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Google to employees: Please stay focused and definitely don't send slacks/emails about antitrust https://t.co/Sq5MV7G0vR
— o...k (@kateconger) October 20, 2020
(1) It's easy to be skeptical of #DOJ these days, but this monopolization case against #Google is more than a decade overdue. The fact that it took prosecutors this long to try to take on the search behemoth shows just how broken American #antitrust is: https://t.co/vrVOQneoLe
— Albert Fox Cahn? (He/Him) (@FoxCahn) October 20, 2020
“We see vigorous competition” is such a funny quote from a CEO of a company dominant in the design, discovery, data and dollars of our entire industry through search, surveillance, android, AMP, and the entire adtech supply chain. https://t.co/04G3h0YT8W
— Jason Kint (@jason_kint) October 20, 2020
Complaint says: "The revenues Google shares with Apple make up approximately 15–20 percent of Apple’s worldwide net income." Woah if true
— Adrianne Jeffries (@adrjeffries) October 20, 2020
How dominant is Google? It has 95% market share in mobile search, 85% in mobile operating systems, 70% in browsers...https://t.co/r1N41XcaEq via @WSJ
— keachhagey (@keachhagey) October 20, 2020
People don’t use Google because they have to -- they use it because it’s helpful. People have endless options when it comes to accessing information online, and they can switch or download alternative search engines in a matter of seconds.https://t.co/uHUzG1wz4n
— Kent Walker (@Kent_Walker) October 20, 2020
Solid complaint, well written. Not much that's new. Looks to me like the EC Android case from 2016. Good we have caught up to 2016. Time to get to 2020. https://t.co/wHFi1vx19G
— Fiona Scott Morton (@ProfFionasm) October 20, 2020
Google: "It’s trivially easy to change your search engine in our browser, Chrome."
— Romain Dillet ? (@romaindillet) October 20, 2020
Also Google: Let's share a GIF that shows menus hidden behind right clicks, three-dot symbol, etc.https://t.co/w5UEatc3JC pic.twitter.com/8lohbS5B8X
In a lengthy post on its website, Google responded that the lawsuit would elevate “artificially prop up lower-quality search alternatives” and argued that consumers use Google because they want to, not because they have to.https://t.co/SeyNNQxrz0
— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 20, 2020
It's bad when I see something like this that my immediate thought is "how is Trump profiting/benefitting" versus the very real power Google misuses in the market https://t.co/mqQskjidlj
— Oliver Willis (@owillis) October 20, 2020
Totally….people ‘choose’ to have all of their queries routed to @Google
— ashkan soltani (@ashk4n) October 20, 2020
It has nothing to do with the fact that @Google occupies 99% of the real-estate on their devices (p16 of @TheJusticeDept Complaint) https://t.co/sbYKAeUGuG pic.twitter.com/3IklahbAFW
Poor Amazon. "Google’s anti-forking provisions and policies limited the growth of Amazon’s mobile phone, and of Fire OS, because major manufacturers declined to support Amazon’s phone out of fear doing so would risk their lucrative deals with Google."
— Adrianne Jeffries (@adrjeffries) October 20, 2020
CENSORSHIP: @RealDonaldTrump should demand FTC and DOJ immediately INVESTIGATE Twitter, Facebook, Google fraudulent business practices! Section 230 is no immunity against fraud. https://t.co/4xjsQJE30z
— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) October 20, 2020
After being called a "monopolist" by the DOJ, Google execs tell employees to stay focused and keep your mouth shut https://t.co/aeaAyt9CBC
— Daisuke Wakabayashi (@daiwaka) October 20, 2020
Google makes a copy of the public internet, parses it in close to real-time, builds incredibly complex models that have to match the taxonomy of knowledge across the entire species in many many languages and regions, and does so when millions are doing adversarial SEO.
