Explanation
The US needs large companies, particularly large companies that spend hundreds of billions of dollars on research and development, to compete with China.
Google has one of the best cybersecurity systems, for example, due to its extensive research spending. Therefore, the US Department of Justice (DOJ)’s proposal to effectively divide Google on antitrust basis would weaken US technical control and threaten the privacy of billions of American users and others around the world. Antimonopoly laws should always put the welfare of citizens first.
DOJ claims that Google has an illegal monopoly in part of the advertising market. The 49 states are co-plaintiffs with the DOJ, and the judge agrees. Most Americans in all political stripes want fair competition between US companies and don’t want to focus their strength on a single large technology company.
The antitrust case against Microsoft helped to drive the rise of small, high-tech companies in America, including Google at the time. The next technological evolution will depend on fostering a highly competitive and diverse American ecosystem of high-tech companies. The US Antitrust Act has carried out a good world to make American businesses more competitive. We must not cease to believe in the power that individuals and small businesses will shake up the world.
However, when opposing China Inc. Google’s revenue sharing with Apple, putting Chrome on top of Microsoft’s Bing Search Browser is undoubtedly a fair deal for both Google and Apple, and most of it is a decent outcome for consumers who prefer Chrome. Regarding the international politics in question, especially when companies like Google have such a global reach with billions of users, the devil is in detail and is an expert in protecting users’ privacy from dictatorial forces such as hackers and the Communist Party of China (CCP).
Some people criticize the argument that national security is the reason for protecting Google. However, they may be trying to solve the old scores because Google’s algorithms are said to have discriminated against conservatives. Recently, Google has taken heat from liberals to work to support the US and Israeli military. The looting of Google Chrome by DOJ could draw cheers from Beijing.
DOJ wants Google to share private user data about search with its competitors. This could include foreign rivals like Bytedance and Tencent, and is undoubtedly a violation of user privacy and a de facto sale of chrome. Release of data could inadvertently release private user information to hackers and spies from enemy countries such as China and Russia, and could threaten American citizens, including US officials. It could also reduce Google’s competitiveness in Europe, where the user base is already eroded.
The UK, Canada and Japan are also investigating Google for antitrust violations. As they reached Google’s market, Chinese tech companies were able to play to replace it in Europe and across East Asia.
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai spoke about some of these on April 30 in US federal court in Washington. He said that, coupled with Chrome’s search ranking algorithm, making user data available by competitors possible reverse engineering of Google’s search technology, which could prevent Google from competing. It would certainly help Microsoft, Google’s main competitor. Google’s market capitalization is approximately $1 trillion.
It is the main government that we take from private companies and a gift for large businesses. All Americans who believe in private property should oppose it. If the government experiences the threat, further research and development on Chrome, which has been ongoing for 25 years, will likely cease, Pichai said. He rightly argues that the DOJ proposal would weaken the US economically and hinder US technical leadership.
Of course, Google needs to ensure that the US and other companies in our allies can compete perfectly. It definitely should apply to any company and is in the interest of American consumers. Google also needs to ensure that its algorithm is not biased against conservatives. You need to do more to make sure scam websites, especially those who pay for Google, google, come to the top of Google search results. This is a case of foxes guarding the chicken coop and we need to oppose it.
However, anti-trust and Federal Trade Commission measures against Google, as well as other US companies such as Meta, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, should be carefully reconsidered given the context of international competition with authoritarian technologies that could be beneficial by Google’s split.
China may store US technology in many ways, through apps such as Tiktok, Shein, and Temu. The Chinese economy is coordinated against the US with the monopoly operation of one great state from Beijing. Therefore, all private companies, including Google, are at a disadvantage.
We should avoid hoving our own tech giants when they compete globally until we defeat the CCP threat. If their global monopoly is in fact a global monopoly, it would be better to work with them to ensure that they do not hinder the American people, but favor democracy against dictatorship. While creative solutions to this problem exist, they are not necessarily found in antitrust laws dating back to the 19th century. At the time, a global technological competition with China would not have been foreseen. Today, it was able to determine the future of humanity.
The views expressed in this article are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the epoch era.