News: The Department of Justice v. Google

Tuesday, October 20, 2020

The Department of Justice v. Google

The Justice Department is suing Google; six Russian officials were charged in the US with hacking.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Benjamin Rosenberg.

TOP NEWS

Department of Justice files antitrust lawsuit against Google

Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

The United States Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Google in federal court, saying the search engine engaged in unfair practices to preserve its monopoly. [Vox / Shirin Ghaffary and Rani Molla]
The agency filed a 57-page complaint in the circuit court in the District of Columbia, accusing Google of preventing competition from gaining a foothold. Through deals with Apple and other companies, Google's share of the search engine market is around 80 percent, the DOJ said. [NYT / David McCabe, Cecilia King, and Daisuke Wakabayashi]
"Absent a court order, Google will continue executing its anticompetitive strategy, crippling the competitive process, reducing consumer choice, and stifling innovation," the complaint read. "The time has come to stop Google's anticompetitive product and restore competition." [Washington Post / Tony Romm]
At a press conference Tuesday, Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen said the government needs to enforce antitrust laws to protect innovations. Eleven Republican-led states joined the lawsuit, and New York state Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, may join it as well. [NPR / Bobby Allyn, Shannon Bond, and Ryan Lucas]
Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, South Carolina, and Texas have all joined the suit. The complaint follows a House report earlier this month that found Amazon, Apple, Google, and Facebook to hold "monopoly power." [CNN / Brian Fung]
It's not just web searches where Google dominates. Its browser, Chrome, has cornered roughly 70 percent of the market, and Google Maps, Google Drive, and YouTube are also major parts of its empire. [Wall Street Journal / Keach Heagey]
Kent Walker, Google's senior vice president of global affairs and chief legal officer, said in a statement, "people use Google because they choose to, not because they're forced to, or because they can't find alternatives." [Texas Tribune / Stacy Fernandez]
According to Columbia University law professor Timothy Wu, the DOJ's lawsuit is remarkably similar to one filed against Microsoft in the 1990s. Wu said he does not believe Google will be forced to break up with its parent company, Alphabet. [CNBC / Kevin Stankiewicz]
The DOJ, led by Attorney General Bill Barr, has a surprising ally of sorts in this lawsuit: US Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass). Warren called Barr "a corrupt Trump crony," but emphasized that "the Justice Department has the power to pursue a legitimate, long-time-coming suit against Google." [Vox / Peter Kafka]

Six Russian intelligence officers charged with hacking

US prosecutors have accused six Russian intelligence officers of engaging in destructive cyberattacks, including knocking out Ukraine's energy grid and leaking emails from the French president's party. [Wall Street Journal / Dustin Volz]
The six defendants were part of Russia's GRU military intelligence agency. The agency tried to influence the French presidential election in 2017 and is the same Kremlin unit that interfered in the 2016 US election. [Politico / Eric Geller]
The 50-page indictment, filed in the Western District of Pennsylvania, also accuses the officers of hacking related to the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea. Russian athletes were banned from competing under their national flag that year after a vast doping conspiracy. [AP / Eric Tucker]
According to the indictment, the officials "knowingly and intentionally conspired … to deploy destructive malware and take other disruptive actions, for the strategic benefit of Russia, through unauthorized access to victim computers." [The Hill / Maggie Miller, Chris Mills Rodrigo, and Rebecca Klar]
The Russian embassy in Washington denied the allegations in a press statement: "Such news breaks have no bearing on reality and are aimed at whipping up Russophobic sentiments in American society, at launching a 'witch hunt' and spy mania." [NYT / Michael S. Schmidt and Nicole Perlroth]

MISCELLANEOUS

President Trump has stepped up his attacks on the country's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci. He said Monday that the country was tired of hearing from "these idiots" in the government.

[NYT / Sheryl Gay Stolberg, Maggie Haberman, and Noah Weiland]

In a 4-4 tie, the Supreme Court denied a request from the Pennsylvania Republican Party to stop counting mail-in ballots after Election Day. The decision may prove a fleeting victory for Democrats, with Judge Amy Coney Barrett set to join the Court. [Ian Millhiser / Vox]
A 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck Monday near the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, triggering a small tsunami. Several aftershocks hit in the hour following the earthquake, with two of them at just below 6 on the Richter scale. [CNN / Steve Almasy, Dave Alsup, and Andy Rose]
Argentina became the fifth country to surpass 1 million Covid-19 cases, and it is much smaller than the other four — the US, India, Brazil, and Russia. Three more Latin American countries — Mexico, Colombia, and Peru — are expected to cross that threshold soon. [AP / Nicholas Deluca, Almudena Calatrava, and Christine Armario]
Late-night comedy host John Oliver, after randomly criticizing Danbury, Connecticut, on his show, now has a sewage plant in the city named after him. [Danbury News Times / Julia Perkins]

VERBATIM

"Time and again, Russia has made it clear: They will not abide by accepted norms, and instead, they intend to continue their destructive, destabilizing cyber behavior."

[FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich on the indictment of six Russian intelligence officers]