Google Monopoly Ruling Shines Light On Data Manipulation

Federal judge Amit P. Mehta, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, ruled on Monday that Google violated the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890.

“Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” Mehta wrote in his ruling in the case brought about by the Department of Justice and several U.S. states in 2020, under the administration of former President Donald Trump, reported Scientific American.

Nearly 90% of all Internet searches, and nearly 95% of all searches done on smartphones, go through Google, which means that Google has the power and potential to determine everything you see and what they think is right for the Internet. (LEARN MORE: Election Integrity Report Finds Issues In Nevada)

Google’s Manipulation

“In 2020, Google conducted a quality degradation study, which showed that it would not lose search revenue if [it] were to significantly reduce the quality of its search product,” the judge continued. And if a company can make its product worse without losing its profit and power, and the control over consumers, than this is “proof of a monopoly.”

“This decision recognizes that Google offers the best search engine but concludes that we shouldn’t be allowed to make it easily available,” a Google spokesperson told the outlet. “As this process continues, we will remain focused on making products that people find helpful and easy to use.” (LEARN MORE: Who Is J.D. Vance, Trump’s Vice Presidential Pick?)

What Happens Next?

Scientific American asked Yale professor Fiona Scott Morton what she thinks will happen next and how the government may force Google to fix any harms it has caused and how that’ll impact the way we search for things on the internet.

“The first thing would be to stop Google from [making payments] in exchange for an exclusive default position. That will deprive Apple of $20 billion in revenue, and so Apple will have to decide, ‘Do we just give that up? Or do we make our own search engine in which we can capture that revenue ourselves?’ That might cause an Apple search engine to arise, which would be interesting and provide choice to your readers,” Scott Morton told the outlet. (LEARN MORE: Christians Called To Shine ‘Light’ On ‘Dark Institutions’)

“A second remedy that I think would be impactful is [if Google were to divest its] Android operating system [OS], by which I mean the Android Open Source Project, plus Google Play Services, which together form the mobile operating system that Google uses. [In this scenario, the company would] just divest that [OS] into an independent corporation that would be subject to a regulated price for a few years.”

Defend American Values Today

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You have conversations with your loved ones, communities, and other networks every day about the things that matter most to you. You can now have those conversations with your lawmakers, so they know how to act on your behalf.

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