— Alex Stamos (@alexstamos) October 20, 2020
Paragraph 13 of DOJ's filing v Google does a good job of summarising some (not all) of the consequences of Google's market position https://t.co/oydfNkVRO9 pic.twitter.com/IcjLqF7uHZ
— Johnny Ryan (@johnnyryan) October 20, 2020
Two things can both be true: Bill Barr is a corrupt Trump crony who shouldn't be AG, and @TheJusticeDept has the power to pursue a legit antitrust suit against Google. The case is clear – in fact, it could have gone further. It must move forward without political interference. https://t.co/7S4trkbDOG
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) October 20, 2020
Sure feels like the Bill Barr DOJ put together a sloppy, weak gift of an antitrust case against Google to get headlines ahead of the election
— nilay patel (@reckless) October 20, 2020
Well done to Google for absolutely making the DOJ's point that defaults matter https://t.co/QNy8cDdsfa pic.twitter.com/k7OVHAtvZy
— James Titcomb (@jamestitcomb) October 20, 2020
Google, known for its search dominance, is a powerhouse in online advertising, mobile phone software and many other areas. Here's a look at why its businesses are under so much scrutiny. https://t.co/ZXO7rZbc6L
— WSJ Tech (@WSJTech) October 20, 2020
Two things on the Google antitrust suit.
— Alex Stamos (@alexstamos) October 20, 2020
1) As a technologist, something that is really lacking from the complaint is a recognition that Google Search is dominant because building a competitor is *spectacularly difficult*! https://t.co/4aoTr85NTN
Seven additional states may separately sue Google, on top of the 11 states that joined the Justice Department lawsuit, the New York attorney general announced. They are:
— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 20, 2020
Colorado
Iowa
Nebraska
New York
North Carolina
Tennessee
Utahhttps://t.co/vqVy8JNlX8
The lawsuit comes two weeks after Democratic lawmakers released a sprawling report on tech giants, saying they had turned from “scrappy” start-ups into “the kinds of monopolies we last saw in the era of oil barons and railroad tycoons.” https://t.co/Qi7GxG39Gi
— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 20, 2020
Hard to reconcile the statement "we're not a monopoly, we don't restrict the consumer's ability to choose" with the fact that, according to the DoJ's antitrust case, Google pays Apple about $10 billion to make it the default search engine on all devices https://t.co/hqMFanlOxK
— Mathew Ingram (@mathewi) October 20, 2020
Google says consumers choose its Search engine over rivals, so why does it pay ~$15B a year to make this product the default on browsers and phones? If the US gov has it's way, those deals may disappear https://t.co/v1crYrpV7e via @technology @GerritD
— Alistair Barr (@alistairmbarr) October 20, 2020
First story in what is going to be an epic battle: U.S. to Accuse Google of Protecting Illegal Monopoly https://t.co/vdpj7SncuU
— Eric Lipton (@EricLiptonNYT) October 20, 2020
1975: Microsoft founded
— Ben Thompson (@benthompson) October 20, 2020
~22 years later~
1997: US v Microsoft filed
———————————-
1998: Google founded
~22 years later~
2020: US v Google filed
***************************
Apparently being sued for antitrust is like graduating from college for tech companies.
https://t.co/pvQqyBpu2y
— Luther Lowe (@lutherlowe) October 20, 2020
Google is harming consumers.
Monopoly thwarted in 14 seconds. Worst monopoly ever. https://t.co/2AxEninGwV pic.twitter.com/PnQ8LeB86q
— Daniel T. Richards (@danieltrichards) October 20, 2020
We’re confident a court will conclude this suit doesn’t square with the facts or law. In the meantime, we remain focused on delivering the free services that help Americans every day.
