Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
Tom's Guide
Google may have to give up Chrome, Android and AI data because of monopoly ruling
By Richard Priday,
1 day ago
The fallout of Google's antitrust lawsuit continues to produce dramatic-sounding potential consequences for the company, with new reporting suggesting Google may have to give up or share large parts of its business portfolio.
Supposedly the most likely solution to be chosen would involve banning Google from making search exclusivity deals with other companies, such as the one it had with Apple to be the iPhone's default search provider. But other ideas include allowing rival search engines access to AdWords or Google's data, letting rival AI services to use Google training data, or preventing Google from forcing websites to allow training data scraping in order to list them.
Google is intending to appeal, but if the outcome stands, then the company could be fundamentally changed, even if most of the suggested remedies aren't carried out, and even if it takes a long time for the results of the remedies to appear.
Not even Google Search has the answers to what comes next
Android and Chrome are heavily tied to Google, and not just because it's the company that makes them. Using both to their full extent requires logging in with a Google account, and Google requires Android phone makers to agree to a set of terms to use the operating system, including installing default Google apps and making them hard or impossible to remove.
Android and Chrome are heavily tied to Google, and not just because it's the company that makes them.
The Department of Justice has ordered many company break-ups in the past, but it didn't succeed in breaking up Microsoft in the 1990s, the closest comparable case. All bets are off when it comes to the outcome of this case, so all we can do is wait for the DoJ to make its proposal to Judge Amit Mehta, the judge who ruled on the Google antitrust case, and then see how he and Google respond.
Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency:
Our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. As a platform hosting over 100,000 pieces of content published daily, we cannot pre-vet content, but we strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation.
Comments / 0