On Monday, a federal court ruled that Google is an illegal monopoly and must face a trial to determine the appropriate remedy.
A federal court has found that Google illegally abused its market power to quash competition in internet search. The ruling hands the Justice Department its biggest victory in more than two decades in limiting the power of Big Tech companies to control and dominate the huge markets they have created.
“Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” Judge Amit P. Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia wrote in his judgment on Monday.
Mehta ruled that the Justice Department was right in saying that Google violated antitrust law by forging restrictive contracts with Apple and other phone makers that required them to install Google as the default search engine on smartphones. He also decried other practices of the Alphabet Inc. unit that prevented its rivals from competing on an even playing field.
This isn't Google's only knock of late. The tech giant has come under scrutiny following allegations that it suppressed search results related to the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
There Is Good Reason to Believe Google Deliberately Suppressed
Information on the Trump Shooting
In early 2024, Google came under fire after its Gemini AI was exposed for its "anti-white" programming.
If you speak to Gemini, the bot will give you every excuse under the sun as to why it can't generate images of white people on demand including the idea that it doesn't want to generate "harmful stereotypes." In fact, as one user pointed out, asking it to generate an image of a "white family" will make it refuse in order to ensure "fairness and non-discrimination." However, asking it to generate a black family will cause it to deliver exactly as asked.
An AI is only as racist as its programmer, and sure enough, its programmer is pretty racist.
Following the decision, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey (R) celebrated the win as one of the Plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
🚨BREAKING: We have obtained a court order ruling that Google is an unlawful monopoly.
— Attorney General Andrew Bailey (@AGAndrewBailey) August 5, 2024
This is a HUGE win, especially as Google continues to censor conservative voices.
I am moving forward undeterred in the fight to protect all Missouri consumers.
The full 286-page decision may be viewed below. Google has already indicated it will appeal it to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, and it's likely to land in the U.S. Supreme Court before all is said and done.
Google argued throughout the trial that its search engine faces competition from people looking for information in other places, such as on Amazon, TikTok and Reddit and increasingly via chatbots such as ChatGPT. In a statement after the ruling, Kent Walker, Google’s president of global affairs, said the court itself agreed that the company’s search engine is the best option.
“This decision recognizes that Google offers the best search engine, but concludes that we shouldn’t be allowed to make it easily available,” Walker said. “Given this, and that people are increasingly looking for information in more and more ways, we plan to appeal.”
d42ab8b2-e648-45f9-a4a5-0e0d147be918 by Susie Moore on Scribd
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