Justice Department Is Meeting State AG Offices Tuesday To Discuss If Google Broke Antitrust Law

Justice Department officials will meet on Tuesday with representatives of state attorneys general to discuss their investigations of Google and whether the company broke antitrust law. "The probes focus on search bias, advertising and management of Google's Android operating system," adds Reuters. From the report: The meeting is in the afternoon, according to one source, and will include officials from six or seven states, including Texas, according to a second source familiar with the matter. Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple are all the focus of federal, state and congressional investigations following complaints that the four tech giants abused their clout in dealings with smaller companies. The probes are being carried out by the Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission, state attorneys general and the House Judiciary Committee. U.S. Attorney General William Barr has said he would like to see them wrapped up this year.

Barr is a joke

[DogDude]

Barr is a joke. He's wasted any credibility he's had. Come November, he's gone, so I wouldn't be surprised if all of these big companies just drag their feet until then.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Google is fine. All they have to do is say that they believed they were acting in the public's best interest. If they claim they believed it, then they're in the clear, right?

Re: Barr is a joke

[Way Smarter Than You]

Why do you say yes gone in November? Did he announce he's leaving?

Google? Anti-trust violator? Yes.

[Way Smarter Than You]

It's just a matter of when the DoJ does something about it.

Hmm...some candidates getting contributions soon??

[Somervillain]

Let me guess....suddenly Google will be writing checks to the Trump Campaign?...if not a ton to whomever wins the DNC primary.

I never trust public displays of potential regulation like this. Sounds like a shakedown for campaign donations to me. Big tech doesn't contribute nearly as much to reelection campaigns as most major industries....the politicians don't like that...so suddenly, conveniently timed during election season, there are public threats of action. If Google was such a threat, they would have been so long ago and Barr could have taken action any other time. This just doesn't pass the smell test to me.

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[account_deleted]

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[AmiMoJo]

Trump's base aren't the target in the election though. They will vote Trump no matter what. He was right, he could shoot someone in broad daylight and they would cheer him on.

It's the swing voters that matter and it remains to be seen how the Ukraine thing plays out for them. Polling suggests that most of them thought that witnesses should have been called to his impeachment for example, and that could translate into punishment later this year.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

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[layabout]

more likely it will settle out of court with a seerkret agreement for encryption backdoors

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Oh right, *now* we care about antitrust.

[doubledown00]

Trump had better not crack down on Facebook too much.......their platform gave him the election in 2016.

Who knows, who cares, why bother?

[slick7]

TFG worries about monopolistic acquisitions of companies that have access to our health records, censor comments on "open" platforms, monitor everything said, written, videoed; influence the brain dead and yet won't assist the US gov't but kowtow to the Chinese with their social media credit scores?

One word. Perspective.