The Department of Justice is considering asking a federal judge to break up Google as an illegal monopoly, according to legal papers that reveal the latest Biden-Harris administration strategies to rein in the tech industry.
Government lawyers included the idea in a Tuesday night court filing that also suggested restricting Google’s artificial intelligence from plundering data from other websites. As another option, it proposed blocking the Silicon Valley company from paying billions of dollars to Apple to keep its search engine the default setting on iPhone and Mac computers.
“For more than a decade, Google has controlled the most popular distribution channels, leaving rivals with little-to-no incentive to compete for users,” the attorneys wrote in the filing, which The Associated Press reported Wednesday. “Fully remedying these harms requires not only ending Google’s control of distribution today, but also ensuring Google cannot control the distribution of tomorrow.”
In a Wednesday blog post that a Google spokesperson emailed to The Washington Times, the company pledged to “respond in detail to the DOJ’s ultimate proposal” in a court case scheduled to begin next spring.
“We believe that today’s blueprint goes well beyond the legal scope of the Court’s decision about Search distribution contracts,” wrote Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s vice president for regulatory affairs. “Government overreach in a fast-moving industry may have negative unintended consequences for American innovation and America’s consumers.”
Ms. Mulholland said such consequences would include ruining the online advertising market, increasing the cost of popular Android and Chrome devices and making users’ search histories less private and secure.
“The DOJ’s outline also comes at a time when competition in how people find information is blooming, with all sorts of new entrants emerging and new technologies like AI transforming the industry,” she said.
Tuesday’s filing is part of a years-long legal campaign by the Biden-Harris administration to regulate tech companies such as Google, Apple, TikTok, Ticketmaster and Amazon that it has accused of using deceptive and monopolistic practices to control their markets.
In an August ruling, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta accused Google of leveraging its search engine dominance illegally to stifle competition. Judge Mehta, an Obama appointee who will oversee the spring trial, has promised to issue a decision in the case by next August.
President Biden has made regulating big corporations, including the tech industry, a signature issue.
Vice President Kamala Harris, a former San Francisco politician with ties to Silicon Valley, has been silent during her Democratic presidential campaign on whether she will continue Mr. Biden’s campaign against tech companies if she is elected on Nov. 5.
Former President Donald Trump, her Republican rival, has signaled stronger support for tech companies. He has earned the endorsement of X.com owner Elon Musk and chose Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, a former tech industry executive, as his running mate.
• This story is based in part on wire service reports.
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.