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Google illegally maintains monopoly over internet search, judge rules (apnews.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
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"WASHINGTON (AP) — A judge on Monday ruled that Google’s ubiquitous search engine has been illegally exploiting its dominance to squash competition and stifle innovation in a seismic decision that could shake up the internet and hobble one of the world’s best-known companies..."

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[–] 64 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Even if the punishment is largely symbolic and Google only pays a tiny (compared to it's massive size) fine; I'd still call that a significant win.

  • Google can be REQUIRED to give users A CHOICE of Search Engines.
  • Google can be FORBIDDEN from giving their OWN ENGINE an advantage in search results or advertising
  • Google can be FORCED to ALLOW THIRD PARTIES access to the SAME APIs used in Chrome and Chromium.
  • Google can be FORBIDDEN from BLOCKING THIRD PARTY FRONTENDS from using Google Search, Youtube and more.
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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Google can be REQUIRED to give users A CHOICE of Search Engines.

    Don't they, err, already do this?

    I mean a search engine is literally just a website and absolutely nothing prevents you from just going to duckduckgo.com or bing.com or wherever. Don't think Chrome prevents you from accessing other search engines in general, and last time I used it (admittedly a while back) it had a setting to change the search engine used by default if you just typed something into the address bar.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Don’t they, err, already do this?

    No, They don't. They have stolen that initial choice from you by paying companies to be the "default" choice. They do this to capture those who are lazy or indolent about their choices, or to entrap those who are too un-savvy to change the preference.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    You do know there's a big difference between a "default" option and a "mandatory" setting, right? Specifically that you do, in fact, have a choice to change a default?

    Not forcing the user to proactively make a choice is not the same thing as denying the user the ability to choose.

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