— Kent Walker (@Kent_Walker) October 20, 2020
"This provision is punitive to the carrier or manufacturer and helps to ensure that carriers and manufacturers will not stray from Google.” https://t.co/nhQA4lQl9Q
— Mark Bergen (@mhbergen) October 20, 2020
3) also can't shake the inconsistency of this argument from google - if people prefer google because it's better and if it's really easy to change defaults, then WHY bother spending billions of dollars to make sure you are the default option for iPhones and other devices
— Daisuke Wakabayashi (@daiwaka) October 20, 2020
Today’s lawsuit by the Department of Justice is deeply flawed. People use Google because they choose to -- not because they're forced to or because they can't find alternatives. We will have a full statement this morning.
— Google Public Policy (@googlepubpolicy) October 20, 2020
Many state AGs continue to investigate Google for search and ad tech and will likely file their own, bipartisan suit down the road.
— CeciliaKang (@ceciliakang) October 20, 2020
There are so many counterintelligence implications of Google's activities of late...I wonder if breaking up the company now might hinder any potential discovery in future investigations... #HINT https://t.co/8psz9S76i8
— Eric Garland (@ericgarland) October 20, 2020
2) curious about the effectiveness of google's argument that its deals with apple, carriers and other handset makers are like Coke buying supermarket shelf space. easy to understand but doesn't feel right since LOTS of people drink Pepsi and other sodas. Not the case w/ search
— Daisuke Wakabayashi (@daiwaka) October 20, 2020
General-purpose search might be the closest thing we have to a natural monopoly in online consumer services, and competition policy should focus on protecting other lines of business from the natural monopoly and not pretending that anybody can build a competitor.
— Alex Stamos (@alexstamos) October 20, 2020
Here we go https://t.co/DDLaGFiH7W
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) October 20, 2020
2) The timing of this stinks, as does the partisan makeup of the states involved. As we have been documenting, YouTube has some of the least effective policies around election disinformation and it's hard to imagine they strengthen these under threat.https://t.co/kuWp6Mv7l8 pic.twitter.com/voUqUTHWPA
— Alex Stamos (@alexstamos) October 20, 2020
The US Google antitrust fling. Very narrow scope - nothing on ads/bundling/self-preferencing at all. Purely focused on TAC and paying for/obliging status as default search. The UK CMA also called this out as a barrier to search competition. But… https://t.co/CjxlajFRRW
— Benedict Evans (@benedictevans) October 20, 2020
"It has been a long time coming" - Das U.S. Justizministerium startet ein Monopolverfahren gegen #Google. #bigtech https://t.co/Nw6lvpXEMs
— ARD Washington (@ARDWashington) October 20, 2020
Can't believe I'm supporting the Barr justice department, but this case has merit. Google was fined $1.7 billion in the EU for these same practices.
— Brianna Wu (@BriannaWu) October 20, 2020
Notable that conservative megaphone Facebook is not being targeted when it's even more anti-competitive. https://t.co/1j3fIN8KCU
This from Google's response to the antitrust suit is.. misleading at best. Google also pays Apple billions of dollars to be the default search engine on iPhones https://t.co/sA7ufTNJzU pic.twitter.com/h5Zgq1BsgQ
— Karissa Bell (@karissabe) October 20, 2020
“if lost, would result in a “Code Red” scenario. That’s because nearly half of Google search traffic in 2019 came from Apple products, according to the lawsuit” ? https://t.co/h1Yad6PTXL
— Steve Troughton-Smith (@stroughtonsmith) October 20, 2020
VCs don't decline to fund Google Search competitors because Google pays browsers for customer acquisition, but because competing against the general use of Google is lunacy.
— Alex Stamos (@alexstamos) October 20, 2020
10 slide pitch deck, slide 4: First, we will purchase 5 exabytes of storage in 20 global datacenters.
The idea of Google and Apple working as if they are "one company" is pretty much the worst-case scenario in the mind of an antitrust regulator. I'm old enough to remember Googlezon. https://t.co/8aPZCBv9yS
— Tom Giles (@tsgiles) October 20, 2020
A reminder that the tech industry is by no means the only one with a monopoly problem.
