at 5:19 pm | Report abuse |
  6. grimbal

    Murdock and his family equate the epitome of greed

    January 16, 2012 at 5:23 pm | Report abuse |
  7. riomarcos

    If Rupert has his way, we'll be paying for sending every email and goose-stepping to fascist drumbeats. Rupert is an Australian whose plan to dominate and America and thusly the world is slowly coming true. He already ripped off an election with Bush's fist win, successfully launched the US into a quagmire in Iraq and profited massively from it. He is the ugliest facet of the 1% and the hordes of sheep that follow him blindly into the abyss refuse to see him for what he is.

    January 16, 2012 at 5:24 pm | Report abuse |
  8. Murdoch

    I am thinking this guy belongs in jail more than helping identify the policy needs of society towards the internet.

    January 16, 2012 at 5:24 pm | Report abuse |
  9. slippery

    sticky ingers

    January 16, 2012 at 5:25 pm | Report abuse |
  10. LWZRGHT

    So Murdoch gazes down from his profit pedestal to observe all of his minions, sees something he doesn't like, and goes on a campaign to further the legislation? He wants the government to protect his business? Hmmmmm. Sounds hypocritical to me.

    January 16, 2012 at 5:27 pm | Report abuse |
  11. d

    People that read history understand that when certain freedoms are taken away, they are sold back to the public through criminal organization. You cannot defeat these organizations because their customers are freedom seekers. So to avoid creating massive black markets than can hurt us, it is better to count the cost before building the wall.

    January 16, 2012 at 5:28 pm | Report abuse |
  12. Bigred

    Murdoch and his family are nothing more then criminals themselves who hired hackers and techs to monitor peoples emails, voice-mails, and to spread disinformation. He and his kind are nothing more then rapacious hypocrites who want to own and control every aspect of the internet. Maybe it is time to shut his empire down.

    January 16, 2012 at 5:32 pm | Report abuse |
  13. ironsides

    The other alternative heir d0uche Murdock is to not to subscribe to your crap at all. OR you can be on your internet and the rest of the world can start a different one. Your lucky you get all the FREE publicity from the internets and don't have to pay for it you moron.

    January 16, 2012 at 5:32 pm | Report abuse |
  14. R. Kershaw

    I can't believe that this man is saying anything regarding piracy and other ills. The man that was doing all the illegal things that we all know about in England, That turned the Wall Street Journal into a clown of a newspaper? Please, sir, go back to your retirement home. Me thinks that you are starting to become senile.

    January 16, 2012 at 5:32 pm | Report abuse |
  15. ddblah

    He would love to control all media. Fortunately, that is not going to happen in US.

    January 16, 2012 at 5:34 pm | Report abuse |
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