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Google is dealing with a Fallout from a
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massive leak after 2 200 pages of
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documents from inside its search
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division were shared by SEO experts the
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documents detail the data that Google
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collects from websites and users they
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offer an unprecedented look at the
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search process and how content is ranked
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uh Google is saying of course that uh
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these are out of context um the document
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suggest that Google might have misled
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the public in terms of ranking content
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uh uh it denied in the P that users
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click clicks play a role in ranking
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websites but leak documents indicate
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otherwise they're saying actually it's
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not what it says um it's not it's not
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the best thing at the same time it has
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an AI problem on its hands speaking of
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the current days that's its old business
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the company is scaling back on the new
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uh AI overviews feature the one that put
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some wildly incorrect AI generated
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answers at the top of search results
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some are correct let's be fair uh some
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of the major reported errors included
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users being told to put glue on Pizza
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that was the famous one on a claim that
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John F Kennedy graduated from college in
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1993 um wow there's a lot going on at
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Google um they're going to disable the
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misleading advice uh limiting answers
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from some sites um they had a similar
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problem with their image tool if you
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remember it was too woke whatever um you
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know these things work themselves out my
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issue with these companies
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is away from the the leaked documents is
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they're always beta testing on users
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without about putting out products that
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are fully baked that's always been my
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experience with Silicon Valley um I
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don't think this is a good look for
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Google it makes it look like they're not
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competitive with Microsoft openi and
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meta um thoughts I'll turn it back to
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you and my only observation because I
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think you know more about this than I do
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my only observation is that it feels
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from an observations of a bystander that
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Google got caught flat-footed and their
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investors and the entire world said let
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me get this it was invented here and
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everyone's making trillions but us and I
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think that the ultimate like hurry up
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and catch up like you better hurry up
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has resulted in kind of a ready ready
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fire aim mentality that's haunting them
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a little bit because I think they feel
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real pressure to catch up and they do
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people internally I I just can't imagine
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that QA hasn't been a little bit more
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promiscuous here because they need to
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show their investors that they are
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catching up but you know there so much
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better than I do I I know nothing about
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this well you know these leaks these
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search leaks is Google has always sort
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of been such a formative company in
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terms of We're the better people we're
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the you know don't be evil they always
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had that nonsense when you knew you know
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they were doing all kinds of stuff
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behind the scenes that weren't in line
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with what they said they were doing um
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this search leak is interesting and it's
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an important and big deal that they had
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been sort of doing search in a different
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way now again it's only 2 200 Pages
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they're older some of them um the fact
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that they were doing whether user clicks
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played a role in ranking websites um
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they had in they had insisted they were
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giving you the best things versus what
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was most popular as I recall um I'm not
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sure if the leak is that damaging but it
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does suggest you know that they weren't
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being fully honest with people which is
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I think a disease of all these companies
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completely disease all these companies
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I'm not so much focused on that although
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it is interesting um but you're right
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this is this they they have been slow
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slow slow and I think a lot of people
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are complaining about CEO Sundar Pai as
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being indecisive I think that's been a
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take on him for many years now um and
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not being fast enough and I you know
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I've had that experience when he when he
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they were very slow to Cloud I had lunch
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with him I'm like why exactly are you
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letting at AWS dominate when you have
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much this is your area you know and he
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was like well you know he's a very
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considered person and I think in this
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case they shouldn't be putting out
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products that that are embarrassing
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because they're a worldwide I mean
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they're they're the most consumer facing
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of all these companies more than
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Microsoft meta I suppose um but they're
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the most consumer facing and they're
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known what I thought was amazing is this
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is a company known for searching and
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getting you the answer you want by
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pointing you to the answer then they
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give you the answer and it's wrong it
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ruins the brand in seconds right isn't
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that their whole promise of being
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correct or being helpful I I don't know
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from a brand perspective I think it's
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disastrous yeah but narratives have
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momentum and the momentum is against
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cator in alphabet right now they're seen
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as they're seen as uh being disrupted in
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the classic case of the innovators
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dilemma where they didn't want to
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challenge this to booth called Surge and
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let other people come around them and
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disrupt it but so so the The Narrative
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is negative and some of the things you
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were talking about uh where he's he
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quote unquote doesn't make decisions
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quickly if the narrative was positive
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everyone would be saying that he's a
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thoughtful mature business leader that
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the world needs right now because if you
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look at the numbers the actual numbers
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the stock is up 37% in the last 12
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months I mean the company continues to
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perform it's touching I'm I think the
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stock is at an all-time high it's
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outperformed even the
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S&P I I think quite frankly I think
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these stories are a little bit
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I think they make for clickbait I think
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they're embarrassing interesting but and
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you're right it might impact the brand
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because the media picks up on it because
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they're funny and it's like seeing it's
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tabloid but the reality is they continue
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to perform this was this was my big Tech
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stock pick for 24 they are firing on
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they have not given up any ground on
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search their Cloud business is you know
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firing on all 12,000 cylinders YouTube
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is the most dominant video platform
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among young people and they are trying
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fast to catch up and AI I I don't The
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Narrative right now is is is bad and
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momentum is against them but the the
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data gets in the way of the narrative
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here this company is performing really
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well y That's a fair point that's a fair
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point I just don't think a thing like
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this this leak comes out when they're
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under the justice department scrutiny
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and this idea it works well for the
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people that are trying to slow them down
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for definitely for the justice
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department right it shows it shows them
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you know saying one thing and doing
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another I think it's um someone the guy
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who one of the people who leaked this
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information I think or he had this
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information where's this guy's name
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fishkin is a veteran search engine
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optimization industry told the the The
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Verge um you know here's the last part
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which I thought was important
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journalists and Publishers of
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information about SEO and Google search
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need to stop uncritically repeating
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Google's public statements and take a
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much harsher more adversarial view of
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the search Giants Representatives when
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Publications repeat Google's claims as
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though they're a fact they're helping
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Google spin a story that's only useful
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the company and not to practitioners
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users are public the reason why that is
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important is because everybody that is a
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black box nobody gets to see the inside
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of and they're just starting to see it
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right and that's and it you know it's
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not what they did a lot of people get
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those sort of erroneous answers I mean
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how many consumers were actually exposed
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to that yeah I don't know I don't know
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it's just I I don't know and in this
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case this is the about the leak
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documents I think it just it's not a
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it's not a great Public Image for a
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company in the middle of a of a justice
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department thing so we'll see where it
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goes