— National Farmers Union (@NFUDC) October 20, 2020
Just 4 companies control:
-85% of beef industry
-85% of corn seed market
-84% of pesticide/herbicide market
Not to mention news media, health care, airlines, internet providers etc. https://t.co/imQEuguuEc
Google's monopoly in search is a menace to society. They've steadily been making search worse by eroding the distinction between ads and organic results, pushing their own services over better alternatives, and shaking down companies for their trademarks. https://t.co/ZgPl79qKxk https://t.co/fD9CWF76Vt
— DHH (@dhh) October 20, 2020
The DOJ's case is focusing on how Google pays Apple and other companies to make Google Search the default on phones and browsers. I wrote about that a couple weeks ago here: https://t.co/tnGOZEOUkG
— Gerrit De Vynck (@GerritD) October 20, 2020
Stunning stat:
— Geoffrey A. Fowler (@geoffreyfowler) October 20, 2020
Apple reaps up to 20% of worldwide net income from Google revenue — and Google at one point in 2019 attributed almost half of its search traffic as having originated on Apple deviceshttps://t.co/X9kknXtsn5
US antitrust law should help consumers, but the DOJ’s deeply flawed lawsuit could raise phone prices and make it harder for people to get the services they want.
— Kent Walker (@Kent_Walker) October 20, 2020
Google's response to the US antitrust lawsuit calls it "deeply flawed" and points out what Microsoft does with Bing on Windows https://t.co/OMEF1sM5ga pic.twitter.com/1zfkeP1EDV
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) October 20, 2020
Craziest stat in DOJ's Google suit: Google's payments to Apple to be default search amount to 15-20% of Apple's global profits. via @realrobcopeland @timkhiggins https://t.co/gJvOi8oMnm via @WSJ
— keachhagey (@keachhagey) October 20, 2020
Coming up for air with a few thoughts on today's DOJ lawsuit
— Daisuke Wakabayashi (@daiwaka) October 20, 2020
1) Clearly, doj is using the microsoft playbook and case may hinge on whether google can argue successfully that changing search defaults remain as big of an impediment as it was to change browsers in the 90s and 00s
“Today, millions of Americans rely on the Internet and online platforms...Competition in this industry is vitally important, which is why today’s challenge against Google...for violating antitrust laws is a monumental case both for the DOJ and for the American people.” — AG Barr pic.twitter.com/CG8UKXDtZo
— Justice Department (@TheJusticeDept) October 20, 2020
Nothing really changes after Nov. 3. Expect a potential Biden administration to be as interested in a case against Google as the Trump administration.
— CeciliaKang (@ceciliakang) October 20, 2020
Career lawyers under Barr balked at his approach. But they believe strongly in a case.
This will be the most important antitrust suit in a generation. As the first state attorney general in the country to launch an antitrust investigation of @Google, I applaud this suit as desperately needed and long overdue. #BigTech’s free pass is over https://t.co/ivniS8xHFg
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) October 20, 2020
DOJ looks to officially sue Google for anticompetitive behavior. Nothing like a full court press two weeks before an election. https://t.co/OumeAaXnr0
— Josh Sternberg (@joshsternberg) October 20, 2020
Google, which has some very particular rules about what workers can say about antitrust, had a message for employees today: Stay focused and stay quiet. https://t.co/2ojWELZ4pHhttps://t.co/8aCT6bwvFI
— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 20, 2020
Great statement from @NewYorkStateAG on the Google lawsuit. Her office has been fantastic on these issues and I can't wait to see where their investigation lands. https://t.co/17CPKNjHVb
— Zephyr Teachout (@ZephyrTeachout) October 20, 2020
The Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google for allegedly breaking the law in using its market power to fend off rivals https://t.co/K4hWj3vnI7 $GOOGL
— Reuters Business (@ReutersBiz) October 20, 2020
UPDATE: The U.S. Justice Department and 11 states have officially filed the antitrust lawsuithttps://t.co/nPpdLQG2V4
— Danielle_MAGA (@HidenFromBiden7) October 20, 2020