10/21/2020 / By Ethan Huff
We never thought this day would actually come, but word on the street is that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has officially filed its long-awaited antitrust lawsuit against Google for its monopolistic, anticompetitive behavior.
After announcing back in May that a lawsuit was in the works, it is now being reported that the DOJ, along with 11 states, have joined up to prosecute the search engine giant for abusing its monopoly power to crush its search engine and advertising competitors.
According to reports, Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google, is being accused of breaking the law by using its market power to destroy rivals. This has resulted in unprecedented revenues, including $162 billion that was obtained by the company in 2019 alone.
“The lawsuit marks the biggest antitrust case in a generation, comparable to the lawsuit against Microsoft Corp filed in 1998 and the 1974 case against AT&T which led to the breakup of the Bell System,” Reuters reports, as relayed by Breitbart News.
The Wall Street Journal was actually the first to break the news, explaining that Google has engaged in anticompetitive practices over the years that have contributed to its monopolistic control over online searching and advertising.
“The department will allege that Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc. … is maintaining its status as gatekeeper to the internet through an unlawful web of exclusionary and interlocking business agreements that shut out competitors,” the Journal reports, as Breitbart repeats.
“The government will allege that Google uses billions of dollars collected from advertisements on its platform to pay mobile-phone manufacturers, carriers and browsers, like Apple Inc.’s Safari, to maintain Google as their preset, default search engine.”
To keep up with the latest news about Google and the tech giants, be sure to check out Corruption.news.
By manipulating the other tech platforms in this way, Google has carved for itself a “pole position in search on hundreds of millions of American devices, with little opportunity for any competitor to make inroads,” the DOJ lawsuit contends.
On Android devices, users do not even have the ability to delete the Google search application at all because it is permanently preloaded. The DOJ lawsuit will address this as well, along with allegations that Google is unlawfully prohibiting competitor search applications from being loaded on Android devices due to its revenue-sharing arrangements.
The stated reason for why the lawsuit took so long to file is that lawyers claimed they needed more time to build a case against Google. Attorney General William Barr, however, overruled this decision and got the case moving a whole lot faster.
Google has reportedly been under investigation for almost a year, as dozens of DOJ lawyers working in two groups have been tackling the probe. Each of these two groups oversees a separate line of inquiry, the two main areas being Google’s dominance in searches and the company’s behemoth control over the online advertising ecosystem.
According to reports, Google currently controls an overwhelming 90 percent of web searches worldwide. Many of its competitors say they hardly stand a chance at getting their own products out there, especially when Google prohibits their apps and other tools from running on the Android operating system.
“Sundar Pichai committed perjury by lying before Congress,” reminded one Breitbart News commenter about this ongoing saga. “He should be in jail.”
“It is long past time to do a thorough search of the political practices of Google and the other Masters of the Universe: Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, and Apple!” wrote another.
“This should be a top-level search and not the corrupt and sloppy job that the FBI has been conducting!”
Sources for this article include:
Tagged Under: advertising, alphabet, Android, anti-trust, antitrust, Apple, banned, Big Tech, Censored, Censorship, corruption, cyber war, Department of Justice, DOJ, Glitch, Google, lawsuit, monopoly, search, search engine, Sundar Pichai, tech giants, techno tyranny
COPYRIGHT © 2017 FREEPRESS.NEWS
All content posted on this site is protected under Free Speech. FreePress.news is not responsible for content written by contributing authors. The information on this site is provided for educational and entertainment purposes only. It is not intended as a substitute for professional advice of any kind. FreePress.news assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. All trademarks, registered trademarks and service marks mentioned on this site are the property of their respective owners.