知情人士表示，过去三个月，政府律师与数十家公司会面，准备提出这一建议，各州仍在考虑增加一些提案，某些细节可能会发生变化。People familiar with the matter said that antitrust enforcement officials have dropped a harsher punishment, which is to force Google to sell the Android operating system.
Is Google really going to be forced to sell the Chrome browser?
On Tuesday, November 19, Bloomberg reported that US Department of Justice antitrust officials decided to recommend on Wednesday that federal judge Amit Mehta force Google to sell the Chrome browser. In addition, antitrust officials are also seeking measures such as data licensing and artificial intelligence to stop Google's monopoly.
People familiar with the matter said that in the past three months, government lawyers have met with dozens of companies to prepare this proposal. States are still considering adding some proposals, and some details may change. Antitrust enforcement officials have dropped a harsher punishment, which is to force Google to sell the Android operating system.
If Mehta accepts this proposal, it has the potential to reshape the online search market and the artificial intelligence industry. This marks the most intense crackdown on technology companies by the US government since Microsoft failed to be successfully split 20 years ago.
According to data from the web traffic analysis service StatCounter, Chrome's share of the US market is about 61%, and it is also the most widely used browser in the world — having Chrome is critical to Google's advertising business because Google can view the activities of logged-in users and use this data to target ads more effectively. These ads are the source of most of Google's revenue. Furthermore, Google is also using the Chrome browser to direct users to its flagship AI product, Gemini.
Google said the proposals would hurt the interests of consumers and developers. Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google's vice president of regulatory affairs, said:
“The Department of Justice continues to push an aggressive agenda that goes far beyond the legal issues in this case. By putting pressure on the government in this way, it will hurt consumers, developers, and America's tech leadership, which is what is needed most.”
As of press release, Google A's US stock fell 1% to 173.55 US dollars/share after the market, down 1.8% previously.
