The Department of Justice late Tuesday indicated that it was considering a possible breakup of Google as an antitrust remedy.

KEY POINTS

  • The Department of Justice late Tuesday indicated that it was considering a possible breakup of Google as an antitrust remedy.
  • The DOJ said it was “considering behavioral and structural remedies that would prevent Google from using products such as Chrome, Play, and Android to advantage Google search.”
  • The judge has yet to decide on the remedies, and Google will likely appeal, drawing out the process potentially for years.
  • Th4tGuyII@fedia.io
    431·
    2 months ago

    I have no doubt Alphabet Google would try to delay any breakup as long as physically possible, but this would be a huge win against big tech if it went ahead. It’d probably be quite the win for public privacy as well, as it’d decouple these widely used platforms from Google.

    • Glytch@lemmy.world
      3·
      2 months ago

      How about we nationalize all three instead, start operating them for the public good?

      ^^^I ^^^know ^^^this ^^^dream ^^^is ^^^impossible

    • Sabata@ani.social
      11·
      2 months ago

      Also break up ISPs. I have the local monopoly and 4 red herrings providers allowed to operate to give the illusion of competition.

      • Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        7·
        2 months ago

        And force fiber installation. I have plenty of fiber in my area… it just stops at the boundary of every apartment complex.

        • Sabata@ani.social
          2·
          2 months ago

          My area would get reasonable fiber coverage by the time we figure out how to stream cat videos over entangled particles to a phone.

        • bitwolf@lemmy.one
          2·
          2 months ago

          Oh my gosh.
          My town advertised fiber rollout with a completion by the end of 2023.

          I asked about any projects for my street because it’s no longer 2023 and the clerks couldn’t find any road permits for running it through the conduit

          I live in a community of rental homes.

    • ChocoboRocket@lemmy.world
      22·
      2 months ago

      And then everything too big to fail! Too big to fail = too big.

      It’s not like the knowledgeable people, or systems/infrastructure all disappear if a business fails. Business is basically a bunch instructions for people moving a bunch of shit around for money. Literally nothing about it is so unique it cannot be reproduced.

      And then also Physically split up Elon, billionaires need to learn how to exist in a society of laws and consequences instead of above it.

    • Eatspancakes84@lemmy.world
      292·
      2 months ago

      There are the Trump cases that are objectively easy to prosecute (especially the stolen document case), since the law is clear and no good lawyer wants to represent Trump. Here the DOJ has clearly been dragging his feet for reasons that are unrelated to the legal system.

      Then there are these antitrust cases that are objectively EXTREMELY complex, and where the legal arguments have to be very carefully constructed to withstand a challenge from the best lawyers money can buy. Complain about the former, not the latter

      • PresidentCamacho@lemm.ee
        6·
        2 months ago

        Yeah especially when you consider that this “conservative democrat president” is the one who put Lina Khan at the head of the FTC and Merrick Garland at the head of the DOJ, and is why for one of the few times In my life I’m seeing news articles about people in the government doing their fucking job of protecting the American people from American Corporations.

  • KNova@infosec.pub
    8·
    2 months ago

    I know very little about the operating structure of Google, but I wonder how this would work functionally. Doesn’t most of their revenue come from ads? So like you couldn’t have google search’s ad business help to prop up the lines of business that don’t make money (Youtube, chrome development)

    I’m not anti-breakup but I just wonder if this would imperil some of their lines of business. Like would Youtube shove even more ads down your throat post-breakup?

    • PresidentCamacho@lemm.ee
      5·
      2 months ago

      A great question, Id never considered that previously.

      My instant gut feeling would be that they would all just continue selling adds, but as separate entities?

      Also how does breaking up google work when the current structure is that Alphabet is the primary company now?

      • ripcord@lemmy.world
        1·
        2 months ago

        Correct. They’d just sell ads the same way other services sell 3rd party ads through Google (or rarely, other services. Doubleclick was a big one before, you know, Google bought them)

      • KNova@infosec.pub
        2·
        2 months ago

        I took “breaking up Google” to mean the Alphabet suite of companies; I had presumed “Google” was just shorthand for “Alphabet”. But I might be wrong

        • PresidentCamacho@lemm.ee
          1·
          2 months ago

          You’re most likely right, they recognize the headline saying “DOJ considering breaking up Alphabet” would be meaningless to most people.

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
    5·
    2 months ago

    Good

    Now do the same with Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Comcast, Disney, all the current major Hollywood film studios, all the major internet providers, major airlines, and we’re going in the right direction of a start.

    • dan@upvote.au
      141·
      2 months ago

      People aren’t going to like this comment, but YouTube is pretty much guaranteed to get worse if it’s spun out as an independent company. The main reason it can survive is because of Google’s money. Video streaming at YouTube’s scale is extremely expensive and there’s only a few companies that could really afford to do it.

    • skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de
      6·
      2 months ago

      5 years from now, things will go full circle and YouTube will be Channel 487 on Comcast cable as “YT” but it will be a documentary channel on how to cane rocking chairs.