Big Tech companies in the area of communications and social media play an ever increasing role in our lives. They have the ability to store, analyze or sell almost every bit of digital communication metadata and while making huge profits with advertising or information routing based on users and customer behavior or political affiliation.
Justice Department to File Antitrust Suit Against Google
The Justice Department will file an antitrust lawsuit Tuesday alleging that Google engaged in anticompetitive conduct to preserve monopolies in search and search-advertising that form the cornerstones of its vast conglomerate, according to senior Justice officials.
The long-anticipated case, expected to be filed in a Washington, D.C., federal court, will mark the most aggressive U.S. legal challenge to a company’s dominance in the tech sector in more than two decades, with the potential to shake up Silicon Valley and beyond. Once a public darling, Google attracted considerable scrutiny over the past decade as it gained power but has avoided a true showdown with the government until now.
Google owns or controls search distribution channels accounting for about 80% of search queries in the U.S., the officials said. That means Google’s competitors can’t get a meaningful number of search queries and build a scale needed to compete, leaving consumers with less choice and less innovation, and advertisers with less competitive prices, the lawsuit will allege.
Source: https://www.wsj.com/
Big Tech companies can sell or exchange this information voluntarily or involuntarily with governments or tech tyrants. In this way they have an advantage over small competitors and a leverage on politics or social agenda. While doing so and leveraging this information, they may takeover potential competitors or be involved in antitrust activities.
