The United States Department of Justice and eleven state attorneys general filed a lawsuit against Google on Oct. 20 for allegedly violating antitrust laws and illegally protecting their monopoly in search and advertising markets.
“Today, millions of Americans rely on the internet and online platforms for their daily lives,” said Attorney General William Barr in a press release by the Department of Justice on Oct. 20. “Competition in this industry is vitally important, which is why today’s challenge against Google — the gatekeeper of the Internet — for violating antitrust laws is a monumental case both for the Department of Justice and for the American people.”
Joy Bennett, junior theater major, said she does not like the monopoly, but she is doubtful they will be able to stop it.
“I think that if they really are (illegally protecting their monopoly), that it’s probably just to file a lawsuit against them,” Bennett said. “And if that’s true, then (they) better stop it.”
Bennett said she thinks that this lawsuit might not make a difference, but if more lawsuits come in, it might start to build up.
“I think that ‘Big Corp.’ tends to get away with stuff like that,” Bennett said. “I think the more pressure they put on it, the better. I think it’s always right to break up monopolies, just so it’s an even playing field and no one is being treated unfairly.”
Clara Prins, junior nursing major, said she thinks it might make a difference for a while, but that Google’s search engine is so ubiquitous and more efficient than its competitors that it might not make a lasting impact.
“I think (it might make a difference) for a while but Google is so well-known that it would be hard to take away its monopoly, because we literally use Google for everything,” Prins said. “We have phones now, it’s everyone’s main search engine, they have lots of different apps with lots of different features and it would be hard to diminish its monopoly, even if there’s a lawsuit. I think it might make some change, but (not a lot).”
“At this point I don’t see the harm in (theirmonopoly), because Bing and some of the other search engines are not as efficient,” Prins said. “Everyone uses Google anyway, so to break it up, in theory, it would be good, but Google’s ease of use is just really convenient.”
This is a big case involving attorney general offices from Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, South Carolina and Texas that might stretch on for years and encourage similar lawsuits. Whether this will have an impact on the stronghold Google has over the internet is yet to be determined.
