Justice Department Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against Google

-

Read the original post: Justice Department Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against Google

The US Department of Justice will file an antitrust lawsuit against Google today. The lawsuit claims that Google holds an illegal monopoly over search and online advertising by using tactics that keep out competition.

What are those tactics? Things like paying Apple billions of dollars to maintain their exclusivity as the default search option on their phones, something few other companies could do. Without having seen their suit yet, I’m going to assume they aren’t big on Android having Google Search as an unremovable item either. There are plenty of other details we have yet to discover about this move from the DOJ, so we’ll update in a bit.

It looks like 11 States’ Attorneys General have joined the DOJ: Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana,  South Carolina, and Texas. There are bound to be related suits stemming from this as well, and could take years and years to come to any sort of resolution.

Is this all a part of a political shitshow two weeks before our Presidential election? Probably in part. Just know that there are folks on both sides of the aisle that aren’t fans of big tech and the monopolistic grip they have over so many things.

Google has not yet responded to comments from the press yet nor have they posted any sort of statement on the matter.

Again, we’ll try to update this as best we can.

UPDATE: Here’s a Twitter thread from Google’s former public policy guy that’s worth a read, keeping in mind who he used to work for.

// New York Times



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Honor 20 Pro is Now Available in 14 Countries

-
Image
The Honor 20 was off to a really rocky start with the controversial U.S.A. ban on HUAWEI. While the future of the phone was initially unclear, the planned launch of the phone is now in full swing. As this phone’s complicated launch slowly starts to be available around the world, here are all the places where you can get an Honor 20 Pro.   Country Availability Date Selling Channel Russia 2019/8/2 DNS . MTS, GB 2019/8/1 Amazon.uk , CPW , o2, H3G France 2019/8/22 Amazon, Boulanger, Cdiscount, Darty, FREE, Fnac. Orange, SFR. Offline [HONOR Shop Paris & Lyon] German 2019/7/21 MSD, 1&1 mobile, Amazon , Mediamarket/ phonehouse Netherlands 2019/7/31 bol.com , Belsimpel Czechia 2019/8/15 Alza Finland 2019/8/13 ELsia DNa Poland 2019/8/8 RTV EURO AGD , X-Kom Malaysia 2019/8/15 HiHonor , Shopee . Offline [all HONOR stores in Malaysia] Saudi Arabia 2019/7/31 Pre-sell 2019/8/6 First day sale HiHonor Egypt 2019/7/29 Pre-s...
Read more

Motorola’s foldable Razr phone may be announced before year’s end

-
While Samsung’s saga with the Galaxy Fold appears to finally be coming to an end , there are other foldables destined to be released soon. The Huawei Mate X is the other big name, but it has been delayed a couple of times as well. The other foldable device that we’ve heard about a few times is the rumored Motorola Razr reboot, and a new report claims an announcement is coming this year still. Earlier this year, reports suggested Motorola would launch its foldable phone this summer. That time has come and gone without a peep from Motorola, but a new report claims it’s still coming this year. This information comes from a person close to the company speaking to CNET . It’s unlikely that the device will actually be sold this year, but we should at least see the device before 2020. Motorola has already confirmed that they are working on a foldable smartphone. The “Razr” name was also confirmed by a Bluetooth certification. We exclusively reported on the specifications of the device ,...
Read more

Behind Dynamic System Updates in Android Q: How Google is using Project Treble to improve future Android releases

-
Image
Alongside the release of Android 8.0 Oreo, Google unveiled Project Treble : a major rearchitecting in the way the Android OS framework and the vendor HALs and Linux kernel communicate. Treble is a major initiative designed to reduce Android platform version and security patch fragmentation , and all Android-branded devices launching with Android Pie are required to support Project Treble. OEMs and vendors test Treble compatibility by booting a Generic System Image (GSI)—a pure stock build of Android from AOSP—and passing the Vendor Test Suite (VTS) and Compatibility Test Suite-on-Generic System Image (CTS-on-GSI). The GSI has proven useful in not only allowing software engineers working for OEMs test Treble compatibility, but it has also opened the door for a large custom ROM community on XDA. For the Android Q release, Google wants to make GSIs useful for another group: app developers. Since the first stable release and source code drop of any given Android platform release usual...
Read more