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The US Department of Justice may soon conduct an anti-trust investigation against Google, reported Friday night The Wall Street Journal (WSJ). The probe has been confirmed by The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Bloomberg.
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Unscathed until now
Although the scope of the DOJ's eventual investigation remains unclear, it appears that the investigation focuses on Google's research activities and advertising practices. So far, Google has managed to stay unscathed in the US despite investigations.
In 2013, Google was under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission. The investigation simply resulted in the company's undertaking to modify certain aspects of its activities.
This is minimal compared to the antitrust fines imposed on Google by the European Union. The EU has now condemned Google to pay an exorbitant fine of 8.2 billion euros ($ 9.3 billion) for its research practices and its bundling of proprietary applications on Android smartphones.
Controversies abound
Until now, Google has also managed to escape the heat absorbed by Facebook and Twitter on Russian interference in the 2016 US elections. But he had a lot of controversy.
His work with the Pentagon in the development of artificial intelligence, for example, has suffered a lot. He has also had problems with repeated violations of privacy in Gmail and Chrome and the exploitation of children on YouTube, among others.
None of these issues fall into the antitrust category, but they raise a certain mistrust of society. Add to that the animosity that has grown towards big tech in the face of its growing dominance and its lack of clear action to tackle serious problems and you have reasons to do so. worry.
One thing is certain, whether the antitrust investigation takes place or not, the company is closely scrutinized. "Companies need to be careful about how they behave right now," he said. CNN Business Gene Kimmelman, former antitrust officer of the Department of Justice.
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