Google declined to reveal how much money it had contributed to the site

Google is helping to fund a website that encourages people to spam politicians and newspapers with automated messages backing its policy goals.

The campaigning site is intended to amplify the extent of public support for policies that benefit Silicon Valley, an investigation by The Times suggests. The tools were recently used to bombard MEPs with phone calls opposing EU proposals to introduce tighter online copyright rules. The proposed legislation was rejected by the European parliament last month after a lobbying campaign led by Google and Facebook.

The grassroots opposition to the bill appears to have been orchestrated, in part, by OpenMedia, which describes itself as an organisation working to keep the internet open, affordable, and surveillance-free. Although OpenMedia insists that donors do not influence its