Google Hit With 2nd Antitrust Suit, Alleging Illegal Monopoly In Online Ads
at 1:28 pm NPR
Attorneys general from 10 states sued Google on Wednesday, accusing it of wielding its dominant role in digital advertising to crush competitors, in the second major legal challenge to the tech giant s power this fall.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Texas, focuses on Google s powerful place in the complicated chain that links advertisers to publishers selling space online. Google is the biggest player in nearly every step of that process, and the states allege it has abused that monopoly to manipulate the market and crush competitors.
Facebook Breakup Seen as Real Risk in Landmark Antitrust Cases
David McLaughlin and Ben Brody, Bloomberg News The WhatsApp Inc. mobile-messaging application WhatsApp and the Facebook Inc. application are displayed along with other apps on an Apple Inc. iPhone in this arranged photograph taken in Hong Kong, China, on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2014. Facebook, the worlds largest social network, agreed to acquire mobile-messaging startup WhatsApp Inc. for as much as $19 billion in cash and stock, seeking to expand its reach among users on mobile devices. Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg , Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg
(Bloomberg) If there were any lingering doubts about the governmentâs stomach for going after American technology giants, they were erased Wednesday by a pair of lawsuits against Facebook Inc. demanding a sweeping remedy: the breakup of the social-media company.
Facebook became a prime target for President Donald Trump in the last two months of his administration. Last week, he threatened to veto the annual U.S. defense authorization bill unless Congress adds a rider to abolish the law that protects technology companies, including Facebook, from liability over most content posted by users. The demand followed months of attacks by Trump and some other Republicans, who accused technology platforms of suppressing conservative views after they began flagging misleading and false posts about the pandemic and the election. Those claims aren’t part of the suits filed Wednesday.
Facebook and its tech peers are facing a groundswell of bipartisan antagonism over their control of digital commerce and their ability to influence what users watch and read.
right, more regulation generally helps the bigger companies. i think we also need to be cautious here. the big companies are also the biggest competitors to the other big companies. so if you go after one company let s say, look at what the justice department and obama administration did with e-books. they went after apple which was just starting were trying to become competitor to amazon and the antitrust suit against apple really prevented that and solidified amazons monopoly in that space. i think there s a possibility here that eventually there will be political backlash from the public against this.all four of the companies provide services that are if nothing else, very easy, they are successful, they are good at what they do. the idea breaking them up into smaller pieces and making it harder for the public to do things like google maps or shop online, i think you will see pushback from the public.
companies. i think we also need to be cautious here. the big companies are also the biggest competitors to the other big companies. so if you go after one company let s say, look at what the justice department and obama administration did with e-books. they went after apple which was just starting were trying to become competitor to amazon and the antitrust suit against apple really prevented that and solidified amazons monopoly in that space. i think there s a possibility here that eventually there will be political backlash from the public against this.all four of the companies provide services that are if nothing else, very easy, they are successful, they are good at what they do. the idea breaking them up into smaller pieces and making it harder for the public to do things like google maps or shop online, i think you will see pushback from the public.