The US Department of Justice is considering a proposal to break up some of Google's operations

On October 9, the Department of Justice told a federal judge that the Justice Department is considering a proposal to force Google to sell some of its businesses in order to mitigate the damage caused by its monopoly on the online search market.
In a court filing on Tuesday, the Justice Department said Judge Amit Mehta could also compel Alphabet to provide the underlying data used to build search results and artificial intelligence products. "Behavioral and structural remedies are being considered to prevent Google from using products such as Chrome, Play, and Android to gain an advantage over competitors or new entrants in Google search and Google search-related products and features," the Justice Department said in the filing. Google gained scale and data benefits by entering into illegal distribution agreements with other tech companies that made its search engine the default option for smartphones and web browsers. This is the first time since a failed effort to break up Microsoft two decades ago that authorities have broken up a company on the grounds of an illegal monopoly. (Jin Ten)