The US Department of Justice (DOJ) is contemplating the breakup of Google as an online search monopoly and forcing it to sell Chrome and Android. A federal judge would have to initiate the suit against the big tech firm.
In a Tuesday court filing, the DOJ also said the judge could extract from Google the foundational data that it uses to operate the best known search engine in the world as well as its new artificial intelligence options, according to the AP.
"For more than a decade, Google has controlled the most popular distribution channels, leaving rivals with little-to-no incentive to compete for users," the DOJ’s antitrust section wrote in the filing. "Fully remedying these harms requires not only ending Google's control of distribution today, but also ensuring Google cannot control the distribution of tomorrow."
To prevent that, the DOJ said it could move to stop Google from maintaining control over a wide variety of tech products such as its ownership of the internet Chrome browser, Android smart phone system, AI products or the Google Play Store. Prosecutors are also examining whatever agreements Google has established with other search agents and possibly seek to regulate those arrangements.
