In a sign that President Trump follows the Biden administration’s lead in Reining on Google, the Ministry of Justice on Friday reiterated his request that a court was breaking up the search giant.
The request was followed by a milestone decision last year by Judge Amit P. Mehta of the US District Court of Justice on Columbia District who found that Google had illegally maintained a monopoly on electronic search, paying tissue browsers and smartphone manufacturers to present the search engine. The judge is scheduled to hear arguments about the proposed solutions from both the government and Google in April.
According to Biden’s administration last year, the Ministry of Justice and a group of states have asked Judge Mehta in a preliminary deposit to force Google to sell the popular web browser, Chrome, among other corrective measures. The lawyers of the department on Friday reiterated this demand, which could reshape the internet competition.
“Google’s illegal behavior has created an economic Goliath, which causes the market to ensure that – no matter what is happening – Google always wins,” the government said on Friday. “The American people are thus forced to accept the ruthless demands and displacement, ideological preferences of an economical Leviathan in return for a search engine that can enjoy the public.”
Google, which says it is finally intending to attack the judge’s ruling in the case, also submitted its own final proposal on Friday, maintaining its position that the company should not change much to deal with the judge’s concerns.
The decision of the Ministry of Justice to remain with its sweeping proposal to fundamentally change the company of the $ 2 trillion company is one of the first brands from the new administration on how to approach technical regulation. The demands, the most important corrective measures proposed in a monopoly technology case, as the Ministry of Justice requested to dismantle Microsoft in 2000, could submit how Mr Trump’s appointments will handle a number of other antitrust cases.
The Ministry of Justice has also sued Google about its advertising sovereignty, a case awaiting a decision, and Apple for claims that the tight -knit system and software system makes it difficult for consumers to leave. A case of the Federal Trade Committee against Meta, more than allegations that Meta has ruled out the competition when he bought Instagram and Whatsapp, is scheduled to trial in April. The organization has also sued Amazon, accusing it of illegally protecting a monopoly on e -retail trade.
The technological industry is closely monitoring Mr Trump’s choices to drive these organizations as it is trying to determine its approach to regulation. Cases of antitrust legislation against technological giants come from research that began during Mr Trump’s first term.
Andrew Ferguson, the new FTC president, expressed his concern about the power of technological giants as a gatekeeper in online speech. Gail Slater, a candidate for Mr Trump to lead the Justice Ministry’s antitrust service, said during the Senate’s hearing that he was worried that someone “can disappear from the internet quite easily when there are only two platforms that provide news”.
The deposit on Friday was signed by Omeed A. Assefi, which leads the Department of Antonopathic Legislation, while Ms Slater is waiting for a vote in the Senate for her candidacy.
Technology executives have visited Mar-A-Lago in recent months to stand trial of the president’s favor and have donated millions of dollars to Mr Trump’s inauguration. Managing executives, such as Apple’s Tim Cook, Google’s Sundar Pichai and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, sat behind Mr Trump during his inauguration.
The first major test of Trump’s approach to the Big Tech’s power concerns will be how it goes on the case of Google search.
During a 10 -week test in 2023, the government said Google locked up opponents, signing agreements with Apple, Mozilla, Samsung and others automatically appearing as a search engine when users opened a smartphone or new tab in a web browser. Google paid $ 26.3 billion for these arrangements in 2021, according to evidence presented in the trial.
Google argued that its agreements had not violated the law and that users chose the search engine because it was better to find information from its opponents, such as Microsoft’s Bing or DuckDuckGo or DuckDuckGo, which claims to offer its users more privacy than the search engines that collect more information to them.
After Judge Mehta decided in August that Google illegally maintained a monopoly, the justice ministry proposed last year that the company was forced to sell Chrome.
The government has asked the court to stop Google to conclude agreements with paid agreements with Apple, Mozilla and Smartphone manufacturers being the default search engine on smartphones and browsers. The company should also allow rival search engines to display the results of Google and access its data for a decade, the government said during its deposition at that time.
The government also said that Google, whose parent company is alphabet, should be forced to assign its shares to any artificial intelligence products that could compete with the search, an attempt to stop dominating hatched technology.
The Ministry of Justice has changed this part of its request on Friday, saying instead that Google should alert federal and government officials before proceeding with AI investment
The government also said that Google should make changes to the business practices of the Android Smartphone operating system, eliminating an option that would allow the company to simply sell Android. If the market did not become more competitive, the court could then order Google to sell Android, according to the new deposition.
Google had urged Judge Mehta to follow a closer approach. He asked to continue to be allowed to pay other companies to give the search engine to install web browser and smartphones. But he said that these agreements should be less restrictive than in the past and allow other search engines to compete for primary installation on phones and browsers. In addition, browser manufacturers, such as Apple and Mozilla, should be allowed to change the default search engines at least every 12 months, the company said.
On Friday, Google submitted a proposal with Judge Mehta. The government’s proposals will “harm consumers, economics and national security of America,” added a Google spokesman, Peter Schottenfels.
Judge Mehta is scheduled next month to chair heard almost two weeks to set corrective measures in the case, which will include testimony and arguments by lawyers on both sides.
