Republicans are going on the offensive against the Left before the 2024 Election.
The balance of power could be starting to change.
And top Republicans hit this leftist political heavyweight with some bad news that could change everything for November.
Google suffers major setback in antitrust case
The Biden Justice Department won a major victory in an antitrust case against Google that accused the Big Tech titan of abusing its power to establish a monopoly over the search engine market.
Google Search controls about 90% of the online search engine market over competitors like Microsoft’s Bing and DuckDuckGo.
“After having carefully considered and weighed the witness testimony and evidence, the court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta wrote in his opinion. “It has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act.”
Google vowed to appeal the decision.
The Justice Department successfully argued that deals that Google has with Apple, Samsung, and other mobile companies to be the default search provider are anticompetitive.
Google paid more than $26 billion to be the default search provider on phones and web browsers in 2021.
Mehta now has to weigh what penalty should be assessed to Google after the ruling.
Breitbart News reported that potential penalties could range from being banned from signing exclusive mobile agreements for Google Search to being forced to sell off its Android mobile operating system.
Matt Gaetz and Mike Lee put Google on notice
Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and U.S. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) sent a letter to the CEO of Alphabet – Google’s parent company – about the antitrust ruling against Google Search.
They emphasized to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai the need to comply with the forthcoming decision from Judge Mehta in the case or the company would be held accountable.
“According to DOJ, these default contracts have made it impossible for rival search engines to effectively compete, leaving Google with a market share above 90 percent—and depriving American consumers of a real choice,” Gaetz and Lee wrote.
Google Search’s autocomplete was caught refusing to complete searches for former President Donald Trump’s July 13 assassination attempt.
“All of our constituents feel the effects of Google’s entrenched market power, including documented suppression of conservative voices on Google’s channels and, more recently, the manipulation of Google’s autocomplete search function that prevented Americans from easily accessing information relevant to the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt on President Trump,” Gaetz and Lee continued.
They put Google on notice if the company tried to evade the ruling the court handed down as punishment for its monopolistic behavior.
“If we observe any effort by Google to evade a court-imposed remedy, we will be vigilant to pursue any and all solutions necessary to hold your company accountable and fully restore competition in online search,” Gaetz and Lee concluded.
Alphabet spent $15 million on lobbying last year to expand its influence in Washington, D.C.’s “Swamp.”
The antitrust ruling against Google could be the beginning of a legal shift against the Big Tech oligarchs.
Then again, given the timing of this ruling just prior to the November elections, it could be that Biden-Harris administration Attorney General Merrick Garland is sending a veiled message that the DOJ will seek a slap on the wrist for the Big Tech giant, if they help stop Trump in November.
Stay tuned to Unmuzzled News for any updates to this ongoing story.
