WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Wall Street Journal stepped up pressure on Google Wednesday morning by publishing a report documenting that, over the last decade, Google has paid academics between $5,000 to $400,000 for research supporting the company’s market dominance position, seeking to have academics publish research useful to Google in deflecting antitrust accusations by the Federal Trade Commission.

The Wall Street Journal article explained Google kept a “wish-list” of academic papers that included working titles, abstracts, and budgets for each proposed academic paper the company wanted published, as Google searched for willing authors, some of whom shared their research drafts with Google prior to publication, others of whom failed to disclose in print the payment received from Google for conducting and publishing the research.

“The funding of favorable campus research to support Google’s Washington, D.C.-based lobbying operation is part of a behind-the-scenes push in Silicon Valley to influence decision makers,” WSJ reporters Brody Mullins and Jack Nicas noted.

“The operation is an example of how lobbying has escaped the confines of Washington’s regulated environment and is increasingly difficult to spot.”

Last month, regulators in the European Union slapped Google with a huge $2.7 billion fine for anti-trust activities that included Google rigging its search engine to stack the deck in favor of Google’s own comparison shopping service.

Infowars.com has previously reported Google has joined George Soros’ Open Society Foundation and the Ford Foundation in funding more than $72 million since 2006, lobbying hard to retain the Obama-era “Net Neutrality” rules in place that allow Internet giants such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter to continue censoring conservative and libertarian websites including Infowars.com.

The Wall Street Journal article on Wednesday revealed Google receives nearly $80 billion a year in ad sales drawn mostly from seven products that each attract more than a billion global users a month, including Gmail, YouTube and Google maps.

The article indicated Google’s search engine handles more than 90 percent of online searches globally.

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