Re:Justice Department sues monopolist Google for violating a...
by ivraatiems on Tuesday October 20, 2020 @11:25AM
(#24838428)
It's definitely political in nature in terms of timing, but it's also been a long time coming. The main reason there aren't more left-leaning states on the lawsuit is that they wanted to wait a little longer and build more of a case: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/16/justice-department-...
My hope is that DOJ doesn't blow this because they went too early. This is the level of investigation of large tech companies I have wanted for a long time.
Re:Justice Department sues monopolist Google for violating a...
by jlgaddis on Tuesday October 20, 2020 @11:29AM
(#24838477)
It is deeply political! It was filed by the Trump administration's DOJ and 11 states -- and the attorney general of each of those 11 is a Republican.
However...
There's also (supposedly) another lawsuit by a bunch of Democratic states that is in the works (and, of course, several lawmakers from both parties are also on board the "break up Google (and other big tech companies)" train).
If (i.e., when) that happens, the lawsuits will likely be consolidated.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24836520
Given the states and Barr, this feels deeply political in nature.
My hope is that DOJ doesn't blow this because they went too early. This is the level of investigation of large tech companies I have wanted for a long time.
However...
There's also (supposedly) another lawsuit by a bunch of Democratic states that is in the works (and, of course, several lawmakers from both parties are also on board the "break up Google (and other big tech companies)" train).
If (i.e., when) that happens, the lawsuits will likely be consolidated.
On the flip side, some of these charges could lead to un-googled Chrome and Android.
But if Microsoft does with Android what they did with Edge/Chromium, then is that really better?