Jon von Tetzchner, creator of the Opera browser and CEO of the company that makes the Vivaldi browser, said that Google suspended Vivaldi’s AdWords account in apparent retaliation for his comments to the media. In May, von Tetzchner gave an interview criticizing Google’s Web tracking policies. “Two days after my thoughts were published in an article by Wired, we found out that all the campaigns under our Google AdWords account were suspended — without prior warning. Was this just a coincidence? Or was it deliberate, a way of sending us a message?” he blogged.
He added that Google required his company to make numerous changes to its website and that it took three months for the AdWords account to be reinstated. “A monopoly both in search and advertising, Google, unfortunately, shows that they are not able to resist the misuse of power. I am saddened by this makeover of a geeky, positive company into the bully they are in 2017,” he wrote.
