The US Department of Justice is considering taking Google apart

The move represents the first move by Washington to dismantle a company for its illegal monopoly since the failed attempts to dismantle Microsoft two decades ago. Informed sources, who requested anonymity, told Bloomberg that less drastic options include forcing Google to share more data with competitors, and measures to prevent unfair advantage. in artificial intelligence products.

The US administration will likely try to prevent the type of exclusive deals that were the focus of its case against Google. If the Ministry of Justice goes ahead with the decommissioning plan, the most likely units to be liquidated are the Android operating system and the Google Chrome browser. Officials are also looking into the possibility of getting the company to sell AdWords, the platform the giant uses to sell text ads.

Discussions within the Ministry of Justice intensified as a result of Judge Amit Mitha’s decision on August 5, which found that Google was illegally monopolizing the Internet search and text search advertising markets. Google said it would appeal the decision, but ordered the parties to begin plans for the second phase of the case, which includes the government’s proposals to restore competition, a ‘ include a possible bankruptcy application.

A Google spokesperson declined to comment on the possible treatment. A spokesman for the Department of Justice declined to comment. The US plan must be approved by Judge Mitha, who will direct the company to comply. The dismantling of “Google” is the biggest crisis of an American company since the dismantling of “American Communications” in the 1980s.

Justice Department lawyers, who have been consulting with companies that have been harmed by Google’s practices, raised concerns in their discussions that the company’s dominance in research gives it advantages in being developing artificial intelligence technology. As part of the solution, the government may try to prevent the company from forcing websites to allow its content to be used for certain Google artificial intelligence products to appear in search results.

Getting rid of the Android operating system, which is used in about 2.5 billion devices worldwide, is one of the remedies discussed repeatedly by Justice Department lawyers. In his decision, Judge Mitha found that “Google” requires device makers to sign agreements to access their applications, such as “Gmail” and “Google Play Store”. It was also found that these agreements require the “Google Search” component and the “Chrome” browser to be installed on devices in a way that cannot be deleted, and this prevents engines another study from competing effectively.

Google paid up to $26 billion to companies to make its search engine the default on devices and in web browsers, with $20 billion of that paid to Apple.