‘Remedying These Harms’: Federal Government Weighs Breakup of $2 Trillion Tech Giant

Google Search

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is considering recommending a federal judge to force Google to sell parts of its business in a bid to eliminate its alleged monopoly on online search, according to a court filing Tuesday.

A U.S. judge ruled in August that Google built and abused a “monopoly” by spending billions on exclusivity agreements to be the automatic search engine for browsers such as Apple’s Safari and Mozilla’s Firefox. The DOJ could force Google to sell segments of its business, including its Chrome browser and Android operating system, which place Google as its default search engine, the DOJ filing showed.

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Arkansas Sues Major Platform over Allegations of Intentionally Encouraging Kids to Become Addicted

Social Media Kid

Arkansas filed a lawsuit Monday against YouTube and its parent entity, Alphabet, alleging that the platform intentionally promotes addictive behaviors that exacerbate mental health issues among youth.

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin filed a lawsuit in Phillips County Circuit Court against Google LLC, YouTube LLC, XXVI Holdings, Inc., and their parent company, Alphabet, Inc for allegedly breaching the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act by engaging in deceptive and detrimental business practices targeting young users, according to the complaint. It contends that the platform’s addictive nature has necessitated millions in state expenditures on expanded mental health services for young individuals.

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YouTube Repeatedly Censors RFK Jr. as Democratic Leaders Demand Reinstatement of 2020 Censorship

The disputed 2020 election now appears in the rearview mirror for YouTube, which is now determining what users can see relevant to the next election.

The Alphabet-owned, video-sharing site and Google sibling has censored at least two videos, and may be throttling a third, featuring Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shortly after ending a two-and-a-half-year ban on questioning the “integrity” of the last presidential election, saying it accomplished little relative to the potential harm it caused.

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Senator Calls for Apple, Alphabet to Boot TikTok from App Stores

A U.S. Senator has called on the nation’s top tech companies to break up with the popular short-form video service TikTok.

U.S. Senator Michael Bennet, D-Colorado, asked Apple CEO Tim Cook and Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai to remove TikTok from the company app stores immediately over national security concerns.

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