DOJ nearing antitrust action on Google; Trump eyes tech curb

As Trump administration moves toward antitrust action against search giant Google, it’s campaigning to enlist support from sympatic state attorneys general across country.

And President Donald Trump pushed his campaign against Big Tech on Wednesday, touting curbs on legal protections for social media platforms he deunces as biased against conservative views.

“In recent years, a small group of techlogy platforms have tightened ir grip over commerce and communications in America," Trump declared at a White House event with Attorney General William Barr and Republican attorneys general from several states. “y've used this power to eng in unscrupulous business practices while simultaneously waging war on free enterprise and free expression."

anticipated lawsuit against Google by Justice Department could be government’s biggest legal offensive to protect competition since ground-breaking case against Microsoft almost 20 years ago.

Lawmakers and consumer advocates accuse Google of abusing its dominance in online search and advertising to stifle competition and boost its profits.

For over a year, Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission have pursued sweeping antitrust investigations of big tech companies, looking at wher Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple have hurt competition, stifled invation or orwise harmed consumers. And a bipartisan coalition of 50 U.S. states and territories, led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, anunced a year ago on steps of Supreme Court that y were investigating Google’s business practices. y cited “potential mopolistic behavior.”

w with some 40 days to presidential election, Justice Department appears to be approaching legal action against Google and soliciting support of state attorneys general on an issue of rare bipartisan agreement, while Trump appeals to his political base by amplifying a longstanding grievance of conservatives against Silicon Valley.

Along with antitrust drive, Justice Department has asked Congress to roll back long-held legal protections for online platforms like Facebook, Google and Twitter, putting down a legislative marker in Trump’s drive against social media giants. proposed changes would strip some of bedrock protections that have generally shielded companies from legal responsibility for what people post on ir platforms.

Trump signed an executive order earlier this year challenging protections from lawsuits under a 1996 telecommunications law that have served as foundation for unfettered speech on internet.

White House said Wednesday legislative proposal would protect open internet and prevent hidden manipulation by social media. In addition, Barr said, government will provide individuals ability to pursue legal claims against online platforms for “bad-faith censorship."

Social media platforms can abuse consumers' trust “by deciding which voices y are going to amplify and which y are going to throttle, and by improperly tracking, collecting user data and even facilitating criminal activity," Barr said.

Separately, Justice Department's antitrust officials are expected to discuss ir planned action on Google in Washington meetings and a conference call with state attorneys general on Thursday.

“Big Tech has a powerful influence on commerce and our daily lives, warranting significant scrutiny,” Washington state attorney general Bob Ferguson said in a statement on Tuesday. “Any effort to abuse that influence for competitive gain calls for vigorous enforcement of antitrust laws.”

Support from states would bolster Justice Department’s case against Google. It’s a tricky political calculus for states, however. If a Biden administration takes over next year, status of lawsuit against Google would be unclear. A state signing on to federal case also could limit tools, such as state consumer laws, that it might want to use to pursue its own action — and political benefit locally of taking up a cause for consumers.

Some Republican attorneys general could be expected to join federal case, while ar group of states may opt to pursue ir own actions.

Trump administration has long had Google in its sights. A top ecomic adviser to president said two years ago that White House was considering wher Google searches should be subject to government regulation. Trump himself has often criticized Google, recycling unfounded claims by conservatives that search giant is biased against conservatives and suppresses ir viewpoints, interferes with U.S. elections and prefers working with Chinese military over Pentagon.

company, based in Mountain View, California, has denied claims and insists that it never ranks search results to manipulate political views. Google has argued that although its businesses are large, y are useful and beneficial to consumers. It maintains that its services face ample competition and have unleashed invations that help people man ir lives. Most of its services are offered for free in exchange for personal information that helps Google sell its ads.

A House Judiciary subcommittee has pursued its own bipartisan sweeping investigation of Big Tech’s market dominance. panel’s chairman, Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., accused Google in a July hearing of leveraging its dominant search engine to steal ideas and information from or websites, and manipulating its results to drive people to its own digital services to boost profits.

Antitrust regulators in Europe have cracked down on Google in recent years by imposing multibillion-dollar fines and ordering changes to its practices.

Google, whose parent is Alphabet Inc., controls about 90% of global web searches. Its dominance in online search and advertising enables it to target millions of consumers for ir personal data. Google dwarfs or search competitors such as Microsoft’s Bing and Yelp, and has faced harsh criticism in past for favoring its own products over competitors at top of search results.

Google also owns leading web browser in Chrome, world’s largest mobile operating system in Android, top video site in YouTube and most popular digital mapping